Seb34567 said:
.....In the same time the other leaf when have (2014 SV) lost power brakes and steering. The dash is illuminated like a Christmas tree. Really dangerous driving. It's now in a heated garage with the acc. battery unplugged and charging.
I did not try the third leaf (a 2012 SL) since at this point I'm becoming paranoid.
I think the heater problem is probably cause by the heat pump on the 2022. I'll check tomorrow if it's still not working. The car has 3000km...
I already had cold weather problems in 6 years of ownership with the 2014 who where fixed by maintenance on the ACC battery and a night stay in a heated garage.
I believe I just had the same thing that happened to your '14 happen to my '13 and man it was scary! A little back story.
It had been sitting for about a week at ~60% SOC and I charged and preheated it last night(8F) for a 12-mile trip, one way, it got up to 96%. Using the heater all the way and mostly 65mph I was hoping to get to my destination with at least 60% SOC, giving me more than enough to get home. On the way, it seemed very doggy and didn't want to coast in the least. SOC was dropping like a rock and by the time I had made the 12 mile trip my SOC was down to 48% :shock: I felt all the rims and two were quite warm(pass front and driver rear) and the other two ice-cold, I thought I could have had a couple stuck rotors as I hadn't really used the brakes much on my trip. Needless to say I was worried but after some searching and monkey business in the very cold temps I was able to plug in, albeit only at L1 and 13a. By the time I left it was up to 82% and I felt relieved. It seemed like a different car on the way home and I made it home with 60% SOC but I still plugged it in(16a L2) as it was going to get down to -12F.
I started the car up this morning(-8F out) for a short 2-mile trip and also preheated it a little. Drive there was fine but when I went to leave it was scary. It started fine but as soon as I put it in R the car seemed to speed up and the brakes didn't seem to work. Not really realizing what was going on I put the car in D and like R I hardly had brakes, I finally, while doing a couple of MPH in the parking lot held down the power button and the car turned OFF and abruptly stopped.
A little shaken and half blocking a drive lane I cautiously pushed the power button back on and the car made some sort of weird noises from under the hook, kind of a high pitched noise and moaning, all the dash lights were on also. Next, I put it in gear and it went forward but the brakes hardly seemed to work and they went about half? way to the floor, I again held down the power button and a few seconds the car shut off and came to an abrupt stop.
My first thought was 12v battery problems so I took my digital VOM out of the glove box, only to find it dead, probably due to the -8F temps. I took my handy 12v lithium jump starter out of the back and hooked it up the battery under the hood, well actually it was a chore to get the hood open as it had apparently frozen down and pulling the hood release didn't do anything, at first I tried pounding down on the hood to break the ice but no luck, finally I had to open the charge port door, then squeeze my frozen fingers under the hood and finally have someone else pull the hood release latch while I pulled up on the hood, finally the ice broke loose! So then I hooked up my 12v battery back, let it sit for a few minutes and tried restarting the car, same thing, all the dash lights came on and weird whining from under the hood as the car did it's startup routine, followed by moaning when I tried pushing down on the brakes, that went halfway to the floor.
The parking lot cleared out a little so I did some testing and discovered the brakes would eventually work but required a real hard push and had to go 1/2 way to the floor, the gas pedal did work normally so I took mostly side streets home, with my flashers on and not going over 20mph and would let off on the gas well before any stoplights so I could mostly drive through without having to push on the brakes. The hard part was when I did have to push on the brakes it took quite a long for them to start slowing the car as the pedal had to travel so far and I had to push so hard on the pedal.
When I got home I checked the battery with another VOM and it was 13.5v, so good and it doesn't really drop when booting up the car, I don't believe at all that this is a 12v battery issue but do currently have it hooked to a 14.5v battery charger. The car is also sitting in a 40 degree and rising garage as I turned on the electric heater in the garage. I'm going to first try warming up the car for a couple hours and keep the battery charger on while I try starting it, this should give an extra boost of 12v but again I don't feel it's a 12v battery issue. If this doesn't work I'll disconnect the battery for 20 minutes or so, like you did and see if that might clear out anything. I checked the brake fluid and it's well above MIN and I don't see anything obvious, looking under the hood.
Have you had any more such occurrences or read from anyone else with this issue? This is my 7th year with the Leaf although only probably get temps like this a handful of days/year. I wonder if it could be some water in the brake lines freezing? I've never changed the brake fluid or really done anything to the brakes.....
