2018 Nissan Leaf problems, complaints & recalls
Most-reported problem areas: Service Brakes (16) · Vehicle Speed Control (11) · Fuel/Propulsion System (9)
🧭 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
24 NHTSA complaints that reported an odometer reading.
Safety recalls (4)
Back Over Prevention: Sensing System: Camera 2024-02-02 · campaign 24V071000 · 57,914 vehicles
Defect: Nissan North America, Inc. (Nissan) is recalling certain 2018-2022 LEAF vehicles. Damage to the camera harness can cause distortion or loss of the rearview camera display image. As such, these vehicles fail to comply with the requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard number 111, "Rear Visibility."
Risk: A rearview camera that does not properly display an image can reduce the driver's rear view, increasing the risk of a crash.
Fix: Dealers will inspect the rearview camera and harness for damage and replace them as necessary. If no damage is found, the dealer will apply protective tape and reroute the rearview camera harness. Repairs will be performed free of charge. Owner notification letters were mailed August 9, 2024. Owners may contact Nissan customer service at 1-800-867-7669. Nissan's number for this recall is R23D7.
Vehicle Speed Control 2023-07-17 · campaign 23V494000 · 66,159 vehicles
Defect: Nissan North America, Inc. (Nissan) is recalling certain 2018-2023 LEAF vehicles. The vehicle may accelerate unintentionally if the driving mode is changed ("D" to "B"; e-Pedal "On"; or "ECO" mode) after disengaging the cruise control.
Risk: Unintentional acceleration can increase the risk of a crash.
Fix: Dealers will reprogram the vehicle control module (VCM), free of charge. Owner notification letters are expected to be mailed August 30, 2023. Owners may contact Nissan's customer service at 1-800-867-7669. Nissan's number for this recall is R23A6.
Equipment:other:owners/Service/Other Manual 2023-02-02 · campaign 23V048000 · 64,732 vehicles
Defect: Nissan North America, Inc. (Nissan) is recalling certain 2018-2023 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 April 1, 2023. Owners may contact Nissan's customer service at 1-800-867-7669. Nissan's number for this recall is R22C5.
Back Over Prevention: Sensing System: Camera 2019-09-12 · campaign 19V654000 · 1,228,830 vehicles
Defect: Nissan North America, Inc. (Nissan) is recalling certain 2018-2019 Nissan Altima, Armada, Frontier, Kicks, Leaf, Maxima, Murano, NV, NV200, Pathfinder, Rogue, Rogue Sport, Sentra, Titan, Titan Diesel, Versa Note and Versa Sedan vehicles, as well as Infiniti Q50, Q60, QX30 and QX80 vehicles. Additionally included are 2019 Nissan GT-R and Taxi and Infiniti QX50, QX60, Q70, Q70L vehicles. The back-up camera and display settings can be adjusted such that the rear view image is no longer visible an
Risk: The lack of an image in the back-up camera display increases the risk of a crash.
Fix: Nissan will notify owners in phases, having dealers update the back-up camera settings software, free of charge. The recall began November 11, 2019 and all affected VINs should be activated. Owners may contact Nissan customer service at 1-800-867-7669 or INFINITI customer service at 1-800-662-6200.
Service bulletins (123)
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
Electrical System 2026-03-30 · NTB15-049CC · Service Bulletin/Repair Instructions
telematics service information hint: this bulletin applies to vehicles equipped with a 4g network compatible tcu. tcus compatible with 3g network only are no longer supported. service information the applied vehicles that come equipped with a factory installed sos switch, located near the overhead m
Service Brakes 2025-02-20 · NTB19-042F · Service Bulletin/Repair Instructions
automatic emergency braking warning light blinking applied systems: vehicles equipped with a lane camera (see figure 1) service information if the automatic emergency braking (aeb) warning light or is blinking (but not illuminated steadily) or the customer states it is blinking, and there are no rel
Service Brakes 2025-02-20 · NTB19-033G · Service Bulletin/Repair Instructions
intelligent cruise control inoperative and aeb/feb warning light on or radar obstruction message displayed with dtc c1a16 or c2582 if you confirm important: the purpose of action (on the next page) is to give you a quick idea of the work you will be performing. you must closely follow the entire ser
Visibility/Wiper 2024-10-30 · NTB24-048 · Service Bulletin/Repair Instructions
*****dealer announcement***** nissan is conducting a service campaign on certain specific my2018-2025 nissan leaf vehicles identified in service comm and national service history – open campaigns. on affected vehicles, at temperatures below -10°c/14°f, use of the blower motor at full speed can cause
Showing the 6 most recent of 123 bulletins. Search all of them free at nhtsa.gov.
What owners report
2026-10-28 · Fuel/Propulsion System“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 …”
2026-10-14 · Fuel/Propulsion System“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…”
2026-08-03 · Service Brakes“vehicle brakes went out on the driver during normal operation. …”
2026-07-31 · Service Brakes“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. …”
2026-07-16 · Electrical System“this is the second high-voltage traction battery failure on this vehicle. the original hv battery failed and was replaced by nissan under warranty at an authorized dealer on xxx, at approximately 59,000 miles. the nissan-manufactured replacement pack has now failed after approximately 16 months in service. on xxx, at ~74000 miles, the vehicle was …”
2026-07-11 · Fuel/Propulsion System“car was fast charged on july 9th. 2026. after fast charging from 13% to 80%, and driving for a few miles, the overheating warning came on and car was forced to stop on the side of a busy highway until the engine cooled off. while there is an active recall for a similar problem (24v700), my car is not included and we were not notified.…”
2026-05-31 · Visibility/Wiper“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 m…”
2026-01-21 · Service Brakes“this vehicle is equipped with a feature known as "e-pedal" also known as one-pedal driving which is quite common on evs. when this mode is activated, the accelerator pedal acts as a speed command (vs. power) and when the pedal is not depressed, the vehicle applies brakes until it comes to a standstill. recently, the system has demonstrated a fault …”
2026-01-08 · Vehicle Speed Control · 💥 crash“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 b…”
2025-12-19 · Fuel/Propulsion System“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 ro…”
Excerpts of consumer complaints filed with NHTSA, lightly truncated. They are owner statements, not verified findings.