installed new winter tires - epedal working "weird"/not re-gen?

Baltneu said:

I looked at the tire pressure decal on the inner door well. The 36 is not stated as a “minimum” as others have suggested. I will stay with the manufacturers numbers. They do not state in the door panel or to the best of my knowledge it is OK to pump them up to 42-44 psi.

One additional point. The TPMS with auto fill, is set at 36 psi.

Click to expand...

You can do and think what you like, and 36psi won't do any damage. However, if you aren't vigilant, and let it drop to say, below 32psi, you will see poor handling and increased tire wear. 38-40psi gives you a nice big safety margin as well as better efficiency. Good luck.

LeftieBiker said:

Baltneu said:

I looked at the tire pressure decal on the inner door well. The 36 is not stated as a “minimum” as others have suggested. I will stay with the manufacturers numbers. They do not state in the door panel or to the best of my knowledge it is OK to pump them up to 42-44 psi.

One additional point. The TPMS with auto fill, is set at 36 psi.

Click to expand...

You can do and think what you like, and 36psi won't do any damage. However, if you aren't vigilant, and let it drop to say, below 32psi, you will see poor handling and increased tire wear. 38-40psi gives you a nice big safety margin as well as better efficiency. Good luck.

Click to expand...

+1

Its one thing to have an air pump with you that you can pull out in an emergency but if I detect a tire losing air, I want as much "cushion" (pun intended) as possible to get me somewhere a bit more convenient for adding air.

BUT... and I know you think my tire conspiracy is BS, and that is fine so wondering if you read the manual? Its one thing to have conflicting statements in different sections but what about the same paragraph?

Section 5.4 if you are interested...

Each tire, including the spare (if provided),
should be checked monthly when cold and
inflated to the inflation pressure recommended
by the vehicle manufacturer on
the vehicle placard or tire inflation pressure
label. (If your vehicle has tires of a different
size than the size indicated on the vehicle
placard or tire inflation pressure label, you
should determine the proper tire inflation
pressure for those tires.)

Click to expand...

So on the one hand, its the door but on the other, its the tire. Why is this? Well, lemme tell you why. The 2nd statement in bold is the correct one and stated as such because now the tire company has received its "payment" as part of the conspiracy.

DaveinOlyWA said:

LeftieBiker said:

Baltneu said:

I looked at the tire pressure decal on the inner door well. The 36 is not stated as a “minimum” as others have suggested. I will stay with the manufacturers numbers. They do not state in the door panel or to the best of my knowledge it is OK to pump them up to 42-44 psi.

One additional point. The TPMS with auto fill, is set at 36 psi.

Click to expand...

You can do and think what you like, and 36psi won't do any damage. However, if you aren't vigilant, and let it drop to say, below 32psi, you will see poor handling and increased tire wear. 38-40psi gives you a nice big safety margin as well as better efficiency. Good luck.

Click to expand...

+1

Its one thing to have an air pump with you that you can pull out in an emergency but if I detect a tire losing air, I want as much "cushion" (pun intended) as possible to get me somewhere a bit more convenient for adding air.

BUT... and I know you think my tire conspiracy is BS, and that is fine so wondering if you read the manual? Its one thing to have conflicting statements in different sections but what about the same paragraph?

Section 5.4 if you are interested...

Each tire, including the spare (if provided),
should be checked monthly when cold and
inflated to the inflation pressure recommended
by the vehicle manufacturer on
the vehicle placard or tire inflation pressure
label. (If your vehicle has tires of a different
size than the size indicated on the vehicle
placard or tire inflation pressure label, you
should determine the proper tire inflation
pressure for those tires.)

Click to expand...

So on the one hand, its the door but on the other, its the tire. Why is this? Well, lemme tell you why. The 2nd statement in bold is the correct one and stated as such because now the tire company has received its "payment" as part of the conspiracy.

Click to expand...

I read and re-read the Section 5.4, and it supports my position which is the manufacturers position.....the tires that are "delivered" with the car should be inflated to the decal spec. Then they go on to say if you use tires of a different size, then the decal may not apply, and you have to determine the correct PSI. I don't think we are talking about different size tires than what came with the car, at least I am not.

However, as the moderator pointed out, if your tire gets low, then you are in a little trouble with ride and wear, so I think he is arguing to give yourself some wiggle room and inflate them a little higher.

Therefore, and don't tar and feather me, I am considering putting 38 all around in the car, especially in the winter months when a drop in temperature has an effect on the tire pressure. Hopefully the ride will be OK.....

My car had 38psi all around when I got it, and I didn't change it to 40-41 until I had the snows mounted. I'll let the snow tires get down to 38 or 39 before topping them off.

2018 may be different, but both 2011 and 2015 wear the outside and inside edges of the tread excessively and handling is soft, vague, (just plain lousy) with Nissan-recommended 36 psi so that pressure is clearly not sufficient for the weight of the LEAF. I ran 44 psi with the OEM tires on the 2011 (maximum on sidewall label) to get best handling, wet stopping traction, and minimize wear. The OEM tires on the 2015 were so bad that wet stopping traction was non-existent regardless of inflation pressure, but higher pressures improved dry handling. The higher-quality replacement tires I have been using on the 2015 since the OEM Michelins were bald at 25,000 miles have maximum cold inflation pressure of 51 psi shown on the sidewalls. I now run at least 44 psi and up to 51, depending upon conditions.

The 2018 seems to better tolerate lower pressures - probably because of the 17" wheels and better OEM tires on everything except the S.

LeftieBiker said:

The 2018 seems to better tolerate lower pressures - probably because of the 17" wheels and better OEM tires on everything except the S.

Click to expand...

What size and type tires are they using for the 2018 SL? My 2015 came with Michelin Energy Saver A/S 215/50R17 and they were about the worst radial tires I have owned.

Heh. The SV and SL come with those exact same tires. I've had no issues with them at all. Maybe they improved them for 2018?

same tires for me.

I believe the Energy Savers, like the Ecotopia's have a very low mileage version and a "regular" version. I wish tire companies wouldn't do this as it represents their tires in a very bad light, or at least if they do make them don't give them the same name.

I put winter tires on several days ago and noticed that regen cuts off during stronger braking, when lifting off the accelerator pedal completely in e-pedal mode. I peeked at the error logs in the service menu and it found a fault with the TCU, I think in this context, the traction control unit.

I *think* it has something to do with low traction of a new tire. In the dry, under hard extended acceleration, the tires spun for the entire length. I haven’t had a chance to take it to the dealer for a checkout and went on a 200km drive into the hills. It seemed to be mostly back to normal or I was driving too gingerly. The biggest test would be the long descent down. I hope it’s working as I only have 25% left. Navi thinks I’m going to have 27% at the bottom where I could charge. I have my doubts as it’s -10dC with snow. Will report again when trip complete.

As a side note, I notice the same behavior during fast sweeping downhill curves and lifting off completely with the eco summer tires.

Its normal for OEM tires to be different. I had to replace an Ecopia and got one from Goodyear and it was a "91H" When I asked them what the difference was since my OEM's were "89H" they said 91H is a bit more durable. I asked what the price difference was and they said they didn't sell an 89H. Only Nissan gets to buy those.

You might also notice that Goodyear's mileage rating is also higher.

I am very interested in the solution to this problem or at least an explanation. I have noticed a similar behavior.

I haven't noticed if the problem started after I installed winter tires. I bought the car in mid October and for sure I notice it much more now than right after delivery. Winter tires were installed at the mid November.

I drive with e-pedal 100% of the time. When I release the accelerator, it regenerates most of the time all the way until the car stops. Lately, the regeneration does not kick in or starts but all of the sudden stops even if the car is still moving.

I have a feeling it happens more and more often. I believe it was happening once a week at first. Now, it's about 5-10% of the time.

If anyone finds what the problem is, please post! (I don't have much faith in the my dealer's expertise to find a sort of intermittent problem in a car that none of them actually drives... Sad, but true honest opinion)

My guess is that Nissan engineers designed the E-Pedal/Regen braking with the tires that are on the car now. My 2018 SL has the Michelins. I think others have the same. So if you put on a different size tire, all bets are off. Also, a snow tire by design has a different tread than the all-weather tires we have now, so I could argue there is a difference in the way they ride the road (friction).

Finished the return trip.

Long downhill at a slow pace, under 60kph netted +4% charge, even with the AC going in -7dC weather. Regen still cuts out with full lift off. Keeping the pedal slightly engaged seems to give full regen.

On the highway, with temps hovering at 3dC, regen seemed to be normal, always engaging fully. But at speed, regen doesn’t provide that much deceleration.

I’m starting to think it’s a function of how much slip the tire is experiencing and the traction / stability (trace) control software doesn’t handle regen braking. During “aggressive” driving, it instructs the regen to cut off to allow the caliper brakes full control. Situation might warrant braking only on the rear tires.

On a side note, last leg of the journey, after charging to 220km estimated range with 150km to, arrived home with only 16km range remaining. The drive kept me busy balancing arrival time and avoiding having to charge.

I just went for a ride and observed the car's behavior with the information from this thread in mind. I think it is a question of how slippery the road is. I noticed the regen did not always kick in on small residential streets that had some slush on them. Once I arrived on a more used road that had cleared surface, the regen was much more reliable.

This theory also explains why I notice it more now than in November as the roads were not as slippery then.

I will continue to monitor this but I feel more confident that there is nothing actually wrong with the regen system.

Cheers

Tesla Model 3 also had issues with winter tires and regen disabled. Unfortunately, this could be (and it was) corrected with firmware update only. Easy on Teslas, but not on other cars. The issue arise from the fact winter tires are a bit more flexible/softer compound that trips off traction system with false positive of lost traction when regen engages as it allows a slight slip/twist within tire thread itself when torque direction changes. I would think you can counter it while driving on not slippery road by modulating accelerator pedal to make initial transition to regen smoother, then once on regen you could continue as usual. When road is slippery regen would disengage when tires slip is detected, but it is expected on any EV car. EV would not re-engage regen unless you cause small acceleration first to allow regen to re-engage.

FWIW, I haven't had this problem, although I haven't driven on really snowy streets yet. It may vary a lot with snow tires. I have x-Ice tires on my car.

Hi Everyone, I found out that the issue was the winter tires. Not a final solution, but that was the difference in how the car felt with E-pedal .
After the dealership not agreeing with me and may rounds of them trying different things, I made them put my summer tires back on the car and the issue went away. Although no one could understand why or explain the reason for this, nor would a "code" tell us the difference in the pedal feel , I felt it noticably and so did my husband when the winter tires were on my car.
I had the winter tires put back on, and have used the car as is all winter , having to adjust my driving habits for this issue with the epedal.

I have spoke to other leaf owners , including someone who had the same year car as me with new winter tires and they are not feeling the same thing as I am. It is something hard to describe. I have noted it on my file in case something comes up in the future as an issue with the car. I am going to take all your notes here and send them over to the dealership and headoffice because I think either a computer software update /adjustment or something is not correctly being compensated with the addtion of the winter tires. All your notes have been a huge help ! Thank you! If anyone finds out anything more concreate/ with an action step, please post!

Did you ever tell us exactly what Winter tires you are using?