Gen 2 AZE0 24 & 30 kWh Leaf service in Auckland

The car this page covers

Gen 2 is the AZE0 chassis, built 2013 to 2017, and it is the Leaf we see most of. It moved the range on in the ways that matter to an owner now: revised battery chemistry through the run, and a heat pump and a 6.6 kW charger on the higher grades. Two pack sizes share the same body: 24 kWh up to 2016, and 30 kWh from 2016 on. They age differently enough that we treat them as two different cars.

How we refer to the four Leafs:

• Gen 1 Leaf ZE0 24 kWh, 2011–2012
• Gen 2 Leaf AZE0 24 kWh & 30 kWh, 2013–2017 (this page)
• ZE1 40 kWh Leaf, 2017–2024
• ZE1 e+ 62 kWh Leaf, 2019–2024

If yours is the 2011 or 2012 car, that's the Gen 1 ZE0 page instead.

Where these batteries sit now

The AZE0 pack is air-cooled with no active thermal management, like every Leaf up to 2024, but the chemistry improved across the run. From the 2015 model year Nissan moved to a more heat-tolerant chemistry, and those cars have held up noticeably better than the early ones. In practice a 24 kWh AZE0 we see now is usually somewhere between 55 and 75% of original capacity, eight to ten bars, so a real-world 60 to 100 km rather than the 30 to 50 km a ZE0 manages.

The 30 kWh pack is the one with a reputation. Early 30 kWh cars lost bars faster than owners expected, and part of that was the battery management software reporting capacity wrongly rather than the cells actually being that bad. Nissan released a battery management update that corrected the reporting, and on a car that has never had it the bar display can be pessimistic. We can tell you which situation you are in, because a full read shows the cells and the software separately.

Bar count on its own isn't enough on either pack. We read the complete Enhanced Diagnostic Battery Report, SOH, then the individual cell-pair voltages, variances and cell resistance. A pack that's evenly worn behaves predictably, while one weak cell group causes sudden turtle-mode surprises even when the bar display still looks reasonable.

Faults we see on Gen 2 AZE0 Leafs

• 12V battery. Still the most common reason a Leaf suddenly does nothing, or lights the dash up with faults that have nothing to do with the real problem. It does no cranking, just constant small loads, and on an import it is often original or an unbranded replacement. First thing we test.
• Rear brakes seizing. Regen means the friction brakes barely get used, so the rear calipers and slide pins corrode and stick. Extremely common, and a WOF failure. Strip, clean and lubricate is the single most valuable job on an AZE0.
• Squeaky brakes? A common complaint for EV owners but normally easily sorted by our team. Book in for a disc skim and pad de-glaze.
• 30 kWh capacity reporting. Bars disappearing faster than the car's behaviour suggests, on a 30 kWh car, is worth reading properly before anyone talks about a new pack. Where the battery management update applies and hasn't been done, we can arrange it onsite while your car is with us. It does not add capacity; it makes the gauge tell the truth.
• Heat pump and heater. The heat pump was fitted to some grades and not others, and it is the difference between losing a little range in winter and losing a lot. Where a car has the resistive heater only, pre-heating on the charger is the fix. Where it has a heat pump, we check it is actually working, because a failed heat pump quietly falls back to the resistive element and the first thing you notice is the range.
• Air conditioning. Same system that does the heating on heat pump cars, so a weak aircon and a weak heater are often the same fault. Ten years of Auckland humidity on the condenser and the seals is enough on its own.
• Tyres and alignment. The pack sits low and in the middle, so the car weighs more than a petrol hatch its size, and the motor delivers everything from a standstill. Alignment out even slightly shows up as premature and uneven wear: one shoulder scrubbed off while the rest of the tread still looks fine. Imports arrive with alignment set for another country's roads, and Auckland kerbs and potholes do the rest. We check wear pattern, pressures and alignment at every service, because a wear pattern read early is a tyre saved rather than a set of tyres and a WOF fail.
• Strut tops. The front strut towers sit under the bonnet where road spray and rain collect, and on an ex-Japan car that has spent winters on salted and gritted roads this is one of the first places to show corrosion. Water sits around the top mount and bearing, the bearing dries out and rusts, and it announces itself as a knock over bumps, a creak or notchiness when the wheel is turned at low speed, and eventually a mount that has to be replaced rather than cleaned. Because it is a structural mounting point, heavy corrosion here is a WOF concern, not just a noise. Strut tops: we check, clean and treat and fit caps to cover so no more water ingress.
• CV joints, driveshafts and torn boots. Once the grease is out and the road grit is in, the joint is on borrowed time, so a boot caught early is a boot, and one caught late is a driveshaft. We replace either, and a split boot is a WOF failure.
• Brake fluid and booster. We see booster leaks on these cars as well as on the ZE0. It shows up as fluid loss, a change in pedal feel, or a warning on the dash. Being a brake fault it gets looked at straight away rather than left until the next WOF.
• Reduction gear oil. There is one gearbox and it does have oil in it. On an import it has very often never been changed. Recommended every 60,000 km. Unsure if yours has been done? Book in with the team today.
• Coolant. The charger and inverter loop has its own coolant with a service life. General workshops miss it because they are looking for engine coolant.
• Slow rapid charging. A hot, aged pack tapers hard on CHAdeMO, and back-to-back rapid charges on a summer day are slow going. That's the chemistry, not a fault, though it is worth checking the pack temperature reading rather than guessing.
• Japanese-market electronics. Japanese menus, navigation that no longer applies, and a telematics unit with nothing left to connect to. We convert the dash and instrument cluster to English and can add CarPlay.
• Charge port and lid. Weather on the port surround and the lid catch. Cheap to sort, annoying when it fails on a cold night.

What we check on a service

No oil change, no cambelt, no exhaust, a Leaf service is a different job from a petrol car. On an AZE0 we go through:

• Battery state of health, cell-pair balance and stored fault codes, with a printed report
• 12V battery condition and charging behaviour
• Brakes stripped, cleaned and lubricated, and pad and disc condition
• Reduction gear oil level and condition, and coolant condition
• Brake fluid condition, and the booster and lines checked for leaks
• CV boots, driveshafts and joints for splits, grease loss and play
• AC charging at 3.3 or 6.6 kW as fitted, and DC charging on CHAdeMO
• Heat pump or resistive heater output, air conditioning performance and HVAC codes
• Tyres, wear pattern, pressures and alignment
• Suspension, bushes and shock condition, and strut tops cleaned, treated and capped
• Cabin filter, wipers, lights and underbody inspection

A battery health check is included free with a full service.

WOF items these cars fail on

We're an MTA Assured and AA Approved workshop and do the WOF here, so anything we find gets quoted before we touch it.

• Rear brakes seized by regen, the number one item on an AZE0 WOF
• Headlights, hazed and clouded lenses are common at this age, and output drops with them
• Torn CV boots, an easy fail and a cheap fix if it is caught before the joint goes
• Tyre wear, instant torque and a heavy pack chew tyres, often unevenly
• Suspension wear, the extra weight shows up in bushes and shocks sooner than owners expect
• Corrosion at the strut tops and underbody, worth a proper look on any ex-Japan car
• A tired 12V battery, which throws warning lights that fail an inspection even when nothing else is wrong

More detail on the Nissan Leaf WOF page.

24 kWh, 30 kWh, or a bigger pack?

An AZE0 that still covers your daily run is a cheap car to own, and most do. Where the range no longer fits the life, a larger pack from a later Leaf can be fitted through our partnership with EVs Enhanced, which is a real alternative to changing cars. Which packs fit an AZE0 and what's involved depends on the car, so we start with a battery health check and a proper look over the body, brakes and suspension. If the rest of the car isn't worth the pack, we'll say so.

Frequently asked

How often should a Gen 2 AZE0 Leaf be serviced?

Recommended service intervals are 12 months or 15,000 km, whichever comes first. The brakes are the reason: leave them longer and seized calipers become a bill rather than a clean-up.

Is the 30 kWh pack worse than the 24 kWh?

It is not that simple. The 30 kWh gives more usable range and the later cars are on better chemistry, but the early 30 kWh cars earned a reputation for losing bars quickly, and some of that was the gauge rather than the cells. On a specific car the answer comes from the battery read, not the badge.

Does my AZE0 have a heat pump?

It depends on the grade, and imports arrive in a mix. We can confirm it from the car and, more usefully, confirm it is still working, because a failed heat pump falls back to the resistive heater and costs you range without a warning light.

My range dropped suddenly. Is the pack about to fail?

Usually not. A sharp drop is more often a cold snap, the heater, tyre pressures or a change in driving. Gradual bar loss is the pack; a sudden change is worth reading properly before you assume the worst.

Why do the tyres wear out so fast?

Weight and torque. The pack makes a Leaf heavier than a petrol car its size, and the motor delivers full torque from a standstill. Add alignment that is out, which is common on an import, and the wear goes uneven as well as quick. Alignment checked at service, and pressures kept where they should be, is the cheapest maintenance on the car and it buys back a little range too.

Can a Gen 2 AZE0 Leaf pass a WOF with a degraded pack?

Yes. Battery capacity is not a WOF item, so a tired pack does not fail an inspection. What fails these cars is seized rear brakes, tyres, suspension wear, lights and a 12V battery throwing warning lights.

Can a general workshop service a Leaf?

They can do the tyres, the brakes and the WOF. What they usually cannot do is read the pack properly, and there is no oil change to fall back on, so the jobs that actually matter, cell-pair balance, reduction gear oil, the charger and inverter coolant, HVAC and stored codes, tend to go unlooked at. That is the gap we fill.

Do you work on cars you didn't sell?

Yes. Most of the Leafs we service came from somewhere else.