Refuses to Charge on 240V or 110V

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Soviet

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 1, 2010
Messages
67
I plug it in, the charging timer is properly set, everything seems to be fine. The charging light (the blue one on the car) blinks a few times, then it makes the sound it usually makes when it stops charging. And it stops charging after just a few seconds when it should be charging for 3 hours. I just tried the 110V charger for the first time and the same thing still happened. Can anyone guess what's up?

Thanks in advance!
 
Watch this video and post back whether your light sequence is similar:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5R4dGg8nIUs

If it is the diode, then fortunately there is a cheap and fairly easy fix that involves installing an inline diode on the charging port's pilot wire.
 
if you somewhere in Los Angeles area, i have a working charger.
I can check it and replace if necessary.
 
Well, I finally got around to towing it to the Nissan dealer I purchased it from and they said it's the onboard charger and stated that a replacement charger will be around $2,900. Sigh. What other options do I have here in Texas? Selling it out for parts to someone? Saying good-bye? What do y'all recommend?

I'd get it towed to Los Angeles for the working charger but that sounds equally cost-prohibitive. Thoughts?
 
There's a well known diode issue that I referenced already. Did you watch the video?

Buy a multi-tester if you don't have one already, follow the steps in the video, and confirm whether or not the root cause is a failed diode.

If it is the diode issue, and it has failed open, then take the LEAF to an independent EV specialist shop (not Nissan!) and show them the video too. Details on how to install an inline diode, near the charge port, are provided here:

https://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?t=24696

I also created a PDF document on my OneDrive, which includes photos and detailed instructions, as I figured it's a common enough problem and photos on this site tend to end up with broken links:

https://1drv.ms/b/s!AjONM_UrXWS8-xr1VIZHnSyd4mqe?e=afmyti

Note: the cost of the diode is less than $5 and it might take a competent mechanic 30 minutes to do the work. Alternatively, if you have a friend that's an electrician then that person could do this job too. It's a pretty simple fix, if in fact the diode has failed and that's the only issue with the OBC.
 
There's plenty of used OBC units available from wrecked cars in salvage yards, sometimes see them on evay too.
 
For soldering the diode in, does one just need a regular soldering iron? Is that it? So they just snip the wire, attach the diode in the middle and solder it on? That's all that's required?
 
You might do well to get an OBDII dongle and use the leaf spy app to read the DTCs. This would give information that could point to the issue. The "diode" fix is really very rare, it just happens to have a video about how it was done one time, and is the only point of reference for many on this forum.

In my experience from repairing or assisting in the repair of several dozen OBC units, most leaf OBCs seem to fail in the AC input and filter section. There are also fuses inside the OBC that could be blown. The likely culprits are a handful of parts.

There is a low voltage control board and a high voltage power board inside the OBC--which one do you think fails the most often? Hint: it's not the diode on the control board.
 
The "diode" fix is really very rare, it just happens to have a video about how it was done one time, and is the only point of reference for many on this forum.

I seem to remember something like three successful diode replacements - that is to say, three times in which replacing or bypassing that diode with a new one worked. I believe you that it isn't the commonest cause of the 'no charge' problem these days, but it's worth trying as a first attempt, if the diagnostics indicate it.
 
Soviet said:
For soldering the diode in, does one just need a regular soldering iron? Is that it? So they just snip the wire, attach the diode in the middle and solder it on? That's all that's required?

To be blunt, you seem to be galloping ahead without having done any diagnostics. Adding an inline diode to the pilot wire is useless, if a diode failure isn't proved out.

Also, you clearly haven't read through the procedure or you would know the details on what precisely needs to be done - the procedure is clear, precise, and complete...

As I mentioned before, take it to an independent EV specialist, provide him/her with the detailed repair procedure and YouTube video link.

This fix requires attention to detail, you shouldn't attempt this repair yourself.
 
Soviet said:
For soldering the diode in, does one just need a regular soldering iron? Is that it?
For the special case where it's only the diode that has failed, and the diode happened to fail shorted, then yes, it's that simple. It's so much easier than any other fix that as Lefty says, it's worth checking first to see if the fix is that easy one.

For the case where the diode fails open circuit, intermittent, high resistance, or any of the other thousand components in the on-board charrger has failed, you need much more work.

The diode failure is slightly more likely than the other 999+ components because it connects directly to the J-1772 connector via a long wire, where it might pick up static electricity, spikes from the rest of the car, glitches in the EV SE, etc. Also, Nichicon chose to use a very small surface mount diode, when in hindsight a more robust component was perhaps justified.
 
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