2018 Nissan Leaf

After four years of owning this vehicle purchased new, the passenger side seatbelt warning light came on the dash. It indicated the seatbelt was not buckled while no one was sitting in the passenger seat. When buckled the light went out. Brought it to the attention of Nissan, Service every year when they would clear the code and it would be good for a month or two, and the light would come back on like before. Last month on May 9, I brought the vehicle in again and asked for a thorough assessment. Nissan service said to make the light go out they would have to replace two passenger side occupancy sensors, totaling $1800 parts and labor. They did not have the parts on hand, I left with the vehicle only to find out that the intermittent seatbelt light that would go out when buckled, stayed on continuous now. Also noticed the illuminated airbag light stating the airbag was off. And that was also on at all times whether someone was in the passenger seat or not. When purchasing the vehicle new we also purchased a gold preferred extended warranty, that I believed would cover these parts. But Nissan, consumer affair said the the warranty will not cover those items. After a month of trying to get Nissan, service and consumer affairs to work with me, still no help. Searching online I found Nissan, has had numerous issues and even some recalls with occupancy sensors in the seats of many vehicles. It seems to be an ongoing issue with Nissan, regarding earlier model vehicles and newer models. Thank you for your time and your help.

On [XXX], I was slowly pulling into my driveway, took my foot off the accelerator and turned the steering wheel slightly to the right as the driveway is L shaped. Suddenly, the car sped up towards the garage door. I looked down quickly to see if I’d somehow pressed the accelerator by accident but I had not. I slammed on the brakes as hard as I could but the car kept going and smashed into the garage door and the corner of the garage, causing close to $20k in property damage. The hood and front bumper were badly caved in at the point of impact and pieces of the undercarriage were on the ground. The air smelled like rubber and there were tire marks on the driveway here I had slammed on the brakes. The airbags did not deploy. The Automatic Braking System did not work. There were no warning messages or lamps. The only unusual symptom that I noticed was that on my way home from Kona, when I was pulling up slowly to a traffic light, the car seemed to hesitate a couple of times, which seemed odd but not severe enough for me to be concerned about a wreck. That occurred about a half hour before the incident. I was not physically injured but I have been very shook up and depressed since the incident. If this had happened on the highway, I could have been killed and the car could have killed others on the road. I reported the collision to USAA immediately and, on their advice, I had it towed to Kona Nissan, the dealership where I purchased the vehicle and where I have had it serviced. The expectation was that they would perform diagnostics on the vehicle but they won’t touch it, nor will they talk to USAA. I had taken the car in when it was recalled for the VCM issues and I don’t believe it was fixed properly. Or the repair wasn’t effective. The car is at Gerber Body Shop in Kona, Hawaii. Please arrange inspection with them. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

After hard acceleration then releasing the accelerator pedal, the vehicle does not slow as expected and, at times, will actually continue to accelerate. The vehicle will slow as expected when the brake is applied, but will again gradually accelerate when the brake is released. If slowed to a stop, the vehicle may begin to accelerate once the brake is released. This issue does not occur after normal acceleration. The issue may be related to NHTSA Recall Number 23V-494, which repairs have not been addressed for the subject vehicle, although the issue occurs regardless of the state or change-of-state of the e-pedal switch or cruise control function, both of which are mentioned in that recall. This issue has occurred on multiple occasions in the time that I have owned the car (approx 13 months.) There is no correlation with weather conditions or initial or final speed. The only consistent variable is rate of acceleration.

The contact owns a 2018 Nissan Leaf. The contact stated that after his wife had parked in a parking garage, the vehicle was restarted and driven in 17-degree Fahrenheit weather when the vehicle lost motive power. The "Service EV System, No Power" message was displayed. The contact's wife pulled over and had the vehicle towed to the dealer. The contact stated that the battery had previously been replaced. The dealer determined that the failure was caused by a frozen battery. After the battery had thawed, the battery was able to be recharged. No repair was recommended. The contact related the failure to the variable voltage control system and the 12-Volt battery amp-hours (Ah). The manufacturer was made aware of the failure and a case was opened. The failure mileage was approximately 79,545.

Vehicle randomly shuts down when car is underload traveling at highway speed up an incline and with the climate on. Diagnostics are showing multiple cells that are bad in the main battery manufacturer is stating that it is normal wear and it is normal. I’ve only had the car for 300 miles. It was a previously owned car that was supposed to carry an eight year warranty on the drivetrain and battery. They are not honoring the warranty and the vehicle is dangerous to drive and in fact cannot be driven the situation occurred on three occasions where the vehicle just randomly shuts down on the freeway in the middle of the highway. This is a serious concern that will definitely cause injury or death. I attached photos of two occasions when the battery discharged almost immediately, and the one photo shows on the vehicle was completely disabled. I have more supportive photographs and computer printouts from diagnostics if requested..

The Power Distribution Module failed in my 2018 Nissan Leaf at 77k miles. It left me stranded with no way of getting home. The Power Distribution Module is supposed to last 10 years 100k miles but Nissan warranty only has is warranted to 60k miles. The dealership said the PDM only lasts around 70k miles however it is $5k to fix which is half of what the car is worth. They are unwilling to do a good faith repair because I didn’t service the car with their dealership even though I only serviced it at Nissan dealerships for the life of the car. This seems like really bad business to put a part in the car that the dealership knows will go bad at 70k miles but only warranty it up to 60k miles when it is a major electrical component to the vehicle and is over the half the value of the vehicle to fix. On top of the PDM there are other codes that the vehicle has that relate to the master brake cylinder but the dealership said they won’t know if there are more issues until I pay the 5 k to fix the PDM then they can assess if I have to pay another 5k to fix the other part. I drove the car very safely and treated it very well for the whole time I’ve had the vehicle. I’ve read of multiple other PDM issues with Nissan leaf and I’m curious how this part is not recalled?

I did not have an incident(accident), I noticed issues with my car, that seem to be prevalent with other Nissan Vehicles. This report is mostly proactive. I took the vehicle to the dealer for inspection and repair however was unable to come to a conclusion due to multiple inspection charges done by dealer but no fixes. Issue 1. Airbag Fault Warning Light on the dash. Turns on when I start the car, and stays. I took car to dealer and they have done a computer reset to reset the light (based on an internal Nissan bulletin on how to repair that issue, with mention in the repair notes that a lot of vehicles have that issue.) The reset didnt work and the light is back, now the dealer is saying that a whole sensor needs replacing as its prone to failure. Initial repair mentioned "code B00A0 stored for occupant detection system, but will not relearn." Zero Point Relearn will not complete. Referred to NTB19-071D... Ran the 75H Reset, code clears." Secondary repair: 'B00A0 Returned. Performed database search and found similar cases. Nissan recommends OSC and sensor replacement. Performed Bulletin again and error code is now 24H, not 75H. Zero point will not relearn. Started a case with Nissan and was advised to replace ...[OCS]... and strain sensors..." Issue 2: Loud clanking or grinding noise when turning vehicle left or right until wheel stops. Went to get this repaired and was told that dealer found bulletin 12-055J and will "need to replace axle nuts and apply Molykote." Paid for repair, and after picking up the car the sound is even worse, and upon bringing it back the dealer is saying that the noise is not due to past repair but vehicle will now need "Both front Strut mounts and bearings replaced." The sound is the same, and a cursory online search shows that this issue is prevalent across multiple vehicles. Also, recently when attempting a U-turn, the steering locked up momentarily when I was trying to straighten out the vehicle, with that noise (clunk sound)

Car was descending towards Kailua on the [XXX] on Oahu, HI. Dash lit up with warnings and acceleration and brake pedals stopped working. Brake pedal went to the floor with erratic pulsing sensation and very little brake power. Driver drove car into jersey wall to slow and stop vehicle. Battery state was 60% and battery was replaced under warranty about 1 year ago. While waiting for tow, powered on vehicle and symptoms remained as far as I could check. Brakes had no power and had to use ebrake to keep vehicle from rolling. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

I was traveling home from work at approximately 60MPH (speed limit) and I experienced a rapid drop in the state of charge from ~60% to ~25% in 15-20 seconds. I slowed the vehicle to 55MPH and it recovered most of the state of charge. When accelerating to 60MPH a few miles later I experience the same behavior and was forced to maintain 55MPH. I was forced to turn off the electric cabin heater, heated seats, and heated steering wheel as well. I have been able to recreate the issue if the battery is: cold (outside temperature less than 15F and the vehicle has been outside for 8+ hours), less than 60% charged, and put under high load (going up a steep grade/60MPH+) the vehicle will register a battery discharge rate of ~5%/second and continue until the vehicle puts itself into turtle mode, the load is reduced, or I assume, shut off. Battery discharge is "phantom" where the vehicle, when under less load (i.e. slower/slowing), will return to a higher charge, and when no load (i.e. stopped), will return to close to the original charge. Depending on how long the high load is maintained it can drastically reduce the real state of charge on the battery. The Nissan dealership identified it as at least one bad battery module, but no fault codes were registered by the vehicle outside of experiencing turtle mode. This issue forces the driver to slow down to reduce load on the vehicle and abrupt speed changes may be required to keep the vehicle operational. This can put the driver into a dangerous situation of being forced to slow down regardless of road conditions or other driver behaviors. If all of the conditions for the battery listed in the first sentence are met, the vehicle will register a rapid battery state of charge decline, it may indicate turtle mode is active (helps reduce battery load), and it will indicate low charge around 10% state of charge. I have personally experienced all of this as the driver, and any assumptions I have made I have identified.

The incident occurred at a stop sign where I was waiting behind one other vehicle. The vehicle ahead of me accelerated from the stop sign to turn into traffic, but abruptly slammed on their brakes. I had began accelerating up to the stop sign and was unable to stop before impacting the car in front of me. As soon as I saw the vehicle was braking, I immediately slammed on the brake pedal. Braking did not immediately occur. My wife said she was afraid that I had slammed the gas pedal because she could hear my foot hit the brake pedal and neither of us felt any braking. The Nissan Leaf was in Eco Mode and ePedal at the time of the incident. I believe that the transition from regenerative braking to mechanical braking delayed the stopping of my vehicle. We were lucky that this happened in a very low consequence situation, but if this happened with a pedestrian or at a higher speed where emergency braking is required, this delay in braking could be dire. In addition, this vehicle is equipped with automatic emergency braking. I have heard this feature go off before in this specific car when a car is braking faster than I am. In this case, the alarm and assisted braking did not go off, despite a car stopping within extremely close proximity.