general problems of the 2015 Nissan Leaf - part 2

Freezing brakes. Brakes would not work when applied in motion.

First signs of a problem was a yellow triangular warning sign on the dash when I was close to home, but no driving problems. Next time starting the vehicle at home (all electric vehicle) many lights lit up on the dash and the brake pedal almost went to the floor as it jerked and juddered down, and a loud warning sound was emitted which continued for quite after a while after vehicle was switched off. The car has been flaky ever since, with either a red or yellow warning sign lighting on the dash- or nothing at all. The most serious experience, however, was on September 15 (2020) when I started the vehicle in a parking lot (with my foot on the brake - you can't start without that) - I put the vehicle in reverse and the car started moving back even though I still had my foot firmly on the brake. I had to use a lot of extra force before the vehicle finally slowed down and stopped. Thankfully, there were no other vehicles of pedestrians behind me. In researching this problem online, I have found dozens of similar complaints - which is quite amazing considering so relatively few Nissan Leafs are on us roads.

When the car is powered on, the brakes do not engage; the car lunges forward or backward as if in gear, despite constant pressure on the brakes. The only way to stop the sudden movement is by throwing the car into park again. It first happened in 2017, was serviced by a local dealer, but started happening again in 2019. Contacted Nissan and they say there is no record of this being a problem and suggested I go to a different dealer - I will need to pay to have the car towed to the dealer as it is unsafe to drive.

On 20 Dec. 2019 driving ~25mph on city street, warning lights on dash lit up, regenerative brakes did not respond, brake pedal dropped to floor. Safely coasted to stop, hydraulic brakes worked at low speeds. After stop, brakes still did not work after vehicle restart. See attached dealer repair report.

Started the car to go to work and the brakes faulted. Abs, brake, tcs lights illuminated. Pedal goes to the floor and makes strange abs noises on dry pavement. Tires are properly inflated. Dealer wants $4600 to replace brake control unit and abs control unit. Car has 25k miles.

I have a Nissan Leaf 2015 s. I put my foot on the brake and put the car in reverse and my foot is still on the bake and the car moves backward anyway and there is no way to stop the car if someone is behind the car. This has happened more than six times now the last time was at publix and if someone was walking behind the car this would have been very bad. I am afraid to drive the car if this would have happen before opening the garage door I would have ran into the door. The car was parked each time this happen.

Upon startup, one of two things has occured. The first is that the car creeps forward even tho I have my foot on the break. Pressing harder did not seem to stop the motion. This happened in d (forward) and r (reverse) motion on 2 separate occasions. The second thing, related, was that upon vehicle startup, even with my foot on the break, the car did not recognize that I had my foot on the break and would not go into drive.

Urban streets, driving at 30-40mph as posted, at stops several times the vehicle felt as one would when skidding on gravel or ice, which caused me to hit the brake harder, then the car stopped in a jerky, fast way.

The brakes stopped working this morning when the temperature reached 0f. Pulling out of a parking spot on low speed I saw the "brake" and "abs" warning icon on the dashboard. When I tried to stop by pressing the brake pedal, the car wouldn't stop at all, when the pedal was pressed all the way, I could hear the abs engaging, but it still didn't work. I was only able to stop using the emergency brake. I did not observe any obvious blockage(snow or otherwise) on the brakes. Later in the day, the brakes started working again when I warmed up the car before operating. Because I was not sure of the cause of malfunction, I've sent the car to the dealer to be seen.

Whenever you brake and hit a bump or pothole the brakes disengage launching you forward causing a huge danger of hitting other cars, people or other objects.

I was driving fown the highway and the car in front of me stopped. I was going 45 mph. I was two car lengths behind him. I hit the brakes and the car wouldn't stop. I then slammed the brakes and the car slowed down, but I ended up rear ending him. It felt like my car was on ice, but the roads were clear. It was 29 degrees outside.

Has the recalls been taken care of yet.

My car was parked in the driveway of my house. I turned it on like I do normally and I then I see the red brake warning indicator lights and the abs warning indicator lights on the dashboard. I didn't think too much of it as I was rushing to get somewhere. My driveway is sloped down so when I put it on drive, I had to step on the brakes. I noticed it didn't work as I depressed it all the way down. Then I quickly used the emergency brakes since my car was slowly rolling down. My car is 3 years old, has about 35,000 miles and has never been in an accident. This was the first time this happened.

I was driving in somewhat heavy traffic in an urban setting at 25mph when, unexpectedly, I had great difficulty applying the brakes to stop at an intersection. It took considerable effort, including swerving, to avoid hitting the vehicle in front of me, and I pulled into a parking lot as soon as I was able, again having great trouble stopping. The loss of control of the brakes felt like I was skidding on snow or ice, despite the fact that it was a fairly warm August day. There was an accompanying loud, unpleasant sound coming from the brakes when I stomped on them. I had also noticed that a number of warning lights on the dash had come on all at the same time when the problem started. After coming to a complete stop in the parking lot, I turned the vehicle on and off many times, and each time, there was a low but clearly audible thrumming sound, plus a vibration I could feel in the brakes. The sound was particularly surprising to hear, given that the vehicle is otherwise an extremely quiet (100% electric) vehicle. After attempting to restart the vehicle about ten times, I decided to leave to wait for awhile before attempting to start it again. After about 20 min. , I started the vehicle without trouble and cautiously drove it home on largely empty side-streets.

When the 12-volt battery failed on my 2015 Nissan Leaf, the car would still turn on and would move forward without pushing on the accelerator. The brakes did not work either. This happened to me both in a grocery store parking lot at night and then the next morning on a residential street. Similarly, when it turned the car on in my driveway, I put it in reverse, and the car moved without me pushing on the accelerator and the brakes did not engage when I pushed on them. The car behaved this way 4 times, including once for the Nissan dealership service worker who had to pull the car forward in the line of cars waiting to be serviced. After Nissan replaced the 12-volt battery, the problem disappeared. Several Leaf owners have told me to report the problem, because it is a safety concern that the car can move but the brakes do not work when the 12-volt is failing. I called Nissan to notify them of this problem but did not get a response beyond a call from consumer repairs saying she would make a note of it.

I was stopped at a red light with my foot on the brake pedal and the car started to roll forward. I pressed hard on the brakes and noticed some strange noise as if the brake pedal was hitting something. The instrument display showed multiple warning signs like a skid symbol, brake in red font. Fortunately, the parking brake worked and I was glad I was stopped at the traffic light when this happened.

Brakes were not functional after starting the vehicle. The brakes pedal would depress without resistance to the floor. The car was able to be be placed in drive and attempting to use the brakes to stop was useless. Had to place car in park and hold e brake. Brake malfunction light was present. Issue occurred multiple times sporadically in both cool and warm weather over the last one week. Had prior brake recall addressed last year at dealership.

Much like other complaints here, just after starting the car and putting it into reverse from a parking spot, pressing the brake pedal did not slow the car down, even with the pedal fully depressed. Only after letting the brake up and pressing it again did it work. Fortunately I didn't hit anyone or anything and was able to get the brakes to work in time. The next time I went to start the car, the dashboard display kept telling me to press the brakes when pressing the start button no matter how much I was pressing the brakes. I could not get the car to start. Only after plugging the car in and returning to it an hour later did the car start.

This morning after dropping my kid at daycare, I was backing up my car in the parking lot. During backing up, I pressed the brake pedal but the car didn't slow down and kept moving. After a couple of seconds, it finally stopped. Fortunately there was no one in the parking lot. Nissan needs to investigate the brake issue. I have seen similar complaints but there is no recall to fix it.

Brake recall issue NHTSA campaign number: 16v119000 I have been to the dealership three times to get this fixed, but every time the dealership comes back and says that they could not reproduce it so it is fixed. But every time I park in the garage at my work place or park overnight outdoors, I run into this problem where the exclamation icon would light up and the brakes would malfunction where I have to press harder for the brakes to apply. The workaround I follow is - pressing and releasing brake pedal will make the exclamation icon turn off and the brakes would function normally. I have had atleast two instances where the car will start moving even with my foot on the brake. I was very close to running into another car two times! I live in austin TX and these incidents happened during summertime when the temperatures were above 70f.

I was driving down a busy street at approximately 25 mile per hour. I pressed the brake pedal to slow down for a stop light. The pedal went all the way to the floor and the car did not slow down. I tried to put the car into "b" mode to slow it down and that did not have any effect (normally it would slow the car down through regenerative braking). I then continued to drive the car slowly (15-20mph) for ~ 3 more minutes until I was in a safe place to pull off the road. I pressed the brake pedal again and it felt "normal" (pedal did not go all the way to the floor) and the brakes operated normally. I called Nissan customer service and they opened a case number, told me to either call roadside assistance, or if I feel comfortable, drive the car to a Leaf-certified dealership. This was a very dangerous situation that could have had a tragic ending. Since I did not (luckily) get into an accident, the Nissan representative did not seem too worried about it. I was extremely disappointed in her reaction. This is an incredibly serious safety-related issue that the company should investigate.

Upon backing out of my garage, I found that the brakes did not work. I was only able to stop the car by applying the parking brake. Note that I had the car serviced on 11/11/2015, and one of the service items was "p5327 - Leaf electric brke ntb15-089. . . . . . 7594 reprogram electrically-driven intelligent brake control unit. . . . . . Perform campaign p5327, ecm part #46007-3nf9b".

It was early morning of Nov 13 Friday around 5:30 am, I was about to leave the house to work. I backed up the car about 10-15 ft away from original parking position and stopped because I forgot something in the house. At that time my foot was still on break pedal however, as soon as I changed to drive mode, the car move forward quickly even though my foot was on the break pedal. I pressed harder on the pedal to stopped the car unfortunately, the car immediately hit the filing cabinet, shoe rack and penetrated the house wall. It was a terrifying experience for me. My husband arrived home couple of hours later. He assessed the car and came into conclusion that the break pedal is totally reaching the floor. We immediately notified our insurance company on the same day.

Lost power and coast to a stop and then started up over 12 times in a 2 day period new car had to turn rotors should have been replaced.

As I turned into a parallel parking spot and applied the brakes, the brakes went to the floor and the car never slowed. My car hit the parked car in front of me.

Whenever we come to a stop for a traffic light or a stop sign, and the speed of the car is < 3 miles , we noticed that when we apply brakes, they do not get applied immediately. There is a sudden surge in acceleration before the car comes to a complete stop. This is very noticeable especially when we apply brakes to slow the car before a traffic signal or stop sign and also in bumper to bumper traffic conditions. As a result, we tend to stop the car atleast couple of meters before the stop line or the car in front to buffer the acceleration by the car. Thank you.

The brakes did not respond as normal on a cold snowy day. The tires did not slide and it was not a hard braking situation. Multiple times throughout the day, the brakes were not engaging properly. The condition went away the next day; a warmer day. It happened again 2 weeks later and I can now recognize the problem and be cautious.

My 2015 Leaf s is 3 weeks old with less than 700 miles. I was descending an 8% grade hill in b mode with a sharp bend at the bottom. As I went to apply the brakes, the pedal went to the floor and b mode cut out. The car was now rolling down the hill and accelerating under gravity with no brakes and without b mode slowing the car. I was expecting to hit a brick wall at the bottom of the hill when suddenly, after no more than two seconds, the brakes and b mode came back on and I safely stopped. On reflection after the incident, it was as if the whole computer/electronics momentarily shut down and then rebooted. I didn't notice if the dash lights went off or not.