Oh God, what, what, WHAT are you DINGING about?!

[FalconFour]

As someone has previously noted on these fine forums... "the Nissan LEAF needs a 'what?' button". :lol:

The biggest annoyance in my brand-new LEAF so far (just got it a week ago tomorrow) is the "what are you beeping about?" thing. Seems whenever I turn off the car, it has SOMETHING to whine about, but no clue as to what it's trying to say. It would be nice if, you know, when I turn off the car, it says "thank you for flying LEAF", to that effect! A matching compliment to the start-up glitter presentation that greets the driver with a "Welcome to LEAF! Please accept the terms and conditions for today" (although without that "accept" part, that'd be nice). Something to leave the driver with a nice "warm fuzzy". Instead, every time I turn it off (without noted fail), it emits a "beeeeeeeeep!" and displays the message "Turn off the light" briefly. The headlights are on automatic and both interior lights are set to "door". I have no idea what "light" it's referring to.

But it gets weirder. If I open the car door while the car's "on", it doesn't give a peep... but if I then shut off the car (in Park), it goes "BEEEBEEBEBEBEEBEEBBEEEEBEBEBBEBEE..." as if I'm about to crash into a wall or something. HUH? I close the door and the beep stops... then open the door again, and it's... pleasantly happy again. What in the...?

I don't get it. I'm quite likely going to take it in to the dealership to get firmware updates done (it's a 2011 model that I think was used for test drives) later today. Any insight from other owners as to what the heck it's whining about?

 

[eclecticflower]

I had a similar experience. My lights were on auto, as well. It turned out to be the fog lights and after turning off the car, the beep was warning me they were switched on. Switch the fog lights to the off position and when you turn off your car, it should no longer beep. The fog light indicator is displayed on the dash. Hope that works for you.

 

[FalconFour]

oh my god I think you're right. I see those lights in a reflection of the car sometimes, and I thought they were just part of the lights that run. Never had a car with those lights before (hey, my last car for 6 years was a gas-guzzler '87 Fiero), but there's also no indicator inside that says "hey dummy those lights are on!" - no buttons were lit up to say "on"

Still doesn't explain the panic-freakout mode it goes into when I shut the car off with the door open though... :?

 

[eclecticflower]

I know, I felt really dumb that I was getting that "beeeeeeeeep" and had to ask the forum about it. They figured it out for me. I noticed the fog light indicator disappeared from the dash after rotating the switch on the handle to the off position. I had forgotten I'd been playing around with the handle and had apparently also forgotten I'd left the fog lights switch in the "on" position. I figured the since the lights aren't on after I turn off the car, it s/b no problem (I was assuming it was like my last car) so I couldn't figure out the beep, either. With all the dash lights to look at, I guess I needed to be smacked in the head in order to get the message to turn off the fog lights! :lol:

 

[eclecticflower]

And please, shut off your car BEFORE you open the door!! :shock: This will minimize the risk of leaving the car powered on when you get out. :roll: It's so quiet, you could get in a hurry and forget to press that "off" button! Yes, it's happened to others on the forum from what I've read. Repeat after me, "Press Park, Pull Brake, Press Power Off!" THEN you can open the door and get out. Enjoy your LEAF!

 

[FalconFour]

Haha! The door-before-power thing is because I sometimes open the door to check my parking with this unfamiliar new car... so I open the door, adjust if needed, then park and power off. I only do that once in a great while with a narrow parking spot... but it's just freakin' weird it beeps AFTER I shut off the car. :lol:

 

[eclecticflower]

Maybe you can avoid beeps altogether by adjusting your side mirror down to look at the stripe? :lol:

 

[rcyoder]

I frequently pop my Leaf into reverse just to check my parking in the backup camera. *REALLY* handy for staying out of red zones. ;-)

 

[FalconFour]

Use the side mirror? Then how do I drive? Adjust it every time? :lol:

That fixed the ding-on-shutdown thing... yay! I guess it must've been on since I got the car... didn't even realize there was a switch there for that.

Definitely need to look over the manuals while I'm at the dealer today getting a charge. :lol:

 

[Nubo]

...But it gets weirder. If I open the car door while the car's "on", it doesn't give a peep... but if I then shut off the car (in Park), it goes "BEEEBEEBEBEBEEBEEBBEEEEBEBEBBEBEE..." as if I'm about to crash into a wall or something. HUH? I close the door and the beep stops... then open the door again, and it's... pleasantly happy again. What in the...?

Yeah, that used to get on my tits as well. But I'm mostly "trained" now to avoid that apparently alarming situation. :lol:

For parking, I attached a couple of those small convex mirrors to the side-views. You can easily see your orientation in regard to the parking lines or vehicles nearby without having to open the door.

 

[SierraQ]

oh my god I think you're right. I see those lights in a reflection of the car sometimes, and I thought they were just part of the lights that run. Never had a car with those lights before (hey, my last car for 6 years was a gas-guzzler '87 Fiero), but there's also no indicator inside that says "hey dummy those lights are on!" - no buttons were lit up to say "on"

Still doesn't explain the panic-freakout mode it goes into when I shut the car off with the door open though... :?

The fog lights seem to get a lot of people. There IS an indicator. it's the standard side-view of a headlight icon except the "lines of light" are pointed down or they have slash through them.

As for the other beep, in one of the more recent software updates they added an alarm to alert people when opening the door while the car was on and in Drive. I'll admit I had done this once or twice so the alarm is probably a good thing until you deprogram yourself: lack of noise does not mean the car is off! Anyway, they seem to have added a few unwanted alarms as well. Basically if you shut off the car while the door is open it will continue to beep at you for no reason.

 

[Rat]

From the thread title I thought you might have experienced what I did while driving, which turned out to be the rear hatch wasn't fully closed. I swear I looked all over the dash for a door open indicator and there wasn't one until I pulled over to the curb and put the car in neutral, then it appeared, but maybe I was just looking for something that looked different and didn't understand what I was looking at. It was sure frightening, though, since it happened when I'd only had the car two or three weeks and I was reading stories of early adopters running out of power or pulling over then being unable to restart the car.

 

[FalconFour]

Hah! I had that "shut off and wouldn't turn on again" problem when I took a long trip with it yesterday: 80 mile round trip, plus a couple along-route stops for food, then a brief commute to the office to fix a solar panel alert, when I got into the driveway of my apartment on turtle mode, it dropped dead! I pushed it into my parking space, all the while almost saying out loud "DON'T JUDGE ME! GAAH THIS IS NOT THE NORM!"... lol. Well, on the plus-side, I should now have a more accurate GOM.

I still love my LEAF 110%... the fact that I can limp the car into the lot on 5% battery is pretty awesome. Try telling a gas engine "hey, suck those fumes in you wuss... just go slower... you can do it!"

 

[gbshaun]

I had a similar experience. My lights were on auto, as well. It turned out to be the fog lights and after turning off the car, the beep was warning me they were switched on. Switch the fog lights to the off position and when you turn off your car, it should no longer beep. The fog light indicator is displayed on the dash. Hope that works for you.

THANKS!! I KNEW I hadn't always heard that chime when i turned the car off. Funny thing,... I didn't even know I HAD Fog lights!
Shaun

 

[LEAFfan]

And please, shut off your car BEFORE you open the door!! :shock: This will minimize the risk of leaving the car powered on when you get out. :roll: It's so quiet, you could get in a hurry and forget to press that "off" button! Yes, it's happened to others on the forum from what I've read. Repeat after me, "Press Park, Pull Brake, Press Power Off!" THEN you can open the door and get out. Enjoy your LEAF!

It isn't necessary to put the car in P. When you push the Power button and the car turns off it automatically goes into Park. Also, unless you're on an incline, you don't need the EB.

 

[TimLee]

The beep when the car is turned off while the door is open isn't just a LEAF thing.
2009 Altima does the same thing.
Not sure what the rationale is for beeping when the car is turned off while the door is open, but they both do the same thing.