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2013 Nissan Leaf problems & recalls

NHTSA has issued 5 recalls covering the 2013 Nissan Leaf and owners have filed 81 complaints. The most-reported area is service brakes (32 complaints). 1 complaint describes a fire and 11 complaints describe a crash.

Recalls
5
Complaints
81
Crash reports
11
Fire reports
1
Injuries
4

Recalls (5)

Apr 26, 2023#23V296000

Equipment › Other › Owners/service/other manual

Nissan North America, Inc. (Nissan) is recalling certain 2013-2017 LEAF vehicles. The Owner's Manual instructions for defroster operation are incorrect and may result in reduced defroster performance under specific conditions. As such, these vehicles fail to comply with the requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard number 103, "Windshield Defrosting and Defogging Systems."

Risk: Reduced defroster performance can limit visibility out of the windshield, increasing the risk of a crash.

Fix: Nissan will mail an addendum with updated instructions on how to operate the defroster, free of charge. Owner notification letters are expected to be mailed May 26, 2023. Owners may contact Nissan's customer service at 1-800-867-7669. Nissan's number for this recall is R23A1.

Apr 26, 2016#16V244000

Air bags › Sensor › Occupant classification

Nissan North America, Inc. (Nissan) is recalling certain model year 2016-2017 Nissan Maxima, 2013-2016 Nissan Altima, NV200, LEAF, Sentra, and Pathfinder, 2014-2016 Nissan NV200 Taxi, Infiniti QX60, QX60 Hybrid, and Q50 Hybrid, 2014-2017 Nissan Rogue and Infiniti Q50, 2015-2016 Nissan Murano, Murano Hybrid, and Chevrolet City Express, 2014-2015 Nissan Pathfinder Hybrid, and 2013 Infiniti JX35 vehicles. In these vehicles, the front seat passenger Occupant Classification System (OCS) may incorrectly classify an adult passenger as a child or classify the seat as empty despite it being occupied. As a result, the passenger frontal air bag may be turned off and not deploy in the event of a crash.

Risk: If the passenger frontal air bag does not deploy as intended in the event of a crash, the passenger is at an increased risk of injury.

Fix: Nissan will notify their owners. Chevrolet City Express owners will be notified by General Motors. Dealers will reprogram the Air Bag Control Unit (ACU) and OCS Electronic Control Unit (ECU) in Altima, Maxima, Murano, Rogue, and Sentra vehicles, and replace the OCS ECU in LEAF, NV200, NV200 Taxi, Pathfinder, Infiniti Q50, JX35, and QX60 and Chevrolet City Express vehicles, free of charge. Interim notices were sent to owners on May 31, 2016. Owners will receive a second notice when remedy parts become available. Owners may contact Nissan customer service at 1-800-867-7669, Infiniti customer service at 1-888-833-3216 or Chevrolet customer service at 1-800-222-1020.

Feb 29, 2016#16V119000

Service brakes

Nissan North America, Inc. (Nissan) is recalling certain model year 2013-2015 LEAF vehicles manufactured November 19, 2012, to July 31, 2015. During very cold temperatures, the relay inside the electronic brake booster may freeze, requiring the driver to exert more effort to slow the vehicle down.

Risk: If the brake relay fails, longer distances or additional brake effort would be required to stop the vehicle, increasing the risk of a crash.

Fix: Nissan will notify owners, and dealers will reprogram the Intelligent Brake Control Unit software, free of charge. The recall began on March 28, 2016. Owners may contact Nissan customer service at 1-800-647-7261.

Mar 25, 2014#14V138000

Electrical system › Software

Nissan North America, Inc. (Nissan) is recalling certain model year 2013-2014 Altima, LEAF, Pathfinder, and Sentra, model year 2013 NV200 (aka Taxi) and Infiniti JX35 and model year 2014 Infiniti Q50 and QX60 vehicles. In the affected vehicles, the occupant classification system (OCS) software may incorrectly classify the passenger seat as empty, when it is occupied by an adult.

Risk: If the OCS does not detect an adult occupant in the passenger seat, the passenger airbag would be deactivated. Failure of the passenger airbag to deploy during a crash (where deployment is warranted) could increase the risk of injury to the passenger.

Fix: Nissan will notify owners, and dealers will update the OCS software, free of charge. The recall began on April 14, 2014. Owners may contact Nissan at 1-800-647-7261.

Mar 1, 2013#13V069000

Air bags

Nissan is recalling certain model year 2013 Altima, LEAF, Pathfinder, Sentra, and Infiniti JX35 vehicles. Sensors within the passenger Occupant Detection System (ODS) may have been manufactured out of specification. This may cause the system to malfunction and permanently suppress the passenger airbag.

Risk: If the vehicle is involved in a crash necessitating airbag deployment and the passenger airbag is suppressed, there may be an increased risk of personal injury.

Fix: Nissan will notify owners, and dealers will inspect the ODS sensors and replace them as neccessary, free of charge. The recall began on May 6, 2013. Owners may contact Nissan Customer Service at 1-800-647-7261.

Owner complaints (81)

What owners reported to NHTSA, by component. One complaint can name several components.

  • Service brakes32
  • Electrical system18
  • Air bags17
  • Unknown or other10
  • Vehicle speed control5
  • Seat belts4
  • Visibility/wiper4
  • Fuel/propulsion system4
  • Wheels4
  • Steering4
  • Electronic stability control (esc)3
  • Power train3

Complaints over time

May 2013: 1 complaintJun 2013: 3 complaintsJul 2013: 1 complaintAug 2013: 2 complaintsSep 2013: 3 complaintsOct 2013: 1 complaintNov 2013: 0 complaintsDec 2013: 0 complaintsJan 2014: 1 complaintFeb 2014: 0 complaintsMar 2014: 1 complaintApr 2014: 0 complaintsMay 2014: 3 complaintsJun 2014: 2 complaintsJul 2014: 2 complaintsAug 2014: 1 complaintSep 2014: 0 complaintsOct 2014: 1 complaintNov 2014: 1 complaintDec 2014: 1 complaintJan 2015: 0 complaintsFeb 2015: 1 complaintMar 2015: 1 complaintApr 2015: 2 complaintsMay 2015: 1 complaintJun 2015: 0 complaintsJul 2015: 1 complaintAug 2015: 1 complaintSep 2015: 0 complaintsOct 2015: 0 complaintsNov 2015: 1 complaintDec 2015: 0 complaintsJan 2016: 0 complaintsFeb 2016: 0 complaintsMar 2016: 0 complaintsApr 2016: 0 complaintsMay 2016: 0 complaintsJun 2016: 0 complaintsJul 2016: 0 complaintsAug 2016: 3 complaintsSep 2016: 1 complaintOct 2016: 1 complaintNov 2016: 0 complaintsDec 2016: 1 complaintJan 2017: 1 complaintFeb 2017: 0 complaintsMar 2017: 0 complaintsApr 2017: 1 complaintMay 2017: 1 complaintJun 2017: 0 complaintsJul 2017: 1 complaintAug 2017: 0 complaintsSep 2017: 1 complaintOct 2017: 0 complaintsNov 2017: 3 complaintsDec 2017: 0 complaintsJan 2018: 1 complaintFeb 2018: 2 complaintsMar 2018: 1 complaintApr 2018: 1 complaintMay 2018: 1 complaintJun 2018: 0 complaintsJul 2018: 0 complaintsAug 2018: 0 complaintsSep 2018: 0 complaintsOct 2018: 1 complaintNov 2018: 1 complaintDec 2018: 1 complaintJan 2019: 0 complaintsFeb 2019: 3 complaintsMar 2019: 1 complaintApr 2019: 1 complaintMay 2019: 0 complaintsJun 2019: 1 complaintJul 2019: 3 complaintsAug 2019: 0 complaintsSep 2019: 3 complaintsOct 2019: 1 complaintNov 2019: 0 complaintsDec 2019: 1 complaintJan 2020: 0 complaintsFeb 2020: 0 complaintsMar 2020: 0 complaintsApr 2020: 0 complaintsMay 2020: 0 complaintsJun 2020: 0 complaintsJul 2020: 0 complaintsAug 2020: 1 complaintSep 2020: 1 complaintOct 2020: 0 complaintsNov 2020: 0 complaintsDec 2020: 0 complaintsJan 2021: 0 complaintsFeb 2021: 0 complaintsMar 2021: 0 complaintsApr 2021: 0 complaintsMay 2021: 0 complaintsJun 2021: 0 complaintsJul 2021: 0 complaintsAug 2021: 0 complaintsSep 2021: 0 complaintsOct 2021: 0 complaintsNov 2021: 0 complaintsDec 2021: 0 complaintsJan 2022: 0 complaintsFeb 2022: 0 complaintsMar 2022: 0 complaintsApr 2022: 0 complaintsMay 2022: 1 complaintJun 2022: 0 complaintsJul 2022: 0 complaintsAug 2022: 0 complaintsSep 2022: 0 complaintsOct 2022: 0 complaintsNov 2022: 0 complaintsDec 2022: 0 complaintsJan 2023: 0 complaintsFeb 2023: 0 complaintsMar 2023: 0 complaintsApr 2023: 1 complaintMay 2023: 2 complaintsJun 2023: 0 complaintsJul 2023: 1 complaintAug 2023: 0 complaintsSep 2023: 1 complaintOct 2023: 0 complaintsNov 2023: 1 complaintDec 2023: 0 complaintsJan 2024: 0 complaintsFeb 2024: 0 complaintsMar 2024: 0 complaintsApr 2024: 0 complaintsMay 2024: 1 complaintJun 2024: 0 complaintsJul 2024: 0 complaintsAug 2024: 0 complaintsSep 2024: 0 complaintsOct 2024: 0 complaintsNov 2024: 0 complaintsDec 2024: 1 complaintJan 2025: 1 complaint201420162018202020222024
Complaints filed per month. Peak: 3 in Jun 2013. Hover a bar for its count.
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Recent owner reports

Jan 13, 2025Service brakes

On 3 occasions the brakes have randomly failed when traveling. In 2 cases, stopping ability was non-existent except for the use of the parking brake. In the other case, stopping was significantly decreased. 13-Jan-2025, when traveling straight on a 40mph road towards a busy intersection, when the brakes were applied to slow to the intersection they failed and a red indicator light came on. Stopping ability was significantly reduced, but not completely gone. The car was able to safely divert into a parking lot without incident. When the car was powered off then on, the error went away and…

Dec 12, 2024Vehicle speed control, Unknown or other, Service brakes⚠ Crash

I put the car in park as I was pulling in without turning it off to grab trash from the curb and take it to the car, but the car keep accelerating. I jumped in and slammed on the bricks but it hit the brick wall to the house. I see more recent years were recalled for "unintended acceleration" and "brake issues"

May 23, 2024Visibility

The contact owns a 2013 Nissan Leaf. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, there was a whistling sound coming from the engine compartment. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic where the failure was unofficially diagnosed as a failed air condition hose or a failed air condition line connector. The vehicle was not repaired. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, however, the contact declined to pay the diagnostic fee. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The contact was advised to have the vehicle diagnosed by the dealer. The failure mileage was app…

Nov 30, 2023Electrical system

The car suddenly lost power during freeway driving. The brake system appeared compromised. Turning off 12v accessories - which includes safety critical functions such as the defrost blower - was necessary to restore functionality. This is caused by a defective DC-DC converter that fails to properly charge the 12V battery, risking and repeatedly causing sudden loss power, loss of braking, and loss of safety critical functions. This is not the result of damage to the DC-DC converter or other such damage. This is proven by the fact that activation of the wipers triggers the DC-DC converter to t…

Sep 30, 2023Electrical system

The Nissan Leaf has a 6,600 watt charger that is attached to the top of the 26,000 watt electrical motor. A 30 Amp Nissan charging cord connects the 220 volt electrical outlet (dryer) to the Leaf via a Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) J1772 Plug. Unknown to me a desert rat had chewed the insulation down to the wires of the charging cord, leaving the wires bare. The desert rat was not electrocuted because the onboard charger safety system in the vehicle turns off the 220 volts AC before it reaches the car using the control box that is part of the the charging cable. But when I plugged…

Jul 2, 2023Air bags

Warning light is flashing and the airbag warning light is flashing. I took it to the dealership and they tell me this is not covered under a recall notice but I have hear other Nissan Leafs do have a recall notice for airbags. It is expensive to fix. Is there a mistake and it is covered under a recall notice?

May 23, 2023Service brakes

I was driving and wanted to slow the vehicle to turn on a side street. I pressed the brake and nothing happened. The vehicle did not slow down at all. I pushed harder, still nothing. The brakes completely failed to work. Due to this brake failure, I was unable to make the turn I wanted to make because I was going too fast. I continued going straight, and because the road was slightly uphill, the vehicle eventually stopped and I was able to ease off the road when the vehicle had slowed sufficiently. Fortunately, there were no injuries or accidents. After the vehicle had stopped I looked…

May 12, 2023Air bags, Seat belts

The left curtain and driver seat airbags were spontaneously deployed while driving. The driver seatbelt pre-tensioner was engaged and locked. There was no collision or abrupt motion. My wife sustained minor abrasions to her left arm and swerved to the right shoulder of the road. The car would not shift into drive and was towed. The cause is unknown and without warning.

Nissan Leaf news

Source: U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recall and complaint records, updated Oct 1, 2026. Complaints are owner reports and are not verified by NHTSA. Check your VIN at nhtsa.gov/recalls.