Rapid charge loss

[powersurge]

Part of the Original poster's issues are explainable, and I would consider under "normal" category.

First, If you start a trip at 50%, that 50% charge is not the same as the 50-100% charge. The last half of the battery's charge is not linear.. The charge will fall more quickly than normal. I once had a 12 mile drive, and started the trip at 27%... NO PROBLEM... RIGHT? Wrong. I did not make it, and was barely able to get to a local charging station....

Second, If you are going at 65 MPH AND going up a significant grade, you should expect to only get half (or less) of your normal mileage... 65 MPH really discharges your battery, and constant uphill destroys your charge.

You appear to be new to the Leaf, so I think you need to start off by being very conservative with your driving, until you know how the car performs under different conditions.... THEN you can experiment...... Remember, an EV is not like a gas car.... You need to change your driving and accelerating habits.... If you expect it to do too much, you will be disappointed....

 

[lorenfb]

You appear to be new to the Leaf, so I think you need to start off by being very conservative with your driving, until you know how the car performs under different conditions.... THEN you can experiment...... Remember, an EV is not like a gas car.... You need to change your driving and accelerating habits.... If you expect it to do too much, you will be disappointed....

Great summary!

 

[MrB01112]

Well, it has been a few weeks and I've been trying to recreate the issue with no luck. Connecting the Leafspy and doing the load test is a good idea. At this point I'm thinking that it might have had more to do with how I was charging it. I have a Juicebox charger and I was setting the current SOC in the app and then having it stop charging at 80%. I'm wondering if somehow this was confusing the systems on the car, making it think it has a higher SOC than it really does. Once I just went back to full 100% charges and not entering the current SOC before charging the problem seems to have gone away. I'm not sure if any of this makes any functional sense, but it's my best guess so far.

 

[Leaf3540]

Now that is has warmed up it hasn’t happened as often. For me either. Resistance heat and 75 MPH and as you stated less than 50% to begin drive. I was surprised I’m March 31 when it happened again. 300w heat pump and 41 degrees. I started trip at 45%.
This is not just nonlinear drop. This is losing 1% per second. Before “LeafSpy I would ease up and slow to 50 mph and watch my battery % climb from 0 back to about 15% or so while going uphill. After LeafSpy, I just ignore all the warnings and press on at the speed limit (75) and trust my LeafSpy. It hasn’t let me down. Now that I know there are three of us in Colorado all experiencing the same issue, I’ll bring it up at my 7500 mile check up.

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

Now that is has warmed up it hasn’t happened as often. For me either. Resistance heat and 75 MPH and as you stated less than 50% to begin drive. I was surprised I’m March 31 when it happened again. 300w heat pump and 41 degrees. I started trip at 45%.
This is not just nonlinear drop. This is losing 1% per second. Before “LeafSpy I would ease up and slow to 50 mph and watch my battery % climb from 0 back to about 15% or so while going uphill. After LeafSpy, I just ignore all the warnings and press on at the speed limit (75) and trust my LeafSpy. It hasn’t let me down. Now that I know there are three of us in Colorado all experiencing the same issue, I’ll bring it up at my 7500 mile check up.

So you think its simply erroneous Nissan instrumentation?

 

[SageBrush]

Now that is has warmed up it hasn’t happened as often. For me either. Resistance heat and 75 MPH and as you stated less than 50% to begin drive. I was surprised I’m March 31 when it happened again. 300w heat pump and 41 degrees. I started trip at 45%.
This is not just nonlinear drop. This is losing 1% per second. Before “LeafSpy I would ease up and slow to 50 mph and watch my battery % climb from 0 back to about 15% or so while going uphill. After LeafSpy, I just ignore all the warnings and press on at the speed limit (75) and trust my LeafSpy. It hasn’t let me down. Now that I know there are three of us in Colorado all experiencing the same issue, I’ll bring it up at my 7500 mile check up.

What does LeafSpy say when the car says --- ?

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

Now that is has warmed up it hasn’t happened as often. For me either. Resistance heat and 75 MPH and as you stated less than 50% to begin drive. I was surprised I’m March 31 when it happened again. 300w heat pump and 41 degrees. I started trip at 45%.
This is not just nonlinear drop. This is losing 1% per second. Before “LeafSpy I would ease up and slow to 50 mph and watch my battery % climb from 0 back to about 15% or so while going uphill. After LeafSpy, I just ignore all the warnings and press on at the speed limit (75) and trust my LeafSpy. It hasn’t let me down. Now that I know there are three of us in Colorado all experiencing the same issue, I’ll bring it up at my 7500 mile check up.

What does LeafSpy say when the car says --- ?

You still got a long way to go!

 

[Leaf3540]

When I looked at it initially with 0% and — miles it said 26% and I think about 36 miles. I have my reserve set to 5%. When I got to the house LeafSpy was 11% and I can’t remember the LeafSpy miles. I had 20 miles to go to get home when it suddenly dropped. It never went to Turtle Mode. I did get all the other warnings though. Low charge and the Navi buggome to lay in a course to the nearest charging station.
I’m glad to read about trying a histogram readout with the brakes set. I’m out of town till the weekend. A fun Saturday project.

 

[Leaf3540]

Update:
So,,,,,, I just reviewed my LeafSpy trip log. That rapid loss I described where I used the LeafSpy data and drove home 15 miles after my car said 0 and — cost me 1.38% soh . From 98.98 to 97.6 in one 35 mile drive. So, yes, I had plenty of battery when the drop started to make it home. My guess, and only a guess is that this indication must be a defense mechanism built into the software to keep you from doing highway speeds with the resistance heat on below 35%soc. It really does a number on the battery.
I spoke again to the dealer service guy. He still has never heard of it even though one of their salesmen has had the same issue. Sounds like Boeing to me. A system they need to tell people about. Just to reiterate, LeafSpy said I still had 11% as I drove into the garage.

 

[powersurge]

Update:
So,,,,,, I just reviewed my LeafSpy trip log. That rapid loss I described where I used the LeafSpy data and drove home 15 miles after my car said 0 and — cost me 1.38% soh . From 98.98 to 97.6 in one 35 mile drive. So, yes, I had plenty of battery when the drop started to make it home. My guess, and only a guess is that this indication must be a defense mechanism built into the software to keep you from doing highway speeds with the resistance heat on below 35%soc. It really does a number on the battery.
I spoke again to the dealer service guy. He still has never heard of it even though one of their salesmen has had the same issue. Sounds like Boeing to me. A system they need to tell people about. Just to reiterate, LeafSpy said I still had 11% as I drove into the garage.

You are creating a problem and then complaining about it.... First, you cannot drive a leaf at "the speed limit... 75". You will not get very far..
Second, you should never (except in a dire emergency) let the battery go down to zero... I have my car for 60,000 miles and have NEVER let my car go below 20% (and I still have 92% SOH). You are doing this and then have the stones to complain to the dealer?

Remember, you own this equipment... If you play "torture test" with it, your problems will only be your own. Then you cannot blame Nissan.

Like seeing how long your engine will drive with no oil in it...

 

[Leaf3540]

My problem is, I am too smart for my own good. I did not let my battery go to 0. In the course of less than a minute the car indicator went from somewhere around 30% to 0. I knew I had more than 0. Verified it with LeafSpy. Plenty of battery left. As I got home I still had 11%. Bases on LeafSpy. That is what I have come to suspect on my 35 mile drive. I had about 50% at the beginning of a 35 mile trip. My 40kwh battery drops 1 % per mile on the highway.
But your point is correct, nowhere does the manual say not to go 75 while using resistance heat. BTW, never had a problem when the heat pump is used at 75. There never was a “turtle mode”. BUT, I should ignore the truth and accept the car’s warnings that it is not cool to drive on a highway in cold weather 39f with less than 50% battery.
A nice note in the manual that says “ a rapid drop in INDICATED charge % signals too high of an amp demand. Reduce load”. Might be helpful for folks like me that can’t take a hint.
It is interesting that most of the people that this happens to seem to be in Colorado. 75 MPH highways with 6 and 7% grades that last several miles. Although the incident I described happened on a 2% grade.

 

[Leaf3540]

I am taking a leap assuming too high of an amp draw is the issue. If so, since we don’t have a tack, maybe an amp gauge with a green, yellow and red arc would be useful. I only have talked to thee people that own 2019 LEAFs but this has happened repeatedly to 2 of us. I would say that this is not uncommon for the driving conditions. High speed and mountainous.
I know the cost of pressing on at high speed. From now on, I’ll slow down as soon as the drop starts. Going uphill at 50 mph, I get my battery to climb back up from 0% within about 30 seconds to just a few % from where the drop started. As the original poster on this issue stated.

 

[ChrisLeaf2018]

Hi everyone,

I am new to this forum. My name is Chris and I live in Montreal, Quebec. I got the same issue as MrB01112 with my 2018 Leaf. Sorry about my English, it is not my first language...

1. I took the car to the dealership in January 2019 and explained them the problem with them a video showing them my battery going from 40% to 23% to 10% then come back to 25%.

2. They keep the car for the day and call me the next day saying they were not able to replicate the problem.

3. I took another appointment and told them I would drive the car with the technician being in the car next to me. I bring the car at around 40%, the technician plugged his computer in the OBDII. I was able to replicate the problem and the technician recorded it in his computer. 1 pack of 2 cells was defective and they replaced it within 2 weeks.

4. On Nov 15th, I got the same problem so I expect another pack of cell is defective. I am waiting to have some cold weather before taking another appointment at dealership.

Hope this helps
Chris

 

[LeftieBiker]

When the first bad cells were diagnosed, did they replace just those cells, or the whole pack? It sounds like they replaced only the bad cells, and one or more others have gone bad. I'm guessing that you need a whole new pack.

 

[DougWantsALeaf]

Leftie, you need to update your car in your signature.

 

[ChrisLeaf2018]

@LeftieBiker They only replaced 1 pack of 2 cells. If I understand your comment correctly, when a pack of cell is defective, it damage the whole battery pack? Do you have any documentation explaining that so I can ask for a whole new battery pack when I call them this week?

It seems to happen to many people, but Nissan hasn't officially find the problem and there is no recall. I am pretty sure that requesting a whole new battery pack to the dealership won't be an easy task Lol

 

[ChrisLeaf2018]

4

 

[LeftieBiker]

There have been quite a few 2018
Leafs with defective cells. Sometimes they replace the pack, sometimes the cells. What I don't recall is a re-occurrence of the bad cell problem. That points to either an incompetent dealership or a bad pack.

 

[LeftieBiker]

Leftie, you need to update your car in your signature.

No, I'm still driving Scarlet. When I turn her in next year I'll replace her with the 2020 SV+, which for now is my housemate's car.

 

[ChrisLeaf2018]

In LeafSpy pro, does anyone know what is considered a bad mV difference between max and min? I get 97mV difference at 86% SOC