Overnight charge just two bars 2011 Leaf

I have a 2011 Leaf that has been generally set to 80% L1 charge overnight, and showed 11 bars. Worked fine.

Yesterday I had an 80 mile round trip, so pressed timer override and got a 100% overnight L1 charge (showing 79 miles), and curiously enough 12 bars.

The 12th bar went fast. I chademo fast charged at the destination, perhaps the very first time this car has ever been fast charged. But it needed another fast charge on the way back, then got 3 hours at a Clipper Creek L2 station during a meeting, then again went flat before I reached home and I was pretty stuck by 2am, but finally after striking out at 5 closed stations found an open L2 charger and hung out for an hour and limped the last 10 miles home "on fumes".

Now the overnight charge only got to 2 bars, 15 miles of "range" (that's 4am-8am).

What could be wrong?
I don't have LeafSpy.

There is probably nothing wrong.

L1 gives between 1 to 1.5kWh of charge per hour.
Assuming your car has the software update from four years ago and that you were close to turtle:
1) There is about 1.5kWh below the first fuel bar.
2) Each bar takes over an hour of charging to appear.
3) You may have been on the cusp of getting the third bar.
4) The mileage gauge is estimated and highly inaccurate.

L1 is only about 5 miles charge per hour. Sounds about right.

Public L2 EVSE charges at 208V. The two quick charges heated up your battery. What a day (and night) you had!

brycenesbitt said:

Now the overnight charge only got to 2 bars, 15 miles of "range" (that's 4am-8am). What could be wrong?

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Sounds like quite an adventure. First off, my guess is that your definition of overnight needs adjustment. :lol: I prefer to sleep 8 hour and an empty Leaf prefers to sleep for at least 20 hours of L1 charging.

Yup, "empty" leaf can take 18-20 hours to recharge on L1. You should get 12 bars every time you charge to 100%, so not sure why that was surprising?

My assumption is that your trickle charger errored out, maybe low voltage under laid on the outlet that you are using? Bad ground? Check to make sure that the lights on the brick look normal, maybe try another outlet. You should get around 1 bar per 1.5 hours on the stock charger, if not I'd suspect wiring. Look at the outlet for melty bits and the plug prongs for heat discoloration.

OP here: it eventually climbed above 2 bars. I noted that someone swapped the extension cord for a thinner model, and that was pretty warm.

brycenesbitt said:

OP here: it eventually climbed above 2 bars. I noted that someone swapped the extension cord for a thinner model, and that was pretty warm.

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Are you going to be doing more of this kind of travel?
Have you considered 240V charging at home?
Are you using Plugshare?
Are you the type that can tolerate driving deep into the red?
Do you have Leafspy app and an OBD2?
What pressure do you have your tires to get better range?
Did you say where you are from?
Does your drive change in elevation?
Are you an enthusiast?
Do you like Megyn Kelly???

Firetruck41 said:

You should get 12 bars every time you charge to 100%, so not sure why that was surprising?

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I assumed he was talking about the battery capacity bars - not the charge state bars. He said that he originally had 11 bars, but ended up with 12 after charging to 100%. Although, if he doesn't usually charge to 100%, perhaps he doesn't realize that the charge state bars always go the whole way to 12 bars regardless of how many capacity bars are remaining.

OP here.

It happened again. An L1 charge overnight to 100% left me with "70 miles" of range. 50 miles to my destination and I made it with "4 miles" to spare. An L2 charge at the destination brought me to "78 miles" of range, then about an hour of idle time before driving. The miles ticked away quickly and 22 miles later I had to make an emergency stop to get enough to limp home (thanks plugshare -- the leaf charger finder is useless). I was running 3.8 miles/kWhr on the return trip, 3.5 miles/kWhr on the way there.

The driving conditions were similar: all freeway, no hills, climate control off, conservative driving. On the way back I dimmed the display, turned off navigation, stopped charging my smartphone, turned on ECO mode and all but got out and pushed. Temperatures were in the 50-60F range outdoors.

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Why such crappy range on the return trips?
And what do I do for roadside service if I actually run out :-(?

The driving conditions were similar: all freeway, no hills, climate control off, conservative driving. On the way back I dimmed the display, turned off navigation, stopped charging my smartphone, turned on ECO mode and all but got out and pushed. Temperatures were in the 50-60F range outdoors.

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If I understand you correctly, you have an 11 capacity bar Leaf (that showed 12 bars once, after a full charge/equalization, which isn't unusual for a full 11 bar car. You drove 50 miles on the freeway at about 3.6 miles / KWH, with 4 miles of range showing on the range estimator. You car has, very roughly, 18 KWH of usable capacity. Most Leafs have about 8 miles of range left after the estimator blanks out, if you drive carefully.


3.6 x 18 = 64 miles

64 - 8 = 56 miles range before estimate vanishes

The range estimator - aka "Guess O meter" because it's not a great tool - in this case seems to have been close. Remember that when you start a trip, the estimated range is based on the last 5 minutes or so of driving before you ended the previous trip. That number is usually too high, because most people drive fairly gently the last mile or so of a trip. I don't know if you were joking about dimming the display, but don't bother turning off 12 volt accessories. Concentrate on things like slowing down and shutting the climate control off for more range. And if you will need all those KWHs, get Leaf Spy so you can read GIDs instead of miles remaining.

Okay that 2011 Nissan leaf, has a 3.3 kW charger so on L2 you only gain about 15 miles of range for every hour on the charger. So at 3.6 kW per mile you're driving about 64 MPH?A Good reference is Tony Williams range chart, it is easy to follow and plan a trip by. Just Google Tony Williams range chart or its on this blog. Do get leaf spy it'll make trips like this a lot easier, and give you a lot of information. And remember slower is faster.

What confuses me is why, twice, I made the outbound trip comfortably but got caught short on the return trip.

brycenesbitt said:

What confuses me is why, twice, I made the outbound trip comfortably but got caught short on the return trip.

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There is probably a subtle but significant change in elevation on the trip. Down going out, up coming home.

LeftieBiker said:

brycenesbitt said:

What confuses me is why, twice, I made the outbound trip comfortably but got caught short on the return trip.

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There is probably a subtle but significant change in elevation on the trip. Down going out, up coming home.

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Flats of Berkeley, CA to flats of San Jose CA. Elevation delta under 10 feet, along the shore of a bay.

Elevation delta under 10 feet, along the shore of a bay.

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Well, that's subtle, all right! ;-) What about a prevailing breeze? (Yes, I'm serious.)

The prevailing breeze is perpendicular to the route.
Not that I checked the wind on those particular days...

LeftieBiker said:

Elevation delta under 10 feet, along the shore of a bay.

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Well, that's subtle, all right! ;-) What about a prevailing breeze? (Yes, I'm serious.)

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Sounds like its time to get LeafSpy if you really want to see whats going on?