2015 Nissan Leaf Not Charging

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harry morris
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2015 Nissan Leaf Not Charging

Postby harry morris » Thu Jun 16, 2016 7:27 pm

Hello fellow leafers if that's what I may call US, I have a 2015 Nissan Leaf and it's stopped charging, let me tell you the full story.
I foolishly bought a second hand ( not working ) charging lead and BRICK as its affectionately known off eBay and set about dismantling the brick to try and see why this item was faulty, it was obvious that you could renew the cables coming in to the brick but there is No access to the underside of the cicuit board, so I used a dremel with a diamond cutter to cut away the underside cover and discovered that it was filled with rubber which was obviously to make the board waterproof, so a pile of junk is what I ended up with and the brick or what was left of it fitted nicely in the bin.
So that left me with the pistol connector and lead to the car and the 13 AMP plug, so I set about connecting all the wires minus the brick, I thought the brick is fine but only shows the lights basically, but then the 13 amp plug had two additional wires coming out of it both black in colour and showing NO electrical current ????? so a bit puzzled with that one, the normal L N E where fine, so the lead going to the car has L N E plus Ann additional BLUE wire ????? another mystery.
So I left the two black wires unconnected to anything and also the additional blue wire unconnected to anything, so with just the mains 240 volts going into the car I plugged it in and switched on NOTHING !!!! no blue lights on the dash etc so I gave up and left it still plugged in.
The following morning I disconnected the lead and plugged in my normal lead to charge the car as usual, but again NOTHING no lights and obviously NOT charging, so what have I done to the charging circuit, all the fuses are fine, disconnected the aux battery for ten minutes still nothing, so anyone got any ideas as to what's gone wrong ? I have obviously buggerd something up and I have to admit I am sunk when it comes to the Leafs circuits, couldn't find a wiring diagram anywhere, cheers LEAFERS HARRY MORRIS.

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timpootle
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Re: 2015 Nissan Leaf Not Charging

Postby timpootle » Wed Jun 22, 2016 4:22 am

What? Why??! Okay, let's go through this step by step.


harry morris wrote:Hello fellow leafers if that's what I may call US, I have a 2015 Nissan Leaf and it's stopped charging, let me tell you the full story.

Yes, do.
I foolishly bought a second hand ( not working ) charging lead and BRICK as its affectionately known off eBay and set about dismantling the brick to try and see why this item was faulty,
Nowt foolish about that. It would be interesting to have one to play with.

it was obvious that you could renew the cables coming in to the brick but there is No access to the underside of the cicuit board, so I used a dremel with a diamond cutter to cut away the underside cover and discovered that it was filled with rubber which was obviously to make the board waterproof, so a pile of junk is what I ended up with and the brick or what was left of it fitted nicely in the bin.
I think you could have kept going and stripped the rubber away to investigate further, but no matter.

So that left me with the pistol connector and lead to the car and the 13 AMP plug,
Yep, a J1772 plug and a 3-pin BS1363 plug

so I set about connecting all the wires minus the brick, I thought the brick is fine but only shows the lights basically,
WRONG!! If it was that simple, we wouldn't need a brick at all, and they wouldn't cost £300++

but then the 13 amp plug had two additional wires coming out of it both black in colour and showing NO electrical current ????? so a bit puzzled with that one,
Your black mystery wires are a temperature sensor which turns off the brick if the plug gets too hot. You remember how the old Berlingo used to cook wall plates.

the normal L N E where fine, so the lead going to the car has L N E plus Ann additional BLUE wire ????? another mystery.
So I left the two black wires unconnected to anything and also the additional blue wire unconnected to anything,
You should have 5 wires going to the car, 3 thick and 2 thin. One thin one is Pilot, the other is Control. The thick ones are L N E but which way around??

so with just the mains 240 volts going into the car I plugged it in and switched on NOTHING !!!! no blue lights on the dash etc so I gave up and left it still plugged in.
I think you are lucky not to have killed yourself by electrocution or burned your house down with a bodge like that.

The following morning I disconnected the lead and plugged in my normal lead to charge the car as usual, but again NOTHING no lights and obviously NOT charging, so what have I done to the charging circuit, all the fuses are fine, disconnected the aux battery for ten minutes still nothing, so anyone got any ideas as to what's gone wrong ? I have obviously buggerd something up and I have to admit I am sunk when it comes to the Leafs circuits, couldn't find a wiring diagram anywhere, cheers LEAFERS HARRY MORRIS.
Right, let's think what you actually did to the car:

IF you managed to get the L,N,E the right way round from the 3-pin plug to the J1772, but without any connection on PP or CP, what would happen? Usually the CP ensures the power pins are not live until the plug has mated, so you might have arc damage on the car socket. I don't know what other protection the car has for power pins being live unexpectedly.

If you got the L,N,E mixed up, what could go wrong then? It's AC, so I can't imagine any blown diodes, but if you put Live on the Earth pin there might be ELCBs on the car to protect it. Maybe these can be reset? If they exist, and you know where to find them.

Does your wall socket still work?

Running out of ideas now. Does the car still drive? Does it rapid charge on Chademo? I think you may be forced to take it to Nissan and admit to them what you did. If you're lucky they won't lock you up.
Tim Crumpton

harry morris
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Re: 2015 Nissan Leaf Not Charging

Postby harry morris » Wed Jun 22, 2016 7:53 am

Well thank you for the reply which was for the most part helpful, but as far as electrocuting myself or burning the house down ! how stupid do you think I am, oh I know I completely forgot to fit my house out with trips and fitted all socket outlets with trip protection, oh darn it I know, I forgot to leave all the wires completely bare and stand in my bare feet in a bucket of water while I got hold of the live and Earth wires with the power switched on, come on I asked for help NOT STUPID COMENTS LIKE THAT, cheers Harry Morris.

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skooler
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Re: 2015 Nissan Leaf Not Charging

Postby skooler » Sun Jun 26, 2016 5:22 pm

any chance the AC live or neutral could have been connected to the Pilot or proximity pins?

If it still wont charge I have a Gen2 3.3 and a gen2 6.6 charger here.
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willfromsussex
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Re: 2015 Nissan Leaf Not Charging

Postby willfromsussex » Tue Aug 02, 2016 6:31 pm

Seriously.... Darwin Awards. If you don't know what you are doing with mains electrics, don't touch them.
The brick contains all kinds of safety circuitry and a waveform generator to communicate with the car to tell it when to start the actual charger and at what current draw.

If you can afford a 2015 leaf, you can certainly afford to buy a proper charger for it. If you are lucky you can get Nissan to repair the car under warranty.. if they don't find out what you did.

However Once the car is working, best idea would be to reuse the car connector and connect it to a EVSE module + contactor etc in an enclosure. I have a Viridian EVSE module available for sale if interested. Then just add an enclosure, a contactor, some cables and you could build a cheap unit. But get it checked by an electrician before plugging it in please!!


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