2018 Nissan Leaf Problems

On 1/6/2026, as I slowed down as I was turning into my parking lot. I had Eco and e-pedal ON for regenerative braking. As I was turning into the parking lot, the car suddenly accelerated, went over the curb, across the street, over another curb before finally stopping after colliding with a structure. I was driving slowly and distinctively recall braking. This sudden unintended acceleration put safety at risk and caused significant property damage. There were no warning signs or messages. The car is in the yard now and will be available for inspection.

I was traveling north on Freeway 57 at approximately 70mph. The dash lit up red with 12v and charging warnings. Power was shut off and car went into Neutral and warned me to pull over. This is an incredibly busy freeway and I was in the far left lane. I barely made it to the shoulder coasting before car started shuttering and jerking and stopped rolling. I could have been killed.

My High Voltage battery failed on my car at ~50k miles in 2022. Nissan replaced the battery under warranty. It has failed again now at 110k miles and is way worse than the previous failure. The car will abruptly shut down under load on hills or high speeds on the highway and I will get a P33ED battery fault code. Nissan customer service told me they would offer assistance and after 2 months of waiting on them to find the part number for the battery, they now informed me they won't help. After doing some research, there is a recall out for 2019-2022 Nissan leafs with possible fire related issues because of the batteries and the P33ED code that i am getting is directly related to this recall. I believe I have a recalled battery in my vehicle but Nissan won't offer any assistance because my VIN isn't necessarily recalled. I feel unsafe to charge or operate this car, especially under any type of speed or load and Nissan is offering no assistance in repairing the vehicle or even verifying the battery manufacturer date.

I purchased this EV in 2021 with ~30k miles on it. On cold days ~20 degrees, the battery would drop rapidly under a load (going uphill, high speeds, etc) It would continue to drop until you were not under load anymore. The dealer said nothing was wrong until I had my family in the vehicle and it totally shut down on the highway going 70 mph and i lost all brakes, steering, etc. They finally took me seriously and put a new battery in at ~55k miles in 2022. I continued to have similar issues in the winter on really cold days, but not nearly as bad so i lived with it. At about 100k miles, it started doing a very similar issue, but way worse, and at any temperature. It got so bad i couldn't drive without the battery always being fully charged. Took it to the first dealer who said nothing is wrong with it even though i had videos of it happening. I then called nissan corporate and opened up a case and asked them directly "before i take it to another dealer for a second opinion, is this something that you can offer financial assistance with" and that lady said "yes, we can offer assistance for sure". I took it to another dealer who did some tests and confirmed it needed a battery. Shortly after that, the car now shuts down under even a slight load. A small backroad hill will shut it down and I get an error code P33ED now. This code is related to a battery recall on 2019- 2022 models that can cause a battery fire! After almost 2 months of nissan saying they didn't have the part available, they just informed me they won't offer any assistance because im out of warranty! Not only did i have the battery replaced once, but it has already failed a second time, and they installed a battery that is now recalled but wont honor the recall because my vin is a 2018. I am beyond frustrated with their lack of care about my families safety since this could catch fire! I am hoping to reach out to you for some additional guidance on this situation. Thank you.

vehicle brakes went out on the driver during normal operation.

vehicle was being driven like normal with no warning lights or icons. vehicle was bring driven at 35 miles an hour when suddenly the ABS fault message appeared on the dash, the dash started beeping and brakes became very hard to press.

My High Voltage battery failed on my car at ~50k miles in 2022. Nissan replaced the battery under warranty. It has failed again now at 110k miles and is way worse than the previous failure. The car will abruptly shut down under load on hills or high speeds on the highway and I will get a P33ED battery fault code. Nissan customer service told me they would offer assistance and after 2 months of waiting on them to find the part number for the battery, they now informed me they won't help. After doing some research, there is a recall out for 2019-2022 Nissan leafs with possible fire related issues because of the batteries and the P33ED code that i am getting is directly related to this recall. I believe I have a recalled battery in my vehicle but Nissan won't offer any assistance because my VIN isn't necessarily recalled. I feel unsafe to charge or operate this car, especially under any type of speed or load and Nissan is offering no assistance in repairing the vehicle or even verifying the battery manufacturer date.

I purchased this EV in 2021 with ~30k miles on it. On cold days ~20 degrees, the battery would drop rapidly under a load (going uphill, high speeds, etc) It would continue to drop until you were not under load anymore. The dealer said nothing was wrong until I had my family in the vehicle and it totally shut down on the highway going 70 mph and i lost all brakes, steering, etc. They finally took me seriously and put a new battery in at ~55k miles in 2022. I continued to have similar issues in the winter on really cold days, but not nearly as bad so i lived with it. At about 100k miles, it started doing a very similar issue, but way worse, and at any temperature. It got so bad i couldn't drive without the battery always being fully charged. Took it to the first dealer who said nothing is wrong with it even though i had videos of it happening. I then called nissan corporate and opened up a case and asked them directly "before i take it to another dealer for a second opinion, is this something that you can offer financial assistance with" and that lady said "yes, we can offer assistance for sure". I took it to another dealer who did some tests and confirmed it needed a battery. Shortly after that, the car now shuts down under even a slight load. A small backroad hill will shut it down and I get an error code P33ED now. This code is related to a battery recall on 2019- 2022 models that can cause a battery fire! After almost 2 months of nissan saying they didn't have the part available, they just informed me they won't offer any assistance because im out of warranty! Not only did i have the battery replaced once, but it has already failed a second time, and they installed a battery that is now recalled but wont honor the recall because my vin is a 2018. I am beyond frustrated with their lack of care about my families safety since this could catch fire! I am hoping to reach out to you for some additional guidance on this situation. Thank you.

I purchased this EV in 2021 with ~30k miles on it. On cold days ~20 degrees, the battery would drop rapidly under a load (going uphill, high speeds, etc) It would continue to drop until you were not under load anymore. The dealer said nothing was wrong until I had my family in the vehicle and it totally shut down on the highway going 70 mph and i lost all brakes, steering, etc. They finally took me seriously and put a new battery in at ~55k miles in 2022. I continued to have similar issues in the winter on really cold days, but not nearly as bad so i lived with it. At about 100k miles, it started doing a very similar issue, but way worse, and at any temperature. It got so bad i couldn't drive without the battery always being fully charged. Took it to the first dealer who said nothing is wrong with it even though i had videos of it happening. I then called nissan corporate and opened up a case and asked them directly "before i take it to another dealer for a second opinion, is this something that you can offer financial assistance with" and that lady said "yes, we can offer assistance for sure". I took it to another dealer who did some tests and confirmed it needed a battery. Shortly after that, the car now shuts down under even a slight load. A small backroad hill will shut it down and I get an error code P33ED now. This code is related to a battery recall on 2019- 2022 models that can cause a battery fire! After almost 2 months of nissan saying they didn't have the part available, they just informed me they won't offer any assistance because im out of warranty! Not only did i have the battery replaced once, but it has already failed a second time, and they installed a battery that is now recalled but wont honor the recall because my vin is a 2018. I am beyond frustrated with their lack of care about my families safety since this could catch fire! I am hoping to reach out to you for some additional guidance on this situation. Thank you.

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.

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.

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)

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)

Plastic/metal from steering wheel become dislodged/detached/warped, caused major laceration to my right ring finger when making left turn 5/6/23 4PM. Went to urgent care as a result, had to get tetanus shot.

Vehicle failed inspection due to a rusted out front subframe which seems premature for a 7 year old vehicle with 27,599 miles on it. According to local mechanic, they've seen this issue with many Nissan Leaf models. This is a critical piece of the vehicle hence it failing inspection due to rust. The vehicle has not (yet) been inspected by the local dealership to confirm the issue and there were no warning symptoms prior to it failing inspection.

I HAD INITIATED A CLAIM SOMETIME LAST YEAR ABOUT THE B PILLAR PLASTIC DOOR TRIM POSSIBLY BEING DAMAGED FROM THE SUN'S REFLECTION. NISSAN USA REFERRED ME TO THE LOCAL DEALERSHIP SINCE THEY CANNOT HELP ME. THEY SAID THAT IT'S NOT A DEFECT AND WE WOULD HAVE TO PAY FOR ANY DAMAGES THAT NEEDED TO BE REPAIRED (ABOUT $1000). I DON'T AGREE WITH THIS AS IT'S NOT AN UNCOMMON ISSUE FOR DOOR TRIMS TO MELT JUST LIKE IF THE HEAT FROM A HEAT GUN WAS APPLIED TO IT. THERE ARE QUITE A FEW PHOTOS ONLINE AND NOT JUST NISSAN. I HAVE NO CONTROL OVER WHERE THE SUN REFLECTS OR THE BUILDINGS THAT REFLECT THE SUN'S RAYS. I DON'T BELIEVE THAT I SHOULD BE HELD LIABLE FOR THIS, THE VEHICLE WAS USED AS INTENDED, AND THERE ARE NO INSTRUCTIONS ON THE MANUAL REGARDING THIS. THE CAR IS MELTING FROM THE SUN.

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..

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.

Fail component: mechanical linkage (transmission rod) between the motor and the wiper arms. The ball pops out of the socket resulting in the wipers not working despite motor running. This happened with full speed wipers running. I repaired it, and two weeks later it disconnected again while running wipers at full speed in heavy rain. This left me without windshield wipers in heavy rain on a road with a 55mph speed limit. If I had not been able to quickly exit this would have resulted in significant risk to myself and other motorists. I was able to drive home on slower side roads, but the lack of wipers remained a safety issue. I have not taken in into a dealer or shop to have it reproduced. I will take photos while fixing. No incident or police reports were filed. There were no warning lights or alarms before or after this occurred. It seems this is a known issue that is common to Nissan vehicles including the leaf.

The front windshield wipers on this car fail in light ice or snow. They've broken every winter I've owned this car (four years). This results in me driving around without front windshield wipers until I can get it fixed, watching the weather forecast and hoping I don't get caught in rain or snow. It happens despite my best efforts not to use the wipers in freezing weather unless absolutely necessary, going so far as to drive in light snow or rain without wipers to avoid breaking them. I've fixed it myself (not easy, especially in winter weather) and paid a mechanic to fix it for me at least three times. Most recently, the mechanic replaced the entire motor and linkage assembly which was extra expensive, but the right wiper broke again this Thanksgiving. (Until this last time, both wipers have always broken together.)

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.

Front passenger seat occupancy sensor has failed resulting in an illuminated seat belt warning even when the front passenger seat is unoccupied. Workaround is either to clip the seatbelt in all the time or put a black piece of tape over the warning light. Either workaround degrades safety as the intended operation of the warning light is bypassed.

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)

GROOVED ROAD SURFACE IN COMBINATION WITH SPECIFIC VEHICLES GIVE DRIVERS THE FEELING OF LOSING CONTROL OF THEIR VEHICLES AT FREEWAY SPEEDS. SPECIFICALLY, THE GROOVED SURFACE OF WASHINGTON STATE ROUTE 520 EVERGREEN POINT FLOATING BRIDGE (REGULAR SPEED OF 60 MPH) IN COMBINATION WITH CURRENT MODEL NISSAN LEAF, ARE LEADING TO SIGNIFICANT "GROOVE WANDER" WITH HEAVY SHAKING TO THE LEFT AND RIGHT. THE RAPID ONSET OF SUCH SHAKING UPON DRIVING ONTO THE BRIDGE AT 60 MPH IS GIVING DRIVERS A FEELING OF LOSING CONTROL OF THEIR VEHICLES. THIS EFFECT DOES NOT GET BETTER EVEN WHEN REDUCING SPEED TO 40 MPH.THIS HAS BEEN GOING ON EVER SINCE THE NEW BRIDGE WAS OPENED OVER A YEAR AGO, AND IS MUCH WORSE THAN THE SIDE WINDS EXPERIENCED ON THE PREVIOUS BRIDGE. NISSAN DENIES BEING AWARE OF THIS ISSUE. AT MY WORKPLACE, MULTIPLE DRIVERS HAVE REPORTED THIS EFFECT, WHICH ALSO OCCURS ON A PAVEMENT TEST SEGMENT BETWEEN REDMOND WA AND WOODINVILLE WA (AVONDALE RD).