To perform cabin heating on the 2011 & 2012 model year LEAF (manufactured from late 2010 to late 2012), Nissan used a coolant heater and coolant pump to circulate warmed coolant through a heat exchanger core located inside the vehicle’s air box. Presumably this decision was made to allow the use of a conventional airbox borrowed from an internal combustion powered vehicle in their range. Unfortunately, with the passage of time, the high voltage heater used in this model has become a common point of failure.  A failed coolant heater is the most common cause for the heater only blowing cold air despite the the climate control system being set to a warm setting.

Nissan refers to this part as the ‘PTC Element Heater’ with PTC being an acronym for positive temperature coefficient.

On this model,  sometimes a failed PTC heater will generate fault codes in the HVAC system, but this is not always the case. Typical fault codes associated with a failed PTC heater may include B2770, B2772, B2773, B2774, B2775, and B2776.

An easy and useful method of determining if the PTC heater is working or not is by looking at the power consumption on the ‘Energy Information’ screen in the original audio/navigation system. Rather than consuming several kW of power, the climate control bar graph indicates 0kW.

The PTC heater is located in the motor bay directly below the 12V battery. Replacement is relatively straightforward for a EV technician who is familiar with the process. However, one trap to look out for is that sometimes when the PTC heater fails it also takes out the high voltage fuse for the PTC heater. We sell this fuse separately here. Checking the condition of the fuse can be done relatively quickly. However, this fuse is located in the car’s junction box and replacement/installation of the fuse (if necessary) adds a significant amount of time to the repair.

This part is a direct replacement to the following superseded parts: 27143-0501RET and 27143-2796RET