2013 Nissan Leaf problems, complaints & recalls
Most-reported problem areas: Service Brakes (27) · Electrical System (8) · Air Bags (7)
🧭 Reliability snapshot
Compared against other Nissan Leaf model years — complaint volume vs the model's median year, recalls and severity. How we score →
🛣️ Complaints by mileage
60 NHTSA complaints that reported an odometer reading.
Safety recalls (5)
Equipment:other:owners/Service/Other Manual 2023-04-26 · campaign 23V296000 · 94,343 vehicles
Defect: 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.
Air Bags:sensor:occupant Classification 2016-04-26 · campaign 16V244000 · 3,296,947 vehicles
Defect: 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 incorrec
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 par
Service Brakes 2016-02-29 · campaign 16V119000 · 46,859 vehicles
Defect: 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.
Electrical System:software 2014-03-25 · campaign 14V138000 · 989,701 vehicles
Defect: 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.
Air Bags 2013-03-01 · campaign 13V069000 · 82,038 vehicles
Defect: 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.
Service bulletins (143)
Technical service bulletins are repair instructions manufacturers send dealers for known issues. Unlike recalls, the fix is not automatically free — but naming the bulletin at the service desk can save diagnosis time and support goodwill repairs.
Structure:body 2026-04-13 · NTB09-131C · Service Bulletin/Repair Instructions
certification label and vin plate replacement service information because of collision damage or other vehicle repair, a replacement “certification label” or “vin plate/label” may be needed. hint: certification label = fmvss (federal motor vehicle safety standards) label. these items may be availabl
Structure:body 2026-04-13 · NTB09-131C · Service Bulletin/Repair Instructions
certification label and vin plate replacement service information because of collision damage or other vehicle repair, a replacement “certification label” or “vin plate/label” may be needed. hint: certification label = fmvss (federal motor vehicle safety standards) label. these items may be availabl
Air Bags 2024-09-19 · NTB19-071D · Service Bulletin/Repair Instructions
dtc b00a0-00 stored this bulletin has been amended. see amendment history on the last page. please discard previous versions of this bulletin. if you confirm dtc b00a0-00 (occupant detection sensor unit) is stored, and ocs zero point reset cannot be performed, (continued on the next page)
Electrical System 2024-05-21 · NTB13-107G · Service Bulletin/Repair Instructions
vehicle key not detected / authenticated, engine will not start this bulletin has been amended. see amendment history on the last page. please discard previous versions of this bulletin.
Electrical System 2024-05-21 · NTB13-027D · Service Bulletin/Repair Instructions
can communication – network diagnostic flow chart this bulletin has been amended. see amendment history on the last page. please discard previous versions of this bulletin.
Electrical System 2024-05-21 · NTB10-066C · Service Bulletin/Repair Instructions
can communication codes – diagnostic tips and guidelines this bulletin has been amended. see amendment history on the last page. please discard previous versions of this bulletin.
Showing the 6 most recent of 143 bulletins. Search all of them free at nhtsa.gov.
What owners report
2025-01-13 · Service 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 t…”
2024-12-12 · Vehicle Speed Control · 💥 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"…”
2024-05-23 · Visibility:defroster/Defogger/Hvac System:engine Coolant Hoses And Fittings · 29,000 mi“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 no…”
2023-11-30 · Electrical 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 ca…”
2023-09-30 · Electrical 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, l…”
2023-07-02 · Air 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?…”
2023-05-23 · Service 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 s…”
2023-05-12 · 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…”
2023-04-24 · Air Bags“srs airbag light has been flashing for about a year. code reader shows b00a0 0009 code indicating a problem with the ocs / occupancy sensor. i believe this puts all passengers in the front seat at risk since the airbag may not operate in an accident. the car is available for inspection. it has not been inspected by the manufacturer or others.…”
2022-05-05 · Electrical System“due to a manufacturing issue certain 2011-2019 leaf vehicles' lithium-ion battery bonding plates may not meet nissan internal standards and may fail. unfortunately the recommended servicing facility does not service electric vehicles. the next nearest facility is beyond the range of the now degraded lithium ion battery. this makes it impossible t…”
Excerpts of consumer complaints filed with NHTSA, lightly truncated. They are owner statements, not verified findings.