2012 under warranty getting low miles

[RobotGhoul]

Hey there, new here. Having a possible issue with my LEAF. it's a 2012, certified preowned, 30k miles, garaged and charged at home. It's near Chicago so it's cold right now, 8 deg currently, but i'm barely getting 20 miles.
My commute is 9.9 miles each way. On a full charge i'm getting back with single digits remaining miles. Running heat, driving ECO.
But my health bar is 10/12. Does that seem wrong? I feel like my health bar is lieing to me.
It's snowy and cold and I understand some capacity loss, but this seems excessive, does it not?
Any input would be appreciated.
Thanks!

[LeftieBiker]

This isn't going to be good news for you, I'm afraid. The 'health bar,' if you mean the little bars next to the charge bars, indicates remaining battery capacity, and the bars don't come back, except sometimes briefly as they are being lost. The first generation battery packs degrade too quickly over time, and far too quickly when they get hot in Summer, so this isn't your fault, but you have lost roughly 30-40% of your original capacity. There is a court-mandated capacity warranty, but it is for 5 years or 60,000 miles after the car's in-service date, and yours has likely expired. Even if it hasn't yet, you have to have 8 bars to get a new pack, not 10. Recount the bars carefully, including the two red ones at the bottom.

Now, as to Winter range: I suggest you block your car's grille, and inflate the tires to 40psi. You car lacks a heater Off switch, but that isn't an issue in the dead of Winter for most people. I suggest you lower the heater blower speed to the lowest or next lowest setting, and use a 12 volt heated fleece throw to increase your comfort. I'll repost my Tips & Tricks topic as well. Take a look at it.

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=23297

[cwerdna]

Please answer the questions at viewtopic.php?p=275421#p275421 the best you can in this thread.

http://www.electricvehiclewiki.com/File ... bars_s.jpg is an example of a 3 bar loser (9 capacity bars remaining) fully charged.

Since you have a pre-'13 Leaf, which therefore has no % state of charge display and are having range anxiety, I STRONGLY recommend you use Leaf Spy, which requires a compatible OBD2 dongle for the OS of the phone/tablet you'd use it with it. It will let you drive w/more confidence with the guess-o-meter (the silly miles remaining, haha) number flashing or at --- miles.

[SageBrush]

Does your car have a heat seater ?
Use it, along with gloves instead of cabin heating.

Your range will skyrocket -- probably double.

[Reddy]

Hey there, new here. Having a possible issue with my LEAF. it's a 2012, certified preowned, 30k miles, garaged and charged at home. It's near Chicago so it's cold right now, 8 deg currently, but i'm barely getting 20 miles.
My commute is 9.9 miles each way. On a full charge i'm getting back with single digits remaining miles. Running heat, driving ECO.
But my health bar is 10/12. Does that seem wrong? I feel like my health bar is lieing to me.
It's snowy and cold and I understand some capacity loss, but this seems excessive, does it not?
Any input would be appreciated.
Thanks!

You're not too far off. Getting back with "single digits" probably means that you have 15 mi of additional range, 35 mi total (not that I recommend testing that at near zero temps unless you are really close to home). I've seen close to that on my 9-bar 2011 with mixed 35-70 mph speeds. When spring comes to the NE (hey, it was 65 F today in the PNW so I think spring is already), you will be surprised by the range.

[cwerdna]

Does your car have a heat seater ?
Use it, along with gloves instead of cabin heating.

Your range will skyrocket -- probably double.

'12 Leaf thru '17 Leafs come with the forced features of heated seats and steering wheel: https://www.autoblog.com/2011/07/19/201 ... equipment/. Further down the road (sometime past '15?), rear heated seats became not standard on some trims.

OP should also pre-heat via timer or Carwings/Nissan Connect app while connected to "shore" power, so that it comes from the wall instead of the battery. However, if only using the L1 120 volt EVSE, heater power consumption will be higher than what can come out of the "wall" (1.44 kW).

[LeftieBiker]

However, if only using the L1 120 volt EVSE, heater power consumption will be higher than what can come out of the "wall" (1.44 kW).

Quite true, but a short preheat (~5 minutes) can save energy by making the car tolerable while using half as much from the pack as it would take on the road. I don't recall if partial/auto Recirculate works on the '12, but if so, setting the vents to floor only, the fan to Low and Recirc to partial can greatly lower heater consumption, especially if the car was preheated for 5 minutes while connected, to get the heater's "water" hot. Blocking the grille as I suggested should also help quite a bit. At some point the heater lines should be insulated and an Off switch kit installed so turning off the heat becomes an actual option.

[cwerdna]

^^^
Thanks for the reminder about insulating the heater. There was viewtopic.php?p=396810#p396810. I've never tried this since I have a '13 which is totally different.

[RobotGhoul]

Thanks for the responses. As if to prove me wrong, my car is doing a little better day. I am aware of the heated seat trick and usually will do that instead of running the heat, but in this weather I at least have to run the front window defrost periodically so I can see through the windsheild. I do preheat while it's plugged in in the garage. I should check my tire pressure too. Today I started with 41 (heat and eco on) and got to work with 27 remaining (heat and eco, 10 miles of travel). It's also icy out so there is some sliding and spinning of tires. I guess I should count myself lucky that my commute isn't too long.

[jlv]

Do not believe the "miles remaining" display on the dashboard. It is horribly misleading and changes in a non-linear fashion. You need to buy LeafSpyPro and get an OBD-II dongle to read the actual remaining capacity in the battery.