Engine And Engine Cooling Related Problems of the 2011 Nissan Leaf

Table 1 shows two common engine and engine cooling related problems of the 2011 Nissan Leaf.

Table 1. Engine And Engine Cooling related problems of Nissan Leaf

Problem Category Number of Problems
Engine Cooling System problems
1
Engine And Engine Cooling problems
1

Engine Cooling System problem #1

The problem is the battery, we where told by Nissan that there would be a slow loss of capacity and up to 20% loss at 5 years. This is only in hot climates like arizona, TX and CA. The car should have had a battery cooling system. Now after pay $40,000 for the car in the first year my driving range is down so much in my second year the car will be worthless to drive or sell.

Engine And Engine Cooling problem #2

About a month and a half ago, I purchased a 2011 Nissan Leaf from my local dealer. Everything was going great until about a month ago when I was driving on the highway around 20 mph or so when the power suddenly shut off. The entire dashboard instantly went off but the radio+touchscreen remained on. The car came to a crawl and I was able to pull over and restart without any problems. It was a little scary to say the least. I called the dealership where I bought the car from and left a voice mail for the service dept. Since it was Saturday but never received a call back. I kind of shrugged it off that day thinking it might have just been a quirk so I didn't follow up with the dealer. About a week and a half ago, I was pulling into a parking lot going around 10 mph and the same thing happened. I called the dealership and took it in the next day. They've had the car for about a week and said that Nissan told them to drive it and try reproducing the problem. I didn't expect them to reproduce it since it has only happened twice within weeks. As expected, they couldn't reproduce it so I was told that I would have to take the car back since they couldn't do anything about it. I am taking the Leaf back tomorrow to start driving again but definitely have concerns since my wife also drives the car and who knows what she would do in a shut-off while driving situation. Luckily, the past two incidents were not in high speeds and I was able to react quickly. My worst nightmare would be if we got rear ended due to instantly losing power. I have called Nissan directly to let them know about my car but no one has called me back. I assume they were already in touch with the dealer. I don't like the fact that I am being handed the car back at a potential safety risk.


Engine And Engine Cooling related problems in other Nissan Leaf model year vehicles:



Safety Ratings of Leaf Cars
Fuel Economy of Leaf Vehicles
Leaf Service Bulletins
Leaf Defect Investigations