Charging faults: slow, failing, or refusing

If your Leaf has started charging slowly, failing rapid-charge sessions, or throwing charging warnings, we can find out why. Common causes:

• Rapidgate, the car deliberately slows CHAdeMO charging when the battery is hot or has been rapid-charged repeatedly. Normal behaviour, but we'll confirm that's all it is.
• Failed or dirty CHAdeMO / Type 2 charge port pins and locking pins
• PDM (power delivery module) and on-board charger faults, often the real cause of "won't AC charge"
• Home charging problems, portable EVSE, cable and RCD issues

Rapidgate is the pack protecting itself from heat, because there is no active cooling to shed it. It is not a fault, but a genuinely unbalanced pack behaves the same way and needs a different answer, so we read pack temperatures, cell balance and the charge log rather than assuming. Charge behaviour gets checked hot as well as cold, which is the only way to tell the two apart.

The charge port and lid are worth a look too. Weather on the port surround and the lid catch is cheap to sort, and annoying when it fails on a cold night.

Frequently asked

Is rapidgate a fault?

No. It is the pack protecting itself from heat, because there is no active cooling to shed it. Worth confirming your car behaves the way a healthy one should, since an unbalanced pack looks the same from the driver's seat.

My Leaf will not charge at home, what is it?

Often a PDM or on-board charger fault rather than the cable or the wall. We test the car, the EVSE and the charge port before pointing at any of them.

Can you check charging without a rapid charger on site?

We check AC charging and DC charging behaviour, hot as well as cold, and read the charge log and pack temperatures alongside it.

Related

• Battery health check
• Diagnostics & fault-finding
• Battery upgrades & firmware
• 12V battery