I think you need to buy a 10mm spanner. When my car (not a leaf) starts this nonsense, the 12v battery gets disconnected overnight. Next day, it's back to normal.

 

Thanks for your input- this seems to be the favoured view here that it is the 12v battery causing the issue

 

The car is 2.5 years old. It will be a dead 12v battery probably. Once the voltage gets low all the gremlins pop up.

Pretty useless service though.

 

thanks srichards - I do hope it is the 12v battery. When I googled the 'no power' error I came across the thread...

Service EV system - HELP

Just popped outside to my plugged in car and noticed the blue lights weren't one. Hopped in and switched it on. Warning on the dash "service EV system". Worryingly it won't let me engage drive to even move it. Not responding to being plugged in!! Anyone experienced this before that can help...

www.speakev.com

and thought my leaf was out for a month whilst they sent it Sunderland.

 

Wow, what a palaver. Nissan seriously need to up their game here. I agree with the other responses; it’s most likely the 12v battery is goosed and causing your electrical failure warnings. The Zoe does similarly when the 12v output is low. Really hope you can get it sorted quickly.

 

thanks Spike - I wonder why nissan can't do some sort of remote diagnostics. It would save them time and money and also the customer!

 

I’m upset as the car didn’t actually implode.

Where do I get a refund?

 

I did wonder why I had 200 reads this morning - were people looking for pictures of a nissan leaf splattered all over the street!

 

It's just the 12V battery.
If you look around on this forum, similar faults have been reported on the previous generation 24/30 Leafs when the 12V gets low.

Also a bit stupid of Nissan UK to not point out that it's probably the 12V battery.
With 10 years of experience on this car, they should know better.

Suggest to change your thread title because it's flamebait/clickbait.
When Tesla owners read battery failure, they misunderstand it as the main battery failure, of which Tesla finds itself swapping on a regular basis (Nissan too for the first gen in hot climates), not the auxiliary.

 

Yes I agree, it was a little clickbait so I have changed to title to 'no power.' I've not really read to 24/30 section, but yes you are correct there must be a lot issues that carry over to the 40.

I will keep everyone updated on the outcome. If this is a straight-forward issue, nissan should have it sorted in a few days - lets see!

 

...folks, can you all have a read of:

Ever had a Leaf not power off?!

This was my poor leaf Wednesday morning... My wife took it to work, and not long after leaving it popped up “Service EV System” - she mistook it for the fact that the service was coming up in a couple weeks and it continued to drive fine, until she got to work - where it then flatly refused to...

www.speakev.com

..it seems to be the same scenario as me (1. no power, then 2. ignition won't turn off)

It has been ongoing for a month, so maybe not that simple?

 

Did you let the car sit outside with little to no usage in the recent cold spell?

 

Dealer has just phoned. They asked if they could have the 2nd key. They are going to pick up tomorrow. Not sure why they think the key could be the issue???

 

Update week 1 (lets keep these updates to weekly, I've a feeling this drag on)

Dealer - tried to call the dealer today for an update. They picked the 2nd key a few days ago. So, Retail Group have a phone system which diverts me to Renault Manchester, after speaking to them 3 times they said they would direct dial Nissan Bolton. I was given a message back that Service would call me in 10. It's been 20 minutes and counting - of course when the dealer calls me I answer straight away

Nissan - I've been tweeting away so a case was raised and a case worker assigned. They have not replied since I requested that they fund the diesel bill I'm running up. When I tweeted my case manager was not replying to emails, some random agent rang me, took details and never followed up. I knew customer service was bad. The agent asked me for the phone number of Nissan Bolton - I bet they all had a good laugh at the Nissan call centre!

 

Just had a call from dealer (Nissan Bolton - Retail Group). They are saying it is the key causing the issue. They have used the 2nd key and everything is working perfectly. They are finding an error in diagnostics 'key not found' which they think is causing the car issues.

They are saying this is not covered under warranty. The see water ingress into the remote (suggesting I have caused this!) Total repair cost is circa £180 (60 for remote and 120 to reprogramme).

I have told them I won't be paying - it will be nissan as this should be covered under warranty

 

Just destroy that key.

All sorted.

 

Must admit I'm a bit mystified as how the keyfob can be causing 2 apparent 'major' type of issues!

 

Been told my car is fixed. Just arrived at Nissan Bolton, given keys and find this...

9

 

That's outrageous.

 

I was half expecting something like this to be honest. The few calls I have had with the service agent have been jagged. You only need to look at the tweets and the dozen or so calls I've made to nissan uk to see that I can be tough going - but I've actually been quite understanding with the dealer. I know the dealers will struggle with EV issues and I have half expecting my car to go to Sunderland!

When the dealer service agent would talk over me on the phone and came across that I should be the one that was grateful my car was being dealt with - I knew there would be issues.

When I got the phone call for the 2nd key I was halfway out the door with the pram and the dog. I then got a sort of implied that it would have to wait a few days otherwise.

The final call when the key fob was diagnosed as the issue - It was implied that water ingress into the key fob was not wear and tear - as if I go swimming with it! The irony, is that like most of you on here, I have treated my car with the greatest respect and the same goes for the key too.

...so conversation between us was curt.

I did laugh when the duty manager today blamed nissan uk for the cock-up. The same service agent who I have been speaking to gave me my keys back, confirmed that a replacement key fob would take 2 1/2 weeks - all of this was finalised between nissan and the dealer on Friday when it was agreed I would pick up my car on Saturday! ha ha

 

Have you sent Nissan Bolton a link to this thread? Be interesting to see what they have to say.

 

Perhaps suggest you may contact the Motorombudsman if you aren't happy with the outcome.

The Motor Ombudsman | Motor Industry Codes of Practice

The Motor Ombudsman is the UK’s government-backed, self-regulatory body for the motor industry. Find a garage you can rely on and resolve motoring disputes.

www.themotorombudsman.org

 

Quite unbelievable.

 

You find it hard to believe that Nissan don't give a crap?

 

🤦‍♂️

 

I doubt that the key fob would cause this issue. The Leaf is very good at recognising a corrupt key or a low key battery and would immediately let you know. The key only sends signals. The car either accepts the signal and executes the commands or it doesn’t. A corrupted key would not send the right signal and the car should reject them instead of going haywire, otherwise the car is essentially being hacked.

Check if they haven’t replaced the 12V battery. Most likely they threw everything upside down and were too embarrassed to admit that it was something as simple as the 12V battery. They probably went into it without checking the troubleshooting manual.
Considering the state in which the car was returned, it looks like they did not know what they were doing.

Please also ask to have the second key returned and open it up as if to change the battery. You can then verify for yourself if there is any evidence of water ingress.

Many mechanics nowadays don’t know what they’re talking about. If you pull up with an EV, you can see on their faces that something is going on in their underwear.

I can illustatrate this with a story. I have an ICE Corolla. At an ODO of 260.000km I started hearing a resonance at certain speeds.
Took it to a big Toyota dealership to diagnose. The mechanic pulled me into the workshop and showed me my Corolla on the bridge with the wheels rotating and told me to listen through a stethoscope.
“Bad news. That’s the sound of gearbox failure, probably the bearings. We need to take it apart ASAP to see what’s going on before they disintegrate and cause more damage“
I begged to differ and suggested that it’s just a worn wheel bearing that resonated into the gearbox that is mechanically linked.
I was told “Believe what you want, but we’re the specialists here.“ Then they quoted a best case cost of 2000 EUR, basically more than the value of the car.
The next day I took the Corolla to a chain garage and asked them to replace the front bearings, at risk of sinking costs into a dead horse.
5 years and 70.000km later, I’m sitting in it while I type this and it was just the wheel bearings.
Imagine that they had taken apart the gearbox to find nothing? They would probably have been too embarrassed to admit it and would pretend that they had found something there, and charged me for it too!
I made the dealership apologise over this.

Leafs almost never see the inside of a workshop. It’s also unlikely that the mechanics own one. Only few mechanics are confronted with this kind of problem.
So it’s most likely that a mechanic was taking everything apart until it was pointed out to him that it was probably just the 12V battery.

Your key is probably just fine. They’re probably just feeding you cr*p because they’re full of it.
Nissan UK being involved, they’re probably also trying to save face to cover their incompetence.

 

I doubt that the key fob would cause this issue. The Leaf is very good at recognising a corrupt key or a low battery

Your key is probably just fine. They’re probably just feeding you cr*p because they’re full of it.

I must admit I am dubious that faulty fob would cause this. If it's not recognised, or if I try to start without the fob in my pocket, the dash displays a 'key not detected' or similar message. Also, if you try to lock or unlock the doors using the button on the handle, it won't work if the car doesn't detect a valid key.
On my Honda CRZ hybrid, it was well known that a weak 12v battery caused lots of warning lights and messages, as did my Brera if I had disconnected the battery, until I drove it, when they reset themselves.

 

Interesting.
There is some rust/corrosion on the negative (black) terminal of the 12V. My 2012 Nissan Leaf doesn't have any corrosion there and this seems a bit premature for a 2 years old car.
At the contact points it looks like it's galvanic and goes around the negative terminal. It may not be much but it may not take much, the Leaf likes to get the proper voltage from its 12V.

The key fob looks fine, no evidence of water on the battery or contact points, but the physical key is kind of dirty/corroded towards the tip? That is odd, my keys look brand new.
I still don't think that this would cause the problems.

I also don't like how the wires near the 12V battery are excessively exposed and some of them even seem to be under tension.

Is the car back to normal?

 

I have only used the car twice since Saturday and seems ok. Guess I will find out in the coming weeks..

 

Just for information regarding the key, the only problem I have had is on the button side of the key (and both keys had the same problem). The picture shows the corrosion issue.

 

That's not corrosion, that's dried solder flux and it's harmless. The joint on the right side looks a bit dry though.

 

Rei, Thankyou for that information, and confirmation that it's harmless.

 

...Ok so slight exaggeration, but going from 2 3/4 years of seamless driving to what so far has been a shambles - it certainly feels like when a BEV goes wrong they don't know how to fix it at nissan, and worse still as an organisation their customer service don't want to help. So, 2 March I went to the car at 10pm and it lit up like a Christmas tree. As you can see from the dash below there is a big red box saying 'Warning. Service EV System. No power.' You can also see I have 17% battery. There was a loud alarm noise and when I tried to start/stop the car the ignition would not start. Sounded pretty serious to me. As I was at home and it late I thought I would ring it through in the morning. View attachment 141732 3 March - I went the car first thing in the morning to check I was still having the same issue and low behold - the ignition started. It was almost as if nothing had ever gone wrong! I now have a car that is fine one minute and broken down the next - not good. 1st phone call was to Nissan Bolton – which is part of the Retail Group. Was given an appt in 2 weeks! I think I was speaking to reception, but was not that impressed. Telling me that ‘because the issue has disappeared, we may not get to the bottom of it’ – is cobblers. 2nd phone call was to Nissan UK (Customer Service). The first lady I spoke to said ‘just call breakdown, they will collect your car and take it to the garage.’ I did question this as it wasn’t broken down. I also asked if they could do remote diagnostics and she confirmed they could, so she put me through to the breakdown line. Of course, they advised they only attend breakdowns and can’t do battery diagnostics. 3rd phone call to Nissan UK (Customer Service). This agent told me whatever the previous agent said was rubbish, but then said my only options were either to breakdown again or get a service dealer to look at the car. When I explain that the dealer appt was 2 weeks away and that I didn’t want to get stranded as I have a 5 month baby, the only help that was offered was to send me a list of dealerships to ring round. The agent did confirm that the error was going to happen again. So now you can see my situation – very low chance of getting a dealer to look at the car and in order to get a closer date I need to look farther afield, not ideal with a baby. Other option to wait till I breakdown …effectively I can’t use the car – I can’t get stranded with the baby or without. In the meantime I’m tweeting @nissanuk to see that this will achieve. They are replying to give the team a call so they can ‘look into it.’ I make 4th call Nissan UK (Customer Service). The agent asks me if I have checked the manual for the error. I haven’t. reading 400 pages of manual isn’t a hobby of mine. They look for the error and can’t find anything. We end up having the same conversation. That evening about to go shopping and there is a new error on the dash - 'Warning. When Parked Apply Parking Brake.' When I put the car in park, the error is still there. When I turn the ignition off, it briefly turns off, but then the ignition starts up. Try this a few times, but there is no way I can turn the ignition off. I make a video and go indoors. The car ignition is on car is unlocked – have to leave it in this state all night. View attachment 141733 4 March - Call breakdown. They don’t have my vehicle details but they dispatch a vehicle once I explain all the crap I have been through. They tell me will take 90 minutes, but an engineer rings me after 10 minutes. RAC engineer arrives. I explain the history. Without even looking at the vehicle he says it needs to go to the dealer. He confirms they don’t have tools/training to do battery diagnostics. He asks if I can drive the car to the dealer, but I am home alone with the young one. He drives the car to the dealer for me! He is back shortly after being given a lift back from a colleague. Says the dealer didn’t have a courtesy car, so RAC will get Enterprise to deliver a car to me. He leaves – I must say I was impressed with RAC. Enterprise call, but I need to collect the vehicle. The depot is 8 miles away. It is also a 4 day lease. I advise I’ll speak to the dealer as I cannot collect and may need a car longer than 4 days. I’m still tweeting and Nissan Customer Service advise me that a case has been raised and that I have been assigned a case manager! 5 March – I get an email from my case manager. It is a rather long email, but most importantly: they can’t even get through to the dealer for an update Enterprise will organise the courtesy car I ring the dealer and have no issue getting through. In fact, I speak the with the lead engineer. I give him the background of the 2 errors and he advises this is useful as they were not aware of this. They are just beginning their investigation. I give Enterprise a call. They have found a branch closer to me and I’m able to get there to pick up the courtesy car. …so here we are. I have a courtesy car to keep me going, but as of yet have no idea what is going on with my car. I will post updates as I receive them.

we have a 2021 Nissan leaf 62kwh tekna. We have had the same error message today. The car was fine we drove to a supermarket and charged on 7kw for approximately 15mins. We then attempted to leave but got the warning message and couldn’t select drive. The windows and radio were working so ruled the 12v battery issue. We cured the problem by plugging the car back in to charge for a few minutes and disconnecting. We called back the RAC, who were on the way to us, and confirmed the error had gone. The RAC guy suggested that it was likely to be a software glitch but that we should still report to Nissan and get the vehicle inspected.

 

In my case it was the key fob, so I would get them checked out if possible. Nissan said mine got wet, but it didn't. Got a replacement key fob in the end.

 

I have owned my Leaf since July 2018 and enjoyed 60000 plus miles of faultless driving. On Saturday I arrived home after shopping and walking the dog, who by now was driving me nuts for his breakfast, went inside and all was well. Later in the day my dear wife asked if I would pop to Waitrose to buy a bottle of gin and some tonics as she had friends coming over. Got into the car and the same Service EV power massage appeared. Thought It might need a charge but the car would not charge. Tried to call the dealership but no technicians working on Saturday afternoon. I assumed I would just wait until Monday and call out the RAC to recover the car to the dealership. Sunday, cricket started well but was rained off so I sat down with the owners handbook; soporific reading at the best of times. Towards the back I came across a small section headed 'Jump Starting your Leaf'. Hold on I thought, we dont have an internal combustion engine but I read on. Here it stated that if the 12v supply is lost the vehicle EV system will not power up, you wont be able to charge or access many functions. This was a blue light moment. I went to my garage, yes some of us still have them, and picked up my 12v charger. Ran the extention lead out and connected up; low and behold it started charging at 4amps so the battery was dead. I left it for a couple of hours and tried again. Yippee, it lives. I disconnected the charger, powered up and backed the car up to my charging unit and plugged the old girl in. Four hours later, battery fully charges, as was the 12v service battery, and it has been fine ever since. Sitting down later I realised I had not tuened her off and with the radio and sidelights on the battery had discharged, I now have a sticker which reminds me to 'TURN OFF'. I hope this helps others.

 

Type ' 12v battery' into the handy dandy " Search Community" box above and it will bring up 25 forum pages of issues with the 12v DC batteries in EVs. This is one of the most common causes of various bizarre faults. Just keep a close eye on yours now because they really don't like being flattened like that. Get it tested and replaced if it's the original battery from 2018.

 

Yes, three or four batteries in a Leaf or e-NV200. There's the quarter ton or more of lithium ion traction battery, the one which makes it an electric vehicle; the 12 volt battery which runs all the car electronics when the traction battery is isolated and stabilises that 12V power when it's connected; and a 3 volt lithium battery in the key. There's another which might be either a battery or a supercap condenser, not sure which, providing a backup power supply for the brakes, accounting for my "or four."

The 12 volt battery is the one which most often causes strange symptoms in EVs, although the Leaf seems to have fewer problems with looking after its battery than many. If in doubt, charge it. If it needs charging, plan to replace that battery, because it's working life is shortened by time spent not fully charged (unlike the traction battery). The 12 V is a regular SLI (starter, lights, ignition) battery and doesn't owe you anything after it's been in service for 3 years or more.

 

There's another which might be either a battery or a supercap condenser, not sure which, providing a backup power supply for the brakes, accounting for my "or four."

LEAF emergency service brake power is stored in a super capacitor. Most likely it is also super cap in the eNV 200.

If the car sits with a dead 12V battery, the super capacitor will have no power. When this happens, the brake pedal will go most of the way to the floor, but you still have brakes. In an emergency, stomp on the pedal really hard!

 

When reading the post at #43, my instant thought was 12V battery, I think it is worth changing the 12V battery at 4 years, even if there is no sign of degradation, just as a stitch in time to prevent any awkward issue which usually happens at the worst possible time.

Lead Acid batteries have a habit of collapsing overnight with no warning, often wondered why the don't use LI Batteries instead of lead acid, would be more reliable and less weight.

Must be a reason I am unware of, probably cost.

 

When reading the post at #43, my instant thought was 12V battery, I think it is worth changing the 12V battery at 4 years, even if there is no sign of degradation, just as a stitch in time to prevent any awkward issue which usually happens at the worst possible time.

Lead Acid batteries have a habit of collapsing overnight with no warning, often wondered why the don't use LI Batteries instead of lead acid, would be more reliable and less weight.

Must be a reason I am unware of, probably cost.

Having had 12v battery issues over the years I decided some years ago to change it every 4 or 5 years. The 5 years was up last summer on my Prius 12v battery, but since I was waiting on delivery of my EV I decided to not bother this time. It failed in October, a month before I got my Leaf. New battery needed, and such a pain having to call out roadside assistance.