Leaf not Charging

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Knoush

Member
Joined
Apr 28, 2022
Messages
6
Location
California
the battery light is on as well as the Ev Charging light
the car is not charging but drives on its remaining charge
i have recharged the 12V battery to eliminate that issue
Any Fuse responsible for this
or any idea what could be wrong
 
Knoush said:
i have recharged the 12V battery to eliminate that issue
Recharging isn't necessarily eliminating the auxiliary battery as a cause. But being able to charge it makes that an unlikely culprit.

Any Fuse responsible for this
There would be one for the on-board charrger, but my guess is it would affect other ECUs and you would not be able to drive.

or any idea what could be wrong
It could be the on-board charrger. Can you drive it to a fast charrger and see if that works? If so, it's almost certainly the OBC.

There is a small chance that it's just the diode; if it fails short circuit there is a cheap and easy fix. Search for this.

Nissans use much the same Nichicon OBC as the Mitsubishi iMiev (but not similar enough to be interchangeable). Mitsubishi USA found them to be unreliable enough to extend the warranty on that item to 8 or 10 years, I forget which.

If you're good with electronics and it turns out to be the OBC, there are some parts (capacitors, pre-charge resistors, a relay) that are often implicated. There is more information on this on the myimiev.com site. There is even a thread on there specific to Leafs, I think.
 
This leaf does not have the fast charging option
the car is drivable
i try to charge but it stops charging after 1 min (blinking blue lights stop)
 
Current SoC ?
Recent changes to car, charging location/circuit, or EVSE ?

Narrow down the possibilities:
Charge somewhere else
Use a different EVSE
Ask a friend with an EV to charge at your location
 
Knoush said:
This leaf does not have the fast charging option
the car is drivable
i try to charge but it stops charging after 1 min (blinking blue lights stop)

Please be more specific...

If you are seeing the left most light blink, then the middle, then the right most and that pattern repeats, then your issue is that you have a charge timer enabled. If so, you need to either disable the charge timer, or use the override button on the dash whenever you want to initiate an adhoc charge.

immediatechargeswitch.png
 
alozzy said:
Knoush said:
This leaf does not have the fast charging option
the car is drivable
i try to charge but it stops charging after 1 min (blinking blue lights stop)

Please be more specific...

If you are seeing the left most light blink, then the middle, then the right most and that pattern repeats, then your issue is that you have a charge timer enabled.
That is a good guess since he said lights
It would help for Newbs to self declare themselves so that we focus on the simpler gothchas. They also need to describe the blinking lights pattern accurately
 
The 12V battery is good with a battery tester and 665 measured Cold Crancking Amps with a digital battery tester under load
The Evse is good i have 3 of them and i am charging my other electric car
The Lock Timer button is off so its not that
The charging blinking is exactly the same it had every time i have charged the car
I went fast over a pretty bad large pot hole due to street work . Right then the car showed me a message like i need to turn off the car and the Car Light with Exclamation sign popped. i had 45% charge left so i drove it home and could not charge it afterward i am still at 45% now as i live close by
-What else is there between the charge port and the battery that is stopping the car to charge (the name please and a cost )
-could the battery have a loose connection due to the severe road shake?
-what are the connections i could look for, to see a problem
lets get dirty here there was a guy in Guatemala with the same problem and nobody figured it out just guesses like the 12V battery and Evse which are valid but not the case here. i think my car issue has happened due to a severe shake on the mal-repaired road and not due to normal wear and tear
 
' Coulomb ' suggested the onboard charger could be bad and i m inclined in that direction. I read in the Norwegian Leaf Forum as it is a capacitor or similar item getting bad and the car symptoms were the same as mine
the part is pretty expensive at 1500 $
What about the inverter is there a way to isolate the problem
 
You need to start by getting a LeafSpy screenshot of the trouble codes and posting those here. There are several very technical people who visit here that can help you troubleshoot this.

You also have provided no information about your LEAF. The diode issue is much more common on 2011/2012 LEAFs. There's also a YouTube video that will help you to diagnose if the diode is the issue.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5R4dGg8nIUs
 
Even though you have a 2013, you should still watch the video and do the testing explained in it to rule out the diode issue as a possibility. Of the onboard charger (OBC) related issues, that's the least expensive to repair, as you don't actually have to dig out the OBC to install a new inline diode.
 
Knoush said:
I read in the Norwegian Leaf Forum as it is a capacitor or similar item getting bad and the car symptoms were the same as mine
the part is pretty expensive at 1500 $
US$1500 would get you a second hand complete On Board Charger; a fair bit more for a new OBC I believe.

The tiny capacitors that often blow in the Nichicon OBCs only cost about $1.50.
 
Hey guys anybody knows:
1-the location of the Onboard Charger for the 2013 leaf S without fast charger?
under the hood or the back seat like the older models?
2-can i just swap the circuit board ?
 
It's in front on a 2013. You can find some info about it here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiiDIEmc4HU or on Dala's website. Dala has also replaced a 3.3kW charger with a 6.6kW one IIRC although I don't think he has any videos about repairing the charger itself.

And there are many threads here about chargers not working. Sometimes it's as simple as a blown diode. I'd research those before trying to disassemble a charger.
 
Likely suspect is something jarred by the hard hit of the pot hole, especially since the car gave you a pull over message. The OBC would not have been energized while driving, but there are main contactors and relays used for Drive mode that might have been tweaked to cause that message.

i would recommend to get the DTCs and follow the clues from there.

On the earlier version there are numerous OBC codes that would point to sections of the board if there were a fault, not sure if that carried forward to 2013 but i would expect so.
 
Get the trouble code with an OBD tool and then take it from there. If all else fails you can find an upgraded fast charger from a donor car and put it on your leaf. A real win win. Also check the fuse. There is a fuse in the charge port under the rubber covering behind the plastic socket! Also check to make sure the ground wire is securely connected to the back of the device and the charge port isn't damaged. One of the symptoms before I had to replace my charge port after it melted is that one time it started to charge briefly then stopped.


If you have the timer set for a time 12 hours from now and you plug in a level 2 charger do the lights blink one by one from left to right for a while. It definitely sounds like a fault in the high voltage system.

The part new is 1800 for 3.3 2000 for 6.6 or 3800 for 6.6 + quick charge. https://www.nissanpartsoverstock.com/a/Nissan_2013_Leaf-S-Hatchback--L---cylinder-BATTERY-EV-EVBEV-AT/_56655_5990888/ELECTRICAL-COMPONENTS/3722172.html but these are new, OEM parts. Would be cheaper at the scrap yard
 
Is there an update on this? I now have a 2015 leaf and it is on low-low battery. no quick charge. upon insertion of several different 120 and 240 OEM and aftermarket known good EVSEs, the passenger side blue light blinks for 1 minute, same as OP, and it draws 0.5amp then it stops charging. the proximity pin has 3.8 VDC and the other pin has 800kohm/INF resistance to ground, with +/- and -/+ DMM connection.

my story was I had a 2012 and it was totaled, and the criminal's insurance paid me actual cash value, not replacement cost, so I could only afford this one, with a known charging issue hoping it was only the diode issue. Body is in OK shape, inside is immaculate, and it shows 12 health bars, but i need to solve this same issue.

I tried to scan codes with leaf-spy lite and also with my trusty innova 5210, both said no connection for engine codes. but the innova was able to scan ABS codes C1109(Vehicle battery voltage abnormal) and C118C (EV HEV System.) I checked every fuse in all 4 fuse boxes under the hood and the driver door panel.

I tested the control pilot signal today and the CP is +12vdc when the handle is not engaged (measured inside the EVSE box). then when its inserted into the car the volts got to -10.1VDC, the light blinks for 1 minute and turns off and the voltage was -9.8VDC. so I applied the diode to the CP wire in the car and the voltage was -9.7vdc during that time, so that is not the issue, the diode isn't. According to wikipedia the CP signal being -12vdc is status "F" error

vehicle detected should be +9VDC (status B) charging should be +6VDC (status C)
 
OK, so I took off the lid of the power unit and traced the control pilot and proximity pilot lines to the PCB on the front passenger side of the unit. after the conformal coating was removed, I followed the traces on the PCB to several ICs and also found that there is the correct 2.74kohm resistance on the board between CP and ground, and that the SMD diode is OK. next stop is to see why I'm getting -12vdc on control pilot instead of +10VDC. there are several ICs in the circuit trace that I will investigate next.

There is a little microswitch on the power unit so that the car will not charge with the lid off, once bypassed I was able to see the charger is indeed charing the battery for that one minute the blue light blinks with about a 10volt drop when it stops charging. If you can't open it, you don't own it!


https://ibb.co/CbhfCC0
 
ripple4 said:
next stop is to see why I'm getting -12vdc on control pilot instead of +10VDC. there are several ICs in the circuit trace that I will investigate next.
The -12V actually comes from the EVSE, as I guess you know. Hopefully, with the variety of EVSEs that you've tried, you have eliminated the possibility of the EVSE(s) being faulty.

There is a little microswitch on the power unit so that the car will not charge with the lid off, once bypassed I was able to see the charger is indeed charing the battery for that one minute the blue light blinks with about a 10volt drop when it stops charging.
It's odd that the charge is actually working for 1 minute. Presumably, for that minute, the CP signal is normal, then switches to -12V after that minute. I can't imagine what the EVSE would be seeing that brings it to the fault condition, unless it's because the OBC stops paralleling the positive half of the signal with the 882 ohm resistor [ edit: I meant the 1.3k resistor, that beings the total to 882 ohms ], so the positive amplitude goes from 6V to more like 9V. Maybe that 882 ohm resistor is marginal, presumably high value? Or the relay or MOSFET pulling it to earth is marginal/high resistance?

Thanks for the photo.

Edit: IC401 seems involved here; it seems to have marking code IA. It might be a voltage regulator, perhaps 5V?
 
Thank you for the response! I'm not the only one with this fault and it may crop up more. so it's good to understand the problem before towing it to the dealer and/or throwing parts at it.

coulomb said:
It's odd that the charge is actually working for 1 minute. Presumably, for that minute, the CP signal is normal, then switches to -12V after that minute

its -10vdc on the CP line the entire time the handle is in the plug. the PP line is 1.5-2.5 volts depending if the handle thumb switch is pulled in. no matter, the charge current is 0.5 amps regardless of what EVSE is used nor what it is set to. I have an adjustable one that goes from 6 amps/120v to a 60amp/240v, plus a 12amp/240v, 40amp/240v and a 12amp/120v all different brands, OE and aftermarket and it's all the same behaviour.

I can't imagine what the EVSE would be seeing that brings it to the fault condition, unless it's because the OBC stops paralleling the positive half of the signal with the 882 ohm resistor, so the positive amplitude goes from 6V to more like 9V. Maybe that 882 ohm resistor is marginal, presumably high value? Or the relay or MOSFET pulling it to earth is marginal/high resistance?

Can you explain this in more detail? references i can follow up on? I'm researching the resistor layout in the wiki page, but its not clear how that translates to the actual circuit in the car.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAE_J1772#/media/File:J1772_signaling_circuit.svg

here is an update. i ran some of the ICs (https://smd.yooneed.one/code5441.html) and checked for shorts Vdd to GND, so far so good. here is the circuit map at this point. i'll put it back on the car and verify VDD is correct and grounds not floating.


https://ibb.co/jbzWt0L
 
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