Will this portable battery pack work to jump a 2013 leaf?

[cmac]

Car is dead and I want to jump it. I'm looking at this product:

Antigravity Batteries XP-10-HD
https://antigravitybatteries.com/products/micro-starts/xp-10-hd/

The listing says it works for Diesel and Gas powered cars. Will it work for the leaf as well?

Thanks for any guidance!

 

[flydiver]

Massive overkill, but should work fine. I've used much more modest packs on ICE cars.

I wouldn't buy it, just for that, costs more than a new battery. If the battery is suspect, I'd get a new one instead.
You only need to boost the 12v up to 'boot' level. It's easier than an ICE jump start, but takes a bit longer to charge up the 12v sufficiently. IF the 12v is REALLY dead, it may not work, but that won't be the pack's fault.

 

[cmac]

Massive overkill, but should work fine. I've used much more modest packs on ICE cars.

I wouldn't buy it, just for that, costs more than a new battery. If the battery is suspect, I'd get a new one instead.
You only need to boost the 12v up to 'boot' level. It's easier than an ICE jump start, but takes a bit longer to charge up the 12v sufficiently. IF the 12v is REALLY dead, it may not work, but that won't be the pack's fault.

The battery is dead enough that the interior lights and power locks don't work. The battery is only 4 weeks old. But this car has been killing batteries since I got it. Seems to happen at least once a year. 4 weeks is a bit out of the norm though.

Will a jump work on a battery that won't even turn on the car interior lights or operate the magnetic locks?

 

[flydiver]

4 weeks on a NEW battery?
Was it fully charged after installation? Preferably with a charger, not just driven.
What year Leaf? The older models can be poor at maintaining 12v charge. I have a 12v battery tender and top it at least once a month (2014 year, original battery).
New cars always have a steady drain, though small. If used seldom, or the battery is already poor that may be enough to kill it over time.

FWIW a 12v BEST state is fully charged. Low charge is hard on them. Complete discharge is a killer. Only takes a few complete discharges to ruin a new battery.

 

[cmac]

4 weeks on a NEW battery?
Was it fully charged after installation? Preferably with a charger, not just driven.
What year Leaf? The older models can be poor at maintaining 12v charge. I have a 12v battery tender and top it at least once a month (2014 year, original battery).
New cars always have a steady drain, though small. If used seldom, or the battery is already poor that may be enough to kill it over time.

FWIW a 12v BEST state is fully charged. Low charge is hard on them. Complete discharge is a killer. Only takes a few complete discharges to ruin a new battery.

Yeah 4 weeks on a brand new battery. It was charged and tested after installation. My car is a 2013 model.

Admittedly I haven't been driving the car much. The last time was 4 weeks ago lol.

Seems like the 12v battery is fully discharged, but given that it's only 4 weeks old I purchased the portable charger and will see if it will successfully jump the 12v. Hopefully it's not completely toast.

 

[jjeff]

Will a jump work on a battery that won't even turn on the car interior lights or operate the magnetic locks?

Yes it should work just fine. I went out to our '07 Prius yesterday(7 degree temp!) and the battery was dead. I hooked up a 12a 120v battery charger to it and I immediately knew what happened. One of the map lights came on right away, my daughter must have left it on and apparently unlike almost all modern cars I've had, this one must not turn the interior lights after 5 or so minutes of inactivity Anyway I just let it charge for a minute, pushed the power button and it booted up. 10 seconds or so later and the ICE started. The Prius is kind of like the Leaf in that the 12v battery is really only used to boot the car up, from there the hybrid battery starts the ICE, so no need for a large jump starter.
I agree with Lefty the jump starter you linked is a way overkill but of course would work. I personally just carry around in the back of my Leaf something like this, which I purchased after the 12v battery was having issues with my '12 Leaf.

https://www.amazon.com/TACKLIFE-T8-Car-Jump-Starter/dp/B07BGRN4TF/ref=sr_1_6?crid=2FOB5GR5Z4AUT&dchild=1&keywords=12v+battery+jump+starter&qid=1611515847&sprefix=12v+battery+jump%2Caps%2C186&sr=8-6

 

[cmac]

Will a jump work on a battery that won't even turn on the car interior lights or operate the magnetic locks?

Yes it should work just fine. I went out to our '07 Prius yesterday(7 degree temp!) and the battery was dead. I hooked up a 12a 120v battery charger to it and I immediately knew what happened. One of the map lights came on right away, my daughter must have left it on and apparently unlike almost all modern cars I've had, this one must not turn the interior lights after 5 or so minutes of inactivity Anyway I just let it charge for a minute, pushed the power button and it booted up. 10 seconds or so later and the ICE started. The Prius is kind of like the Leaf in that the 12v battery is really only used to boot the car up, from there the hybrid battery starts the ICE, so no need for a large jump starter.
I agree with Lefty the jump starter you linked is a way overkill but of course would work. I personally just carry around in the back of my Leaf something like this, which I purchased after the 12v battery was having issues with my '12 Leaf.

https://www.amazon.com/TACKLIFE-T8-Car-Jump-Starter/dp/B07BGRN4TF/ref=sr_1_6?crid=2FOB5GR5Z4AUT&dchild=1&keywords=12v+battery+jump+starter&qid=1611515847&sprefix=12v+battery+jump%2Caps%2C186&sr=8-6

Awesome, thanks for the info. I'll give it a go with the charger and report back in this thread.

 

[LeftieBiker]

If you are leaving the car plugged in after charging, or have had the car's TCU (modem) replaced, then that/those is/are the likely cause(s) of the dead 12 volt batteries.

 

[Flyct]

I have this https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B08FDV18LW/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 jump starter. I keep it in my diesel truck. It has come in handy when I had a dead battery in my 5th wheel RV. With a dead battery I could not use the landing gear to raise the RV to hitch it to the truck. I’ve also used it to jump start others cars.

 

[cwerdna]

FWIW, since the power needs to get a Leaf to go into READY mode should be modest due to lack of starter motor, awhile back I bought https://web.archive.org/web/20191125011451/https://dbpower.co/product/djs40yellow/ from Amazon. I thought I posted it about it here (can't find it) but did post about it at https://www.chevybolt.org/threads/cheap-12-volt-li-ion-packs-verified-to-jump-start-bolt-w-dead-12-volt.34317/.

It did NOT work to jump start my Leaf with dead 12 volt at all. I had to fall back to a heavy and bulky lead-based jump starter pack I had, which worked perfectly. So whatever you get, that's lithium ion, it may not work.

If anyone has any positive success stories, in using a relatively inexpensive li-ion pack to jump start a Leaf w/dead 12 volt, I'm all ears. I will consider buying it for my Bolt (to carry in my Bolt), for when its 12 volt dies.

If you are leaving the car plugged in after charging, or have had the car's TCU (modem) replaced, then that/those is/are the likely cause(s) of the dead 12 volt batteries.

Yep on both of these.

https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2018/MC-10145516-9999.pdf is the TSB in getting the TCU firmware updated to avoid the 12 volt drain along with the yellow ! light and DTC P3131 or P3132. I personally was hitting P3131 w/yellow ! light until I'd found workarounds and eventually got the fix applied, which wasn't available for AGES. If OP has an S trim, none of this TCU stuff applies as S trims don't have a TCU.

 

[GerryAZ]

It depends upon the circumstances and the condition of the "dead" 12V battery. If the 12V battery has failed so it cannot absorb significant energy when the booster battery is connected, then almost any 12V power source would start (boot up) a Leaf. If the 12V battery is good but just completely discharged, then it will absorb the energy from the booster battery and may discharge the booster battery too much before the car is started. I have successfully started ICE vehicles with failed 12V batteries using a li-ion booster pack numerous times, but have also been unable to start an engine with the same booster when the 12V battery was just deeply discharged due to using the vehicle as a portable office without running the engine. In that case, even 2 li-ion boosters connected to the battery was not sufficient and it required a jump from a diesel pickup with heavy duty alternator and dual batteries using heavy duty jumper cables. I have generally had very good success with a heavy duty booster pack that has a sealed lead acid battery for starting anything, but did not have it with me at that time.

 

[LeftieBiker]

Long-dead 12 volt batteries will also act as resistors and block the power from a jump start from reaching the system. We've had a couple of Leaf drivers see the car die while driving, apparently because the 12 volt battery failed so completely that it became a resistor.

 

[Triggerhappy007]

I agree, the one linked is overkill for the Leaf. My battery was dead in my 19 Leaf and I used a cheap one from Walmart and it worked. One that is less than $50 from Walmart or Amazon would be sufficient.

 

[jjeff]

It depends upon the circumstances and the condition of the "dead" 12V battery. If the 12V battery has failed so it cannot absorb significant energy when the booster battery is connected, then almost any 12V power source would start (boot up) a Leaf. If the 12V battery is good but just completely discharged, then it will absorb the energy from the booster battery and may discharge the booster battery too much before the car is started. I have successfully started ICE vehicles with failed 12V batteries using a li-ion booster pack numerous times, but have also been unable to start an engine with the same booster when the 12V battery was just deeply discharged due to using the vehicle as a portable office without running the engine. In that case, even 2 li-ion boosters connected to the battery was not sufficient and it required a jump from a diesel pickup with heavy duty alternator and dual batteries using heavy duty jumper cables. I have generally had very good success with a heavy duty booster pack that has a sealed lead acid battery for starting anything, but did not have it with me at that time.

In the case of the fully discharged good battery I wonder if, even with a smaller jump starter one could simply first disconnect the positive battery terminal from the battery, then hook up the jump starter to the outside of the battery terminal, start the Leaf and lastly once the Leaf is running, slide the clamp back over the battery? Of course this could cause a spark as both the cars charger and jump starter would provide 12v to a mostly dead battery, so maybe it's not a good idea? I know in the case of a dead 12v battery I've had to first set my battery charger to 6v, let it charge for a while and then switch it to 12v, setting it first to 12v caused my battery charger to peg the needle and I was afraid of blowing it's fuse.

 

[GerryAZ]

Jjeff,

I thought about the possibility of disconnecting a deeply discharged battery and booting the car--I suspect it would work for the LEAF because the DC-DC converter is very stable, but don't know if it would work with an ICE vehicle. Since there might be a small spark when reconnecting, I would not try it if there was any risk of hydrogen gas in the vicinity of the battery. I think it would be OK if the area under the hood was ventilated by keeping the hood open for a few minutes (unless there is obvious damage to the battery case and/or the vent caps). I have had to use an old (dumb) charger on really dead 6V or 12V batteries because the modern "smart" chargers will not start charging unless they see enough voltage in the battery to confirm the polarity is correct.

 

[jjeff]

Jjeff,

I thought about the possibility of disconnecting a deeply discharged battery and booting the car--I suspect it would work for the LEAF because the DC-DC converter is very stable, but don't know if it would work with an ICE vehicle. Since there might be a small spark when reconnecting, I would not try it if there was any risk of hydrogen gas in the vicinity of the battery. I think it would be OK if the area under the hood was ventilated by keeping the hood open for a few minutes (unless there is obvious damage to the battery case and/or the vent caps). I have had to use an old (dumb) charger on really dead 6V or 12V batteries because the modern "smart" chargers will not start charging unless they see enough voltage in the battery to confirm the polarity is correct.

I would think the spark might be even bigger on a Leaf as I've read it's DC to DC charger is capable of over 100 amps, not sure of current ICE alternators but I'd guess around 60a? I agree about the gas around the battery although in the very cold when most people seem to have issues with batteries(but not always) the gas might be less. I suppose one could also strongly blow around the battery terminal area before sliding the cable clamp over the battery but the whole thing might be too risky for some to try.
I also ran into the Smart Chargers that were too smart for their own good, on one particular battery I had I first used my old charger set to 6v, after 30 seconds I moved it to 12v and a minute later I was able to hook up my Smart Charger and it continued the charge just fine.

 

[Joey21]

Has anyone considered using a dashboard solar panel to keep the 12V battery charged?

Schumacher SP-200 is the one I'm imagining.

 

[jjeff]

Has anyone considered using a dashboard solar panel to keep the 12V battery charged?

Schumacher SP-200 is the one I'm imagining.

The problem is the cigarette lighter socket isn't live all the time, you'd still need to run it to something live all the time. Another issue is the average dashboard solar panel is so small it might not make much of a difference, for sure for a battery already low in charge. Not sure if your aware but the SL model Leafs already come with a similar-sized solar panel on its rear spoiler and from what I've heard it doesn't really make a difference, more for show. Now if it were the whole roof like Hyundai uses on at least one of its battery models, now that might make a difference

 

[Joey21]

It also comes with clips to directly clip it to the battery.

Would be easy to mod the car so the cigarette lighter was directly connected to the battery. I did that in a 20 year old Honda I own. Added wire from cigarette lighter to a hot terminal on the fuse block that is also fused. Stays on all the time and is still fused the same as the original circuit.

Or just do the simple thing - clips directly to the battery. I guess that wouldn't work as well if a person doesn't have a driveway where the solar panel laying on the hood wouldn't get stolen.

 

[alozzy]

It also comes with clips to directly clip it to the battery.

Would be easy to mod the car so the cigarette lighter was directly connected to the battery. I did that in a 20 year old Honda I own. Added wire from cigarette lighter to a hot terminal on the fuse block that is also fused. Stays on all the time and is still fused the same as the original circuit.

Or just do the simple thing - clips directly to the battery. I guess that wouldn't work as well if a person doesn't have a driveway where the solar panel laying on the hood wouldn't get stolen.

I'm not 100% sure, but I think the 12V power socket in the trunk area might be always on. You could use that one and mount the solar panel in a similar location to the stock one on SL trims (just behind the roof mounted antenna)