Trickle charge for a dead 12V.

After returning from a 1 week vacation, my 6 mo. old Leaf is stone cold dead. I now understand the Blink charger drains my 12 volt battery, and leaving it plugged in is most likely the reason I have no life in my Leaf. I initially called the Carwings help # and scheduled it to be towed to the dealership. Then I learned it was just a dead 12 volt battery, I cancelled that and plugged in my handy 12 volt trickle charger I have for my moped. We do not "need" the Leaf until Thursday. Now after 6 hours of trickle charge, I have had no improvement. The car electrical system remains completely stone cold dead.
Is there some reason the 12 volt trickle charger will not recharge the Leaf 12 volt? Do I have some other problem with the car? I spoke to the dealership(Power Nissan in Salem Or.) just now, & there "Leaf" mechanic is out for a few days. The person I spoke to seemed to know less about this than I(he did not know that leaving the Leaf plugged in to the Blink charger could drain the 12 volt). I was going to try and "jump start" it but we moved a year ago and I can not seem to find my jumper cables. My plan is to leave it on the 12 volt trickle charger overnight, but I am skeptical that will charge at all. I have tried to make sure battery drain items are off, but it is hard to know if they are off when nothing comes on in the car.
Sorry if this has been addressed before. If so please direct me to the appropriate thread( I have not found a thread addressing my question).

Is the EVSE or cordset unplugged?

If so, you should be able to recharge the 12v battery...Do you have a volt meter? What is the 12v battery reading?

Having the EVSE or cordset plugged in seems to inhibit the main battery-to-12v battery recharge, so that's probably what happened.

In the future, just leave your LEAF semi-charged and unplugged when you go on a trip and everything will be fine. The main battery will recharge the 12v battery automatically..

from the expert:

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=8588&start=10#p191304" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

"NEVER connect anything to the Leaf's negative 12v battery terminal, EVER!" use the top of "DC-DC junction box"

I'm no expert, but I'm dubious. If the 12v battery is dead will a trickle charge be enough to bring it back to life? I'd think you would want to use a real battery charger or a jump start from another car. But, yes, as Randy says, use a voltmeter to verify that it really is a dead battery. If you don't have one, pick up a cheap one from Radio Shack or someplace.

Ray

Thanks for your reply!
The Blink charger is disconnected( I assume from google, that is the EVSE).
My Voltmeter reads 3.03 V. That's pathetic! my understanding is I need 11-12 V to start a car, correct?
Do you think the trickle charger should charge the 12 volt? A friend is bringing jumper cables to work tomorrow.
Know of a formula to determine when it will have enough charge?
thanks again!
Thomas

thoman said:

That's pathetic! my understanding is I need 11-12 V to start a car, correct?

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Correct.

thoman said:

Do you think the trickle charger should charge the 12 volt?

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Many modern chargers measure the voltage of the battery before commencing charging. If it is below a certain level, they will not charge. The idea is to be sure it is connected to a 12V battery properly, but it can be pretty frustrating when you cannot use your battery charger to charge your battery!

What RegGuheert said, you are suffering from a trickle charger that is too smart. Disconect the negative terminal on the Leafs battery and try jumping it directly with old style jump cables to a working car.. that should bring the voltage up a bit and then your trickle charger should be able to finish the job.

So now my Leaf has been connected to my 12V trickle charger for about 10 hours. I tried to start the car just now, and there was no electrical activity what so ever. The voltmeter reads 3.0.
Why is it not charging?

Several people have already noted it. Most likely your trickle charger is being too smart and is not charging because your voltage is too low.

arnold

Thanks,
Maybe it acts too smart, but it seems stupid to me. battery is low and needs a charge, a smart charger would charge it!

thoman said:

So now my Leaf has been connected to my 12V trickle charger for about 10 hours. I tried to start the car just now, and there was no electrical activity what so ever. The voltmeter reads 3.0.
Why is it not charging?

Click to expand...

Some chargers will not start unless they sense 7 or 9 volts. The 3 volts is so low the charger may think it is a short or a 6v battery etc and not start. Battery at that level could well be shot at this point but I would try a jump start.
Resting at just under 11 volts is considered fully discharged.

thoman said:

Thanks,
Maybe it acts too smart, but it seems stupid to me. battery is low and needs a charge, a smart charger would charge it!

Click to expand...

You would think.. this problem wont go away until they put AI and visual recognition on trickle chargers to compensate for human users.

"Dave, I'm sorry but I cant do that.. note how the battery is 14 years old, no amount of charging will bring it back"

This battery MAY not be dependable anyway, particularly after being severely discharged. I would seriously consider just getting a new, fully charged one.

Also, you could take this battery down to a shop that has a real charger (if you don't have jumper cables). What folks are trying to tell you is that you need to get the voltage up enough with a jump start or with a real battery charger so that your "trickle charger" will then work.

Hi! I have one thing to add to this discussion.
I will spare you the saga, but I wound up
getting a friend to help me drag the Leaf
to the curb in front of my house.

It was so dead, I couldn't open the charge door
until I asked Google how to do it manually.

It was so dead, it would not fire up the charger.

I dug around for my 12 V charger and run that for an hour.
The battery read 12V but it would not charge.
I called in reinforcements - a local volunteer group
came out with a booster pack. They said the battery is good, 12V.
It would not charge.

Then I had a whim to see what the status is
by turning on the car.
When I turned it off, I was able to charge.

It seems to have a memory that the previous shutdown
was abnormal, and it requires a good shutdown before
charging.
Sort of like the sliding door on a Honda van that got stuck.
You need to pull the fuse to reset the circuit.

Once it hit 12%, I was able to back up to a spot
closer to my L2 charger, still crossing the sidewalk.
Soon, I will test drive the car and bring it back
to it's normal roost in the driveway.

Lesson learned I hope. Get a battery tender and hook it up if you will be gone for an extended period.