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2018 Nissan Leaf problems & recalls

NHTSA has issued 4 recalls covering the 2018 Nissan Leaf and owners have filed 66 complaints. The most-reported area is service brakes (19 complaints). 1 complaint describes a fire and 9 complaints describe a crash.

Recalls
4
Complaints
66
Crash reports
9
Fire reports
1
Injuries
3

Recalls (4)

Feb 2, 2024#24V071000

Back over prevention › Sensing system › Camera

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.

Jul 17, 2023#23V494000

Vehicle speed control

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.

Feb 2, 2023#23V048000

Equipment › Other › Owners/service/other manual

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.

Sep 12, 2019#19V654000

Back over prevention › Sensing system › Camera

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 and the system will retain that setting the next time the vehicle is placed in reverse. As such, these vehicles fail to comply with the requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) number 111, "Rear Visibility."

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.

Owner complaints (66)

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

  • Service brakes19
  • Electrical system18
  • Forward collision avoidance13
  • Fuel/propulsion system12
  • Vehicle speed control12
  • Unknown or other7
  • Engine6
  • Air bags5
  • Steering5
  • Structure4
  • Visibility/wiper3
  • Power train3

Complaints over time

May 2018: 2 complaintsJun 2018: 1 complaintJul 2018: 0 complaintsAug 2018: 0 complaintsSep 2018: 0 complaintsOct 2018: 1 complaintNov 2018: 0 complaintsDec 2018: 1 complaintJan 2019: 1 complaintFeb 2019: 0 complaintsMar 2019: 0 complaintsApr 2019: 0 complaintsMay 2019: 1 complaintJun 2019: 0 complaintsJul 2019: 2 complaintsAug 2019: 0 complaintsSep 2019: 0 complaintsOct 2019: 0 complaintsNov 2019: 1 complaintDec 2019: 1 complaintJan 2020: 1 complaintFeb 2020: 2 complaintsMar 2020: 1 complaintApr 2020: 0 complaintsMay 2020: 0 complaintsJun 2020: 1 complaintJul 2020: 0 complaintsAug 2020: 0 complaintsSep 2020: 0 complaintsOct 2020: 0 complaintsNov 2020: 0 complaintsDec 2020: 0 complaintsJan 2021: 1 complaintFeb 2021: 2 complaintsMar 2021: 0 complaintsApr 2021: 0 complaintsMay 2021: 1 complaintJun 2021: 0 complaintsJul 2021: 0 complaintsAug 2021: 1 complaintSep 2021: 0 complaintsOct 2021: 1 complaintNov 2021: 0 complaintsDec 2021: 0 complaintsJan 2022: 1 complaintFeb 2022: 0 complaintsMar 2022: 0 complaintsApr 2022: 1 complaintMay 2022: 0 complaintsJun 2022: 0 complaintsJul 2022: 1 complaintAug 2022: 0 complaintsSep 2022: 1 complaintOct 2022: 0 complaintsNov 2022: 2 complaintsDec 2022: 0 complaintsJan 2023: 0 complaintsFeb 2023: 0 complaintsMar 2023: 1 complaintApr 2023: 1 complaintMay 2023: 1 complaintJun 2023: 1 complaintJul 2023: 1 complaintAug 2023: 1 complaintSep 2023: 1 complaintOct 2023: 1 complaintNov 2023: 1 complaintDec 2023: 1 complaintJan 2024: 0 complaintsFeb 2024: 1 complaintMar 2024: 2 complaintsApr 2024: 1 complaintMay 2024: 0 complaintsJun 2024: 0 complaintsJul 2024: 2 complaintsAug 2024: 0 complaintsSep 2024: 0 complaintsOct 2024: 1 complaintNov 2024: 0 complaintsDec 2024: 3 complaintsJan 2025: 2 complaintsFeb 2025: 3 complaintsMar 2025: 1 complaintApr 2025: 0 complaintsMay 2025: 1 complaintJun 2025: 1 complaintJul 2025: 0 complaintsAug 2025: 0 complaintsSep 2025: 0 complaintsOct 2025: 0 complaintsNov 2025: 0 complaintsDec 2025: 3 complaintsJan 2026: 2 complaintsFeb 2026: 0 complaintsMar 2026: 0 complaintsApr 2026: 0 complaintsMay 2026: 1 complaintJun 2026: 0 complaintsJul 2026: 3 complaintsAug 2026: 1 complaint20192020202120222023202420252026
Complaints filed per month. Peak: 3 in Dec 2024. Hover a bar for its count.
Complaints filed per month
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Recent owner reports

Aug 3, 2026Service brakes

vehicle brakes went out on the driver during normal operation.

Jul 31, 2026Service 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.

Jul 16, 2026Electrical 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 diagnosed at Johnson City Nissan ([XXX]) with an internal short circuit within the high-voltage battery pack The error codes were P31E7-00 0B and P0AA6-1A 0B. Dealer service personnel identified the condition as an internal short in the pack. Due to…

Jul 11, 2026Electrical system, 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.

May 31, 2026Visibility/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 me without windshield wipers in heavy rain on a road with a 55mph speed limit. If I had not been able to quickly exit this would have resulted in significant risk to myself and other motorists. I was able to drive home on slower side roads, but the la…

Jan 21, 2026Service brakes, Fuel/propulsion system

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 condition, where the Vehicle Control Module (VCM) issues a fault warning and disengages the e-pedal mode. This appears to occur randomly after the vehicle has been at a standstill for over one minute (e.g. waiting at a traffic signal) where the drive…

Jan 8, 2026Vehicle 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 braking. This sudden unintended acceleration put safety at risk and caused significant property damage. There were no warning signs or messages. The car is in the yard now and will be available for inspection.

Dec 19, 2025Electrical system, Fuel/propulsion system, Forward collision avoidance

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 rolling. I could have been killed.

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.