Heater failure

Afternoon,

I bought a 2012 LEAF this summer. On starting to use the heater recently - it’s failed. I’ve had checked out by local mechanic and they’ve quoted £2.6k plus VAT plus four hours fitting = £3.5k

Has anyone come across this issue?

Richard

There are other topics on this. I'll try to find one later and then merge this into it. The short answer is "yes, it's a known issue."

Try searching for PTC heater. It’s a common issue.

Oh wow you could put a diesel fired esbar hydronic heater on there for thousands less.

Many existing posts on this topic, best way to find them is to use Google:

PTC site:mynissanleaf.com

I don't know that I'd call it a "common failure". Overall, the Leaf is quite a reliable car. However, of the things that do fail, it's one of the more common ones. In addition, the 2011 & 2012's have typically had more reliable heaters than the later model years (2013+), so the OP has one of the more reliable models.

Typically, the heater blows a fuse and stops functioning. While the fuse is inexpensive, getting to it is a pain. You have to drain the heater coolant and pull out a lot of parts from the hood of the car to get at the fuse.

More information here: https://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?t=21175
Specifically this comment is a good one: https://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?t=21175#p447823

Did you get your repair quote at a dealer or independent shop? Like many of the posts say in that thread, Dealers are inclined to just replace everything, rather than the failed part. An independent shop could likely either open up the heater and replace the fuse (the likely problem), or, if necessary, replace the heater from a salvaged Leaf, which would save big $$$$.

Lothsahn said:

I don't know that I'd call it a "common failure".

Click to expand...

It appears others do disagree with me, however:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u19YogcC2H8

It's possible it fails more than I thought. And whoever designed the DC/DC junction box repair (and fuse replacement) should be fired. The steps necessary to replace that 30A fuse are *insane*.