2018 Nissan Leaf Electrical Problems

While driving on the freeway at 70 mph, your dashboard suddenly displayed red warning lights for 12V battery and charging issues. The car lost power, shifted into neutral, and told you to pull over immediately. You barely coasted to the shoulder before the car began jerking and shuttering to a complete stop in heavy traffic on the far left lane. This sudden power loss could require diagnosis of your 12V battery system, charging system, and vehicle management electronics.

While driving downhill, your dashboard warning lights came on and both the acceleration and brake pedals stopped responding normally. Your brake pedal sank to the floor with an unusual pulsing feeling and provided very little stopping power, forcing you to steer into a barrier to slow the vehicle. The brakes remained unresponsive even after restarting, and you had to rely on the emergency brake to prevent rolling. A brake system inspection and electrical diagnostic will be needed to identify why the braking and acceleration systems failed simultaneously.

Your 2018 Nissan Leaf lost all power while driving in cold 17-degree weather and displayed a "Service EV System, No Power" message. The dealer found that the main battery had frozen, which prevented the car from operating. After the battery thawed at the dealership, it recharged normally and no repair was needed. This issue may be related to how the vehicle manages battery voltage in freezing temperatures.

Your 2018 Nissan Leaf's battery drained very quickly while you were driving at 55 MPH, with no warning lights to alert you beforehand. The dealer couldn't identify or fix the problem, and Nissan opened a case to investigate. This happened at around 53,000 miles.

I was driving at 65 MPH on the freeway and the car was acting/driving normally. Without any warning at all, many lights appeared on the dashboard at the same time that the car placed itself into neutral and lost all power to drive. My speed was reduced so quickly without any notice and I had no pull out lane near me, so I was forced to move across 5 lanes of traffic in rush hour speeds of 60-85 MPH traffic in order to get to safety in a pull out lane while my car was quickly losing speed at 30 MPH and below. I tried to put the car back into drive but it was impossible and the dashboard read "EV maintenance needed". Of note, my entire battery was replaced less than 6 months prior and the Nissan Peoria (AZ) dealership reported no other issues with the vehicle. Upon inspection, the dealership reported the traction motor inverter needs replacement, and again there were no indications this was failing.

Vehicle would rapidly suffer from a high energy drain when driving at freeway speeds. Range was reduces from 150 miles EPA, to 80-100 miles. Nissan at first said it was due to the high temperature in Arizona. A few weeks later a "Service EV System" lamp came on, and car would not start the next day after charging overnight. Car stated it was at %80 state of charge at the time. Car was towed to a Nissan service center, and Nissan service determined that some battery modules had bloated battery cells due to overheating after a week of troubleshooting. High voltage battery was replaced under warranty 3 weeks later.

Hello NHTSA: I purchased a 2018 Nissan Leaf from Carvana on December 29, 2022. Within a short period of time the car experienced seat belt and air bag warning lights. The car was repaired under factory warranty by HGreg Nissan in Cutler Bay Florida but continued to display warning lights. The satellite communications system was not able to be repaired. This failure deactivated certain convenience and safety features. On March 16, 2023 a warning message and display indicated there was a high voltage battery malfunction and the car needed to be repaired by the dealer, On March 20, 2023 the car was taken to the dealer. The dealer informed me that the car was unsafe to drive and would not, nor did they ever, return the car to me [with the exception of a one-week test drive that did not correct the reported issues]. On August 3, 2023 Nissan North America declared in writing that the car was a Lemon under Florida law. Nissan refunded the purchase price of the car. Both Carvana and Nissan North America have refused to fully compensate me for certain incidental expenses including auto insurance [required to kept active until title transfer] and unused monthly prepaid Carvana maintenance costs. These fees were assessed from March 20, 2023 until August of 2023. During a discussion with Nissan North America their agent disclosed that they intended to wholesale this car. My immediate concern is that a Lemon-declared car should be disclosed if it is even allowed to be resold.

The contact owns a 2018 Nissan Leaf. The contact stated that while driving approximately 60-65 MPH uphill, the vehicle went into protective safe mode due to a faulty signal, and would no longer exceed 20-25 MPH. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, who informed the contact that it was a known failure that occurred in cold weather. The contact stated that the failure reoccurred several times. The vehicle was not diagnosed nor repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 38,225.

The PTC Heater and A/C compressor failed on my 2018 Nissan Leaf, just as the winter of 2022 was getting started. The vehicle passed prior service inspections, with no mention of issues on either of these components. The failure of the PTC heater and A/C compressor results in a "Service EV System" error message, and indication that the vehicle would not restart after powering off. When this error message appeared, the heating and defrost capabilities of the vehicle were lost. The fans would continue to blow air, but windows would fog up. I could not charge my vehicle in this error state either, so if I hadn't been close to home, I would've been in a potentially dangerous situation because it was cold out. The local Nissan dealership confirmed the error codes of P0AA6-1A (HV battery voltage system isolation) and P31E7 (restart inhibition) were present. They initially fixed this issue after nearly 5 months of the vehicle being in their shop. These codes, paired with the information I've read on the Internet, indicates others have had this issue before, and the normal repair involved replacing the traction battery (400v high-voltage battery), not these two components. The "Service EV System" came back less than 36 hours after paying for the repair. The 12v battery was also at a low voltage, which may have been related to the vehicle sitting for so long for service without being charged.

Around 45 degree weather, while driving on the freeway, my electric battery mileage started to fluctuate erratically (73% to 8% to 14% back to 70% and finally to 60%). It gave me low battery warnings two separate times. At the same time this happened, a warning light indicating the AEB had been turned off started flashing on my dashboard without any collision, jerky movements, sudden stops, or changes to settings. This is extremely concerning because of the car immediately brakes or if the battery dies on the freeway, it could cause a major collision.

2 incidents have occurred with this vehicle. The first earlier this year (2021) is that upon slowly accelerating to move closer to vehicle that moved up in a turn lane, the automatic emergency brake system engaged, abruptly stopped the vehicle and many lights lit up across the dashboard. The brakes then released and all lights on the dashboard disappeared. I was not close enough to the car ahead or at any rate of speed that should have caused this abrupt brake reaction. The 2nd incident and most dangerous happened on 8/13/21. I was slowly reversing out of a parking spot at a crowded location, when I saw a car behind my vehicle. I went to brake (not hard brake just regular), and the brakes did not work. I continued to slowly roll back towards the car behind me. I tried pressing the brakes repeatedly and it would not stop rolling backwards. I then pulled the emergency brake and the car came to a stop. No lights appeared on the dashboard. I turned the car off and powered it on again and slowly moved forward into the parking space and tried reversing again. The car was driving completely fine just after. I had a short trip home & didn't drive the rest of the evening. I didn't charge the car as there was still 85% left on the battery. The next morning, the car would not start and a message showing "Service EV System No Power" appeared on the dashboard with multiple lights lit. I called a tow truck to take it to the dealer and they found that the 12v battery was completely dead. Battery light not lit on dashboard prior to the complete outage. The dealer said it was the 12v battery that was likely the cause of these incidents and they replaced it. The brake issues could not be reproduced at the dealer after the new battery installed. Also note, that I just had the vehicle in for a multi-point inspection in June where nothing was found to be faulty. They did recommend a brake fluid exchange, so this was done as well as tire rotation.

THE CONTROL PANEL TOUCHSCREEN DISPLAY IN THE NISSAN LEAF (2018) HAS A DENIAL OF SERVICE VULNERABILITY THAT CAN BE USED TO LOCK UP THE SCREEN. ONCE LOCKED, THE TOUCH SCREEN CAN NO LONGER BE USED EVEN IF THE CAR IS TURNED OFF AND ON. THE ONLY WAY TO UNLOCK THE SCREEN IS BY REMOVING AND RE-INSERTING THE SD CARD CONTAINING THE MAPPING DATA. THIS SEEMS TO ARISE FROM THE SOS FUNCTIONALITY LOCKING THE TOUCHSCREEN AND NOT TURNING OFF WHEN THE CAR DOES. TO REPLICATE: 1. TURN ON THE CAR, VERIFY THAT NISSANCONNECT WITH SOS FUNCTIONALITY IS ENABLED BY CHECKING THAT THE LITTLE LIGHT ON THE SOS BUTTON IS LIT. 2. PRESS THE SOS BUTTON. 3. PRESS AND HOLD THE SOS BUTTON WHILE TURNING OFF THE CAR. 4. THE SOS CALL WILL LOCK THE SCREEN OF THE CAR, AND WILL STAY THAT WAY UNTIL THE SD CARD IS REMOVED AND RE-INSERTED. TRIED REPORTING THIS TO NISSAN, NO RESPONSE.

WHILE DRIVING THE VEHICLE, WITHOUT WARNING THE CAR STOPPED ITSELF SIMULATING A "SLAMMING ON THE BRAKES" AFFECT. THERE WAS NO WARNING, THE CAR JUST STOPPED. AFTER THE CAR STOPPED, AN ERROR APPEARED ON THE SCREEN SAYING "POWER SUPPLY FAILURE. TO AVOID ACCIDENT, SERIOUS INJURY OR DEATH DO NOT DRIVE. CONTACT DEALER FOR SERVICE." THE CAR STOPPING SUDDENLY IS VERY DANGEROUS, IF THERE WAS ANOTHER CAR BEHIND ME, OR IF I WAS ON THE FREEWAY, I WOULD HAVE GOTTEN REAR ENDED.