Experiences post "upgrade"

Hello --

I'd like to hear from any Leaf owners who have gotten the upgrade to fix the software glitch that had cars turning off from pre-AC usage. I never had the problem (but I don't think I ever turned on the AC remotely), but got a recall notice (envelope with red stripe on it) to bring it in. After the upgrade, I noticed some differences: First, the low-charge alert no longer comes on when SOC reaches two bars (or around 10-15 miles left) as it used to. Second, the daily commute is using more SOC bars than it did before.
When I asked the technician about it, he told me that part of the upgrade changed the algorithm for the SOC, leaving more charge in "reserve" (I assume he means turtle mode) for when the low-charge warning does come on. He said they had gotten complaints about people running out of charge on the road, so they "fixed" the problem by shifting more charge to the last few bars.
But I don't understand why this would cause the car to not alert the driver when the SOC reads one bar, or 5 miles left, which is the case with our car.
I have to say that I do not have much confidence in the Nissan technicians. The ones I've talked to seem to be playing it by ear.
If anyone has any other post-upgrade changes they've seen, please post here.

Best,
Josh

barsad22 said:

I don't understand why this would cause the car to not alert the driver when the SOC reads one bar, or 5 miles left

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If it does what I believe it does, the effect of the upgrade is that one bar on your SOC no longer means you have 5 miles left. You have more miles than that now, because of the addition to the "reserve". Where did they get those extra miles? From the original bars. That's why they don't seem to go as far as before.

Dude, there's already a huge thread on just this subject.

gbarry42 -
Yes, I get where the energy went, but the car still literally reads "5 miles left" at one bar, and no alert, are you saying that the car is lying, and I actually have 20 miles left? Or that the alert won't come on until there are no bars left? The SOC guessing game has been the only source of frustration for me with this car. At the very least, Nissan should have informed drivers that the upgrade would change the way their SOC goes down, but I received no such information.

davewill -- Dude, post the link to the forum rather than just telling me about it, I did not find anything in my post searches. And a super-user is free to port these posts over to the old forum, if it's a duplicate.

J

There is a super long thread about it:
Driving range display 'changes' after NTB11038 Svc Campaign
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=3473

Now as far as the "low charge", "very low charge" and "turtle" warnings are concerned I don't believe those were changed and come on at the same state of charge as before the update. The state of charge bars and range left has certainly changed however.

Thanks for the link, I will move the conversation over there. There must be something wrong with my car, though, because we get no alert at all, even at 1 bar and 5 miles left.

J

barsad22 said:

There must be something wrong with my car, though, because we get no alert at all, even at 1 bar and 5 miles left.

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Since the updated algorithm determines the number of bars and miles left shown I would not be surprised that the low charge alert does not come on until one is deeper into the last bar.

Right, I can confirm that the "low charge" alert now comes several miles after you drop to one bar, and the "very low charge" alert comes several miles after you drop to zero bars. As spies posted, I don't think there is any change relative to real SoC on when those alerts appear. Nor is there any change in the usable battery capacity. The change is in when the bars disappear, and perhaps in what the guessometer is telling you.

I think what the technician told you is correct, Josh, though your assumption about turtle mode is not. I have seen no suggestion that additional capacity has been added to turtle mode. If you see the turtle, you'd better start looking for a good place to stop. Nissan's hope is to keep you away from being stuck at the side of the road by making the bars disappear faster and, perhaps, making the guessometer more pessimistic.

Ray

As long as the miles left is correct I don't need or want any other alerts causing me to stress
I got down to 1 bar with 7 miles left when I got home.
( I remember a post that the miles collapsed from 17 to nothing in few miles before the update)

I don't think that the Leaf is like an ICE car.
Everyone will be looking at the gauge constantly when they are pushing the limits

Spies said:

barsad22 said:

There must be something wrong with my car, though, because we get no alert at all, even at 1 bar and 5 miles left.

Click to expand...

Since the updated algorithm determines the number of bars and miles left shown I would not be surprised that the low charge alert does not come on until one is deeper into the last bar.

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I have had the low battery warning twice since the firmware update, and they came at 8-9 miles range showing. 5 miles left with no warning sounds way late to me...

TT

planet4ever said:

Right, I can confirm ... The change is in when the bars disappear, and perhaps in what the guessometer is telling you.

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"guessometer" ... me like that term ! A little classier than "range-o-liar" :lol:

ttweed said:

Spies said:

barsad22 said:

There must be something wrong with my car, though, because we get no alert at all, even at 1 bar and 5 miles left.

Click to expand...

Since the updated algorithm determines the number of bars and miles left shown I would not be surprised that the low charge alert does not come on until one is deeper into the last bar.

Click to expand...

I have had the low battery warning twice since the firmware update, and they came at 8-9 miles range showing. 5 miles left with no warning sounds way late to me...

TT

Click to expand...

Same here.. it was around 8 miles that I got the voice, dash alert, and flashing range.

Actually I have noticed that the guesstimate is far more stable and better at predicting that the old software. I still think there are better ways to display this information, but it has been an improvement. I'm assuming that Nissan is not going to give us the gauges we really need, so I'm waiting to see what the after-market folks are going to provide. If there is nothing soon, I'll probably install a cheap gauge just for fun. I have an extra one sitting on my workbench.