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

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PaulaDC

New member
Joined
Dec 21, 2018
Messages
3
Hi , I am new to the forum and joined specifically due to a problem im having with my 2018 Leaf in Ontario Canada.
It has just under 13000km on it, and first check up was "ok" .
I had purchased brand new tires and sensors from the dealership and they installed them for me.
I get the car home and the epedal is acting weird. When I let go of the gas , the regen/braking kicks in, then midway through slowdown something losens up and the screen goes blank , the one that shows if you are accelerating or regenrating. Although the car is still slowing down , this kick off, of whatever it is, takes you off guard and your judgement of deceleration is off and have to apply brakes at times. It sort of feels like a temperary brake failure , but then continues braking.

I fully understand the e pedal is not to be relied on, and I fully understand if the conditions change the brakes may need to be applied. I am always ready for that. I also learned that epedal breaking is faster with a less charged battery than with a fully charged battery.

Can anyone tell me if your screen goes blank when using epedal as you slow down? Is this normal ? I dont remember it being that way before but now Im questioning myself because the dealership keeps saying my car is fine. Unfortunatly none of them actually drive a leaf .. so Im not confident they can really tell me if its right or not.

So, I have opened a case up with Nissan Technical support to help.

My only other thought is... could it be the snow tires? Would that affect re-gen screen and system braking? I am going crazy over this and it worries me that with a brand new car there is something wrong with the braking system.

Would love any thoughts and further suggestions.

Thanks
 
I don't use ePedal often, but my snow tires have had no effect on it. My only thought is that maybe the tires are hard compound and overinflated, giving you poor traction (ironically).
 
Thanks , Its a weird scenerio. I asked the dealership if the tires would be affecting it, and I even suggested swaping them out to "just see" . They still have the car. I may do that if the investigation shows nothing. I will post the details after I figure this out!
 
New tires are more slippery than those that have been used a while. Hard compound tires are more slippery on hard - and especially hard and wet - surfaces. If the dealership claims they can't reproduce it, definitely check the pressures yourself. What brand and model are the tires?
 
I use ePedal all the time except for expressway driving. I recently changed the tire inflation from 36 psi to 44 psi and have noticed no change in the behavior of ePedal.

I use ePedal for smooth deceleration and to (successfully) avoid the foot brake almost completely, but never in lieu of the foot brake. I don't see that the owners manual says there is anything wrong, anything bad for the brakes, with releasing the accelerator completely to utilize the immediate braking function of ePedal under any circumstances. Or at least the language is no stronger than recommending otherwise. Still, I find the effect too jarring, and I find it disconcerting not to have stronger braking connected with the physical sensation of pressing DOWN on a brake pedal.

Are there driving settings that would turn off ePedal automatically (or interfere with it)? Cruise control, maybe? I turn off ePedal prior to any foreseeable need for cruise control (the combination doesn't make sense to me), so I haven't tested that.
 
I hope the OP gets some answers and the problem solved. I would be really upset if ePedal was malfunctioning.

I found out today, inadvertently, that ePedal and the Intelligent Cruise Control certainly do go together. I forgot to turn ePedal off when heading out for today's research drive, which was mostly on the expressway.

Start with 100%
ePedal on, 41.3 miles, 33% of charge used
DCFC to 92%
ePedal off, 46.6 miles, 40% of charge used
Same route back and forth

I liked the way ICC works better with ePedal, I found. One more reason to like both of them, probably the top two coolest things about the Leaf.
 
Not sure how tires and E Pedal are related to your screen's operation. I think you making quite the logical leap here.

If I was to stretch it a bit, I might consider you got sensors that are incompatible with the car somehow but then you would see it all the time even when not using E Pedal which brings me to another question;

How much do you use E Pedal percentage wise?
 
NoReleaf said:
I use ePedal all the time except for expressway driving. I recently changed the tire inflation from 36 psi to 44 psi and have noticed no change in the behavior of ePedal.

I use ePedal for smooth deceleration and to (successfully) avoid the foot brake almost completely, but never in lieu of the foot brake. I don't see that the owners manual says there is anything wrong, anything bad for the brakes, with releasing the accelerator completely to utilize the immediate braking function of ePedal under any circumstances. Or at least the language is no stronger than recommending otherwise. Still, I find the effect too jarring, and I find it disconcerting not to have stronger braking connected with the physical sensation of pressing DOWN on a brake pedal.

Are there driving settings that would turn off ePedal automatically (or interfere with it)? Cruise control, maybe? I turn off ePedal prior to any foreseeable need for cruise control (the combination doesn't make sense to me), so I haven't tested that.

Not meaning to hijack the thread.......why would you inflate your tires to 44psi, when door sticker says 36psi?
 
Not meaning to hijack the thread.......why would you inflate your tires to 44psi, when door sticker says 36psi?

The suggested 36psi has always been too low. It results in mushy handling and lower efficiency in order to provide a softer ride. The Gen I Leaf does much better at 40-44psi. The Gen II seems to do ok at 38psi, but I'm still using 40-41.
 
Baltneu said:
NoReleaf said:
I use ePedal all the time except for expressway driving. I recently changed the tire inflation from 36 psi to 44 psi and have noticed no change in the behavior of ePedal.

I use ePedal for smooth deceleration and to (successfully) avoid the foot brake almost completely, but never in lieu of the foot brake. I don't see that the owners manual says there is anything wrong, anything bad for the brakes, with releasing the accelerator completely to utilize the immediate braking function of ePedal under any circumstances. Or at least the language is no stronger than recommending otherwise. Still, I find the effect too jarring, and I find it disconcerting not to have stronger braking connected with the physical sensation of pressing DOWN on a brake pedal.

Are there driving settings that would turn off ePedal automatically (or interfere with it)? Cruise control, maybe? I turn off ePedal prior to any foreseeable need for cruise control (the combination doesn't make sense to me), so I haven't tested that.

Not meaning to hijack the thread.......why would you inflate your tires to 44psi, when door sticker says 36psi?

Because the tires say 44 PSI so you can take the "minimally recommended" safe option or take the higher (and farther from flat) recommendation that is BTW, also safe. You choose.
 
Not meaning to hijack the thread.......why would you inflate your tires to 44psi, when door sticker says 36psi?

I don't think you're hijacking. This thread is as much about tires as it is about ePedal.

I have long inflated tires on my cars closer to or even at the max pressure listed on the sidewall. This is general advice I have heard all over the place, including from automotive service technicians, since forever. (It is in this forum as well.) The argument for it seems to be that the door sticker recommendation is somewhat arbitrary, more of a minimum than a hard and fast "maintain pressure HERE," and is not a figure based on precise calculation of what is best for performance and long tire life for all use and driving conditions. My observation with all previous ICE vehicles has been that "overinflation" has a definite positive effect on fuel economy without any negative effect on tire life. A possibly somewhat stiffer ride is the only performance difference I have noticed. I'll admit that I have previously lightened up on the overinflation during winter, the idea being that a "softer" tire will have more grip. That may or may not amount to superstition. It's not like I've tested the theory, even informally. This winter I think I will stick to 42-44 psi, but I still won't have previous Leaf observations to compare that to.

Intuitively, decreasing rolling resistance seems like it would even more beneficial for an EV. But maybe that's just because the fuel seems more precious. With an EV, you can practically see it "dripping away" in real time, as compared with an ICE where the fuel gauge moves like the hour hand of an analog clock.
 
Not sure how tires and E Pedal are related to your screen's operation. I think you making quite the logical leap here.

I think the OP has a real problem with ePedal function. It's not just the screen, although having the screen disappear makes things even worse and is presumably related to whatever else is going on.
 
NoReleaf said:
Not sure how tires and E Pedal are related to your screen's operation. I think you making quite the logical leap here.

I think the OP has a real problem with ePedal function. It's not just the screen, although having the screen disappear makes things even worse and is presumably related to whatever else is going on.
OP stated that they use E Pedal nearly all the time so what hasn't been eliminated is question of whether the screen issues could exist if not in E Pedal.

Its quite the norm to think you feel a difference in how the car drives when the screen blanks out. Despite it not changing anything physically, its still quite the mental shock to the system.

We have all done the thing right after we start car, the car next to us pulls out and we think it is us moving and not them. Its all about data processing. Our brains frequently to do not interpret what we see correctly.
 
I would think that when you overinflate tires you would wear out the middle of the tread quickly rather than an even wear across the tread.
However, some interesting ideas to think about
 
Its quite the norm to think you feel a difference in how the car drives when the screen blanks out. Despite it not changing anything physically, its still quite the mental shock to the system.

Good point. I should not be putting words in the mouth of the OP, who will hopefully come back and elucidate and update.
 
I would think that when you overinflate tires you would wear out the middle of the tread quickly rather than an even wear across the tread.

Also sounds plausible to a non-expert. Sometimes it's a question of what advice you hear first. The fact that I had no problems with tire wear or shortened tire life (I got 90,000 miles out of a set of Coopers) might just be a testament to quality tires and nothing to do with how I kept them inflated. (Hmm, that almost sounds sarcastic. Not intended that way - I really don't know.)
 
Baltneu said:
I would think that when you overinflate tires you would wear out the middle of the tread quickly rather than an even wear across the tread.
However, some interesting ideas to think about

A definite possibility. FYI; 44 PSI is NOT overinflation.
 
This tire pressure discussion comes up several times a year and its all based on "Nissan's" word about what you should do.

Realize that the auto industry made a deal with the tire industry to split profits from tires. The auto industry agreed to recommend a lower than optimal pressure since there is no regulations on that parameter. In exchange, the tire industry sold tires to the auto industry at a reduced price.

This was a win for the tire industry who IS required to label their tires under very strict guidelines, who realized that the lower pressure would result in tires not lasting as long which means customers coming in early for new tires.

There is likely very few recorded incidents of tires failing due to overpressure. They are not balloons. They do not pop, etc. Maybe 50 years ago, it was an issue, but not any more.

But nearly all tire failures happened due to UNDER pressure. The lower the pressure, the less secure the seal. In an emergency maneuver, the bead where the seal is maintained is stressed. Higher pressure means the tire flexes less which means much less of a chance the tire will lose its seal which would result in tire failure and a likely crash.

But EVs are an entirely new beast. They have a very low center of gravity which means more pressure on the tire especially in turns which makes higher pressure that much more important.

Finally; TPMS warns you of high tire pressure?? or do they tend to warn you about more important things?
 
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.
 
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