Grabby Brakes?

Yes, I have grabby brakes on my 2014 LEAF.
I took it to the dealer and was told.............there is nothing that can be done.......there is no adjustment that can be made.........all nissans are this way.
i dunno that I believe that. .....was also told it should improve with time........it is not.

rmjones said:

...
I took it to the dealer and was told.............there is nothing that can be done.......there is no adjustment that can be made.........all nissans are this way.
i dunno that I believe that. .....was also told it should improve with time........it is not.

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Just a LEAF problem.
Have a 2009 Altima 4 cylinder ICE.
None of the weird squirrelly braking eccentricities of the LEAF.

Now when you have regenerative braking in the LEAF it usually brakes much more effectively than the Altima.
Have to be careful when occasionally driving it because I have become accustomed to the strange things you have to do in the LEAF to minimize the wierdness.
So in the Altima you have to quickly relearn to brake hard which you have learned not to do in the LEAF.

I have a 2013 SL and have fought with grabby breaks. For me it is only when "rolling"... can't seem to feather the breaks enough to come to complete stop without lurching. Very frustrating. Was hoping there was a software setting that could be adjusted. Will bring it up on my first service check (7500 miles).

cottoa00 said:

... Will bring it up on my first service check (7500 miles).

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Remember the battery "test" is an annual thing, not related to miles.
Should be scheduled between one day after and three months after the vehicle in service date.
If you wait past the three months Nissan may say you have lost warranty coverage.

I've noticed my 2015 having grabby brakes, but it's been in direct response with the cold weather outside. I've also noticed it very bad when trying to "creep" forward with the brakes already engaged. It takes some practice to get used to... kinda like getting in a new rental car for the first time. I'm not concerned with it yet. If it gets worse, however, I will have Nissan take a look at it.

My 2011 had grabby brakes. I took it in and had the TSB upgrade and that fixed it. Now with the temperature at freezing it has returned.

I've noticed that my grabby brakes are when I've been feathering the brake pedal. If I let off fully and then right back on, I can get smooth braking again.

1932highboy said:

My 2011 had grabby brakes. I took it in and had the TSB upgrade and that fixed it. Now with the temperature at freezing it has returned.

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same with my 2013 S -- had the TSB and it improved the brakes, but with the cold weather ~20*F - the grabbyness is back.

That's a real shame it's still an issue with the 2015. Though, at this point I've become such a pro at mitigating the problem that I don't even notice it.

My 2011 had this, and after the firmware update, it is less intense and doesn't happen as often. But it's still there. I'd say that if they still don't know what causes this after four years, there's not a lot of hope that they're working on the problem. It must unsolvable :? By the way, there are no breaks on my car. It uses brakes to stop.

I feel like this whole thread should be in the problems subforum but anyways, my 2015 suffers from this occasionally. Currently have about 1600 miles and have had this issue from the very beginning.

I'm just gonna jump in here a year later. I've had my 2011 for half a year now, and the grabby brakes are driving my crazy.

This thread tuned me into one solution I've not heard of, nor tried. If you come totally off the brake pedal, it'll stop doing the grab for a bit? That's good to know! In the meantime, my local Nissan dealer tells me that my car does have a TSB for the brakes. And they want a full hour of labor ($150) to upload the software.

Can anybody convince me that this is a permanent fix, and worth the $150?

darelldd said:

I'm just gonna jump in here a year later. I've had my 2011 for half a year now, and the grabby brakes are driving my crazy.

This thread tuned me into one solution I've not heard of, nor tried. If you come totally off the brake pedal, it'll stop doing the grab for a bit? That's good to know! In the meantime, my local Nissan dealer tells me that my car does have a TSB for the brakes. And they want a full hour of labor ($150) to upload the software.

Can anybody convince me that this is a permanent fix, and worth the $150?

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Hi Darell,

I didn't realize this was a warranty service rather than a safety recall. IMO, it should have been the latter. Oh, well.

Regarding the update, I will say that the brakes have been MUCH more manageable since the firmware update. Originally the grabbiness occurred at speeds as high as 10 MPH or so, which practically launches passengers out of their seats. Now it occurs only below about 2 MPH. As such, it is more of a minor annoyance than anything at this point.

I will also say that I believe a lot of the grabbiness is related to rust accumulation on the disks due to hypermiling. This issue of rust has been significantly reduced by the P3227 update which greatly reduces regen, thus requiring more frequent use of the brakes. Who needs high efficiency when you have such a massive battery, right? :roll:

Good luck!

Reg

darelldd said:

I'm just gonna jump in here a year later. I've had my 2011 for half a year now, and the grabby brakes are driving my crazy.

This thread tuned me into one solution I've not heard of, nor tried. If you come totally off the brake pedal, it'll stop doing the grab for a bit? That's good to know! In the meantime, my local Nissan dealer tells me that my car does have a TSB for the brakes. And they want a full hour of labor ($150) to upload the software.

Can anybody convince me that this is a permanent fix, and worth the $150?

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Mine was done long ago at no cost under warranty.

Agree it made a difference.

But biggest improvement has been from learning to totally get off the brake pedal.

But it makes switching back and forth between the wierd LEAF and normal Altima ICE a tricky proposition :shock:

Is this the latest info on grabby brakes on 2011/2012 MYs? Basically no news?

I tolerated the grabby brakes the first winter on my 2012 as it was fairly rare (maybe once every 2 weeks or so).

Second winter a bit worse, but still tolerable.

Third winter getting worse...

Fourth winter (car was 3 years old at this point) and I even had them do the brake fluid flush since I was hoping it would help (it didn't seem to).

Now we are in the fifth winter and it is close to what I would call unbearable, if not unsafe. It now does it ALL the time from speeds at around 15mph all the way down. In fact I wouldn't even call it "grabby" any more. It's more like the brakes are actually RELEASING. By that I mean I'll be coming up on stopped/slowed traffic and put even pressure on the brake, and it basically pulses on and off, as if I was completely releasing my foot from the brake.

I also have almost no regen bubbles when it's cold, even when the battery is down to well below 6 bars (I suspect this is related).

I really should take it to the dealer, but I'm just afraid I'll be wasting my money having them flush the brake fluid (didn't really help last year when I did it) and/or they'll tell me that it's just working as designed. I'll tell you what though, it's becoming what I would consider dangerous. Not so much because I don't think I'd be able to stop myself if I had to by pushing hard on the brakes, but just because the excessive grabby nature means that cars behind me may end up slamming on their brakes due to my jerky braking motion.

lpickup said:

Basically no news?

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Correct. No news.

But what you report is a lot different than standard grabby brakes.

More like defective component.
Someone did report a component replacement a long while back.
Think the dealer found it leaking.

But they did report the replacement solved the grabby brakes too.

Wow, thought it was just my car and I see this thread...what did everyone else find out...

TimLee said:

But what you report is a lot different than standard grabby brakes.

More like defective component.

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While I won't rule that out, the fact that it's only during cold weather and has been progressively getting worse each year (as opposed to a sudden onset), it doesn't lead me to believe it's a simple defective component, but rather possibly a more accelerated onset than average? Anyway, I think I will take it in anyway. Nissan actually did try their hardest (although ultimately unsuccessfully) to resolve a strange noise my wife's LEAF had, so if I can potentially get corporate to listen (and not just the dealer), there is hope.

So I was highly skeptical that it would have any impact at all, but I tried the "turn off the traction control and depress the brake pedal to the floor for 30 seconds" trick. By the way, that pedal goes WAY down...much further than I thought it would, and in fact there was a point where the feel of it changed about halfway down, like it was slightly less (or more, can't really remember) pressure required.

Anyway, it appears to have worked beautifully! I am completely amazed. Yes, I realize it may only be a temporary solution, but what the heck...it only cost me 60 seconds at a red light that I was stopped at anyway.

Which really makes me wonder why Nissan is so adamant that it's a "design feature" and working as designed and aren't willing to put in any effort to fix it, because it's probably a fairly simple fix.

Anyway, thought I would share my experience, as I had instant success with it.

lpickup said:

So I was highly skeptical that it would have any impact at all, but I tried the "turn off the traction control and depress the brake pedal to the floor for 30 seconds" trick. By the way, that pedal goes WAY down...much further than I thought it would, and in fact there was a point where the feel of it changed about halfway down, like it was slightly less (or more, can't really remember) pressure required.

Anyway, it appears to have worked beautifully! I am completely amazed. Yes, I realize it may only be a temporary solution, but what the heck...it only cost me 60 seconds at a red light that I was stopped at anyway...

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I've also used it successfully a number of times. But the last year or so my "grabby brake" problem has disappeared and not returned. I have no idea why: I've never had any brake related software updates done on my car. (Haven't even taken it to a dealer in well over a year since it has never needed any repairs and the silly battery check is worthless.)