Tango
Active member
Background: I've got an early 2011 (arrived in april 2011, so i'm 38 months into ownership) LEAF with just over 40K miles.
While my wife was driving the car today, the dashboard said "i-key system fault", and went from drive to neutral. Thankfully she was on surface streets 1 block away from her office and there wasn't any traffic nearby. She couldn't get the car to shift into any gear (D, ECO, R) or get the car to power down. At this point, the GOM said "---" (even though it was at 50% SOC. Eventually she hit the power button enough times and the car turned off. At that point, she couldn't get it to turn on again, she thinks the dash still said "i-key system fault" at this time. She called me and I looked for info on the problem and came across information that seemed like it might be similar here: http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=16816" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. I was able to help her by phone by doing the "dead i-key start procedure" (put the key right next to the start button and start the car). That worked and she was able to get it to the side of the road but it happened again (same ikey-system fault message). I had her try it one more time and it worked again so she was able to get it to her office (thankfully 1 block away), but then the car stopped again with the i-key sysetem fault message in the parking lot.
I thought it might be the keyfob battery dying, but the battery in the keyfob is relatively new (< 1year) as I replaced it a few months ago myself. We tested to see if there was a proximity issue by moving the key around the car and trying to start/stop the car, and it "seemed" to power on/off fine but she didn't attempt to drive it. I also had her go about 40 feet away from the car with the keys and try the lock/unlock buttons on the keyfob and it worked.
I also thought it might be the sensors inside the car, so I after about 10 minutes, I had her go back and start the car normally and it worked (though she didn't drive it), and had her get out of the car with the key while the car was on and the car "noticed" the lack of key while the car running and beeped/alerted appropriately.
I went to pick up the car from her office and while I was there, I jumped in with my keyfob and it worked fine (i drove a few feet with no problems). I tried with her keyfob and it worked as well. I brought a spare CR2032 with me but when I popped open her keyfob (and mine for that matter), both batteries were at 3.08V.
After reading through that thread above, it seemed like maybe the 12V battery was going bad. It's 38months, and a few things I've read here on MNL say the battery lasts about 3 years. I looked at the voltage of the 12V battery when I first arrived on scene (before I jumped in and did all of my tests), and the 12V battery was at 12.1V. (BTW, this is a "SL" with the dinky solar panel on the back).
I was able to temporarily attach the voltmeter to the battery while driving it home (about 10 miles mainly on surface streets...i didn't want it to crap out on the freeway).
and
I noticed that when I powered the car on, the voltage on the 12V battery went from 12.1V to 14.1V, stayed there for a few seconds (maybe 5-10?) and then slowly went down to 13.0-13.1V over about 20-40 seconds. For my trip home, the voltage stayed almost constant at 13.089V. Once I got home and turned the car off, the voltage went to 12.5. Now it's about 5 hours later, the car has been turned off and the 12V battery is at 12.08V.
Does this sound like I need a 12V replacement? We're a little hesitant to drive the car on the highway. I called Nick Collins at Sunnyvale Nissan and described the first part (the first paragraph) and he said it might be the 12V, but he'd need to take a look. The sucky thing is that it just came back from the shop last week from a scheduled maintenance as well as a whining issue that ended up being a transaxle replacement.
While my wife was driving the car today, the dashboard said "i-key system fault", and went from drive to neutral. Thankfully she was on surface streets 1 block away from her office and there wasn't any traffic nearby. She couldn't get the car to shift into any gear (D, ECO, R) or get the car to power down. At this point, the GOM said "---" (even though it was at 50% SOC. Eventually she hit the power button enough times and the car turned off. At that point, she couldn't get it to turn on again, she thinks the dash still said "i-key system fault" at this time. She called me and I looked for info on the problem and came across information that seemed like it might be similar here: http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=16816" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. I was able to help her by phone by doing the "dead i-key start procedure" (put the key right next to the start button and start the car). That worked and she was able to get it to the side of the road but it happened again (same ikey-system fault message). I had her try it one more time and it worked again so she was able to get it to her office (thankfully 1 block away), but then the car stopped again with the i-key sysetem fault message in the parking lot.
I thought it might be the keyfob battery dying, but the battery in the keyfob is relatively new (< 1year) as I replaced it a few months ago myself. We tested to see if there was a proximity issue by moving the key around the car and trying to start/stop the car, and it "seemed" to power on/off fine but she didn't attempt to drive it. I also had her go about 40 feet away from the car with the keys and try the lock/unlock buttons on the keyfob and it worked.
I also thought it might be the sensors inside the car, so I after about 10 minutes, I had her go back and start the car normally and it worked (though she didn't drive it), and had her get out of the car with the key while the car was on and the car "noticed" the lack of key while the car running and beeped/alerted appropriately.
I went to pick up the car from her office and while I was there, I jumped in with my keyfob and it worked fine (i drove a few feet with no problems). I tried with her keyfob and it worked as well. I brought a spare CR2032 with me but when I popped open her keyfob (and mine for that matter), both batteries were at 3.08V.
After reading through that thread above, it seemed like maybe the 12V battery was going bad. It's 38months, and a few things I've read here on MNL say the battery lasts about 3 years. I looked at the voltage of the 12V battery when I first arrived on scene (before I jumped in and did all of my tests), and the 12V battery was at 12.1V. (BTW, this is a "SL" with the dinky solar panel on the back).
I was able to temporarily attach the voltmeter to the battery while driving it home (about 10 miles mainly on surface streets...i didn't want it to crap out on the freeway).
I noticed that when I powered the car on, the voltage on the 12V battery went from 12.1V to 14.1V, stayed there for a few seconds (maybe 5-10?) and then slowly went down to 13.0-13.1V over about 20-40 seconds. For my trip home, the voltage stayed almost constant at 13.089V. Once I got home and turned the car off, the voltage went to 12.5. Now it's about 5 hours later, the car has been turned off and the 12V battery is at 12.08V.
Does this sound like I need a 12V replacement? We're a little hesitant to drive the car on the highway. I called Nick Collins at Sunnyvale Nissan and described the first part (the first paragraph) and he said it might be the 12V, but he'd need to take a look. The sucky thing is that it just came back from the shop last week from a scheduled maintenance as well as a whining issue that ended up being a transaxle replacement.
