Nissan offers 2G Leaf owners a $199 3G upgrade, with just 24 days left

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I had the upgrade done on our 2013 Leaf, mid December(in Raleigh NC area). As I remember, you need to generate carwings id and password on Nissan Connect web site. Btw, you would use Nissan ConnectEV app to connect back to the car from phone. It took a while for me to figure all of this out. As we bought the car used and had to jump through some more hoops in proving to Nissan that I am the actual owner!

-Ram
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2013 Nissan Leaf SV. Added MobileEye and backup cam(first car for the teenager!)
 
I received a letter mailed by Nissan informing me the ATT 2G will stop working and for $199 Nissan will install a new module that will replace the old 2G module. They didn't say who will pay any monthly service charges for the use of the cell network or which network provider it supports. I suppose it is the same old ATT. What I need is a WiFI module installed so the service provider becomes generic and without charge. I have a T-Mobile "hot-spot" I pay $20/month. I use it for cell phone and iPOD streaming music from Accuradio or Pandora. If my 2011 Leaf would use WiFi instead of ATT to connect to the Internet, it would be great! Plus it wouldn't be dedicated to a single service provider.
 
A -2F morning here in NH with a non-functioning CARWINGS precondition feature made the loss of the 2G network real for me... I'm with redhat... I'm a bit anxious spending $199 for a 3G module with no mention of service fees. I'm OK with the 'co pay' as a onetime fee if the connectivity service remains free. I'd just hate to spend the capital to find out they'll be hitting us with monthly fees.. Did I miss something? Anyone out there working on a wifi or bluetooth third party module?
 
ramtnc said:
I had the upgrade done on our 2013 Leaf, mid December(in Raleigh NC area). As I remember, you need to generate carwings id and password on Nissan Connect web site.
I'm in the same boat, complicated by all the changes Nissan has made since 2011. The web site has changed from CarWings to Nissan Owner's Portal, and possibly to NissanConnect. The original service used a 10 character username. The current web site uses my email address as username, but I cannot enter that username into the car which limits that field to 16 characters.

Using my original short username and either the original CarWings password or the new NissanConnect password fails. But the unhelpful error message is that the car cannot connect to service. Which could mean either that the password is incorrect, or that the old username cannot be used, or that the radio actually cannot connect.
 
walterbays said:
ramtnc said:
I had the upgrade done on our 2013 Leaf, mid December(in Raleigh NC area). As I remember, you need to generate carwings id and password on Nissan Connect web site.
I'm in the same boat, complicated by all the changes Nissan has made since 2011. The web site has changed from CarWings to Nissan Owner's Portal, and possibly to NissanConnect. The original service used a 10 character username. The current web site uses my email address as username, but I cannot enter that username into the car which limits that field to 16 characters.

Using my original short username and either the original CarWings password or the new NissanConnect password fails. But the unhelpful error message is that the car cannot connect to service. Which could mean either that the password is incorrect, or that the old username cannot be used, or that the radio actually cannot connect.
The login for the car is different than the one for the app/website. You can get the login from the website.
Go to https://owners.nissanusa.com/nowners/ , log in with you email and password, under "Manage Vehicle" click on the link for "Looking for your NissanConnectEV PIN and Password?", and you can use this login information on the car. If you get any errors at this point, use the contact information from https://www.nissanusa.com/apps/contactus and call them at (877) NO GAS EV (or 877-664-2738) with options 1 followed by 6 to reach a specialist. It seems that quite a few of us are having trouble since the 3G upgrade, so I recommend calling in and requesting escalation if you have trouble. Hopefully if enough people request escalation then someone will actually take notice and fix it.

UPDATE: My 3G TCU is working correctly. I'm not sure if they updated something on the server side, it just needed more time, or if Nissan Corporate went in and manually fixed it, but it's working as expected now.
 
I just purchased my 2013 Leaf and I don't have a problem with this voluntary upgrade. I have my appointment scheduled for Saturday and I can't wait to heat up my car remotely!

It's a modest co-payment for free ongoing access to cellular network and a small fraction of the total cost of the update.
 
cwerdna said:
baustin said:
They could probably be moved to the T-Mobile network with just a SIM card change, if they still offered 2G service.
Has anyone tried swapping the SIM for a T-Mobile one and confirming that it works?

I found https://newsroom.t-mobile.com/news-and-blogs/att-2g-iot-lifeline.htm. Not sure how much data goes up/down each month via Nissan Connect.
Any word on this? Anyone tried?

It seems the AT&T 2G service in my part of the SF Bay Area stopped working sometime last week.

If I could get a free SIM w/no monthly service fee, that's obviously FAR preferred to paying $199.
 
cwerdna said:
cwerdna said:
baustin said:
They could probably be moved to the T-Mobile network with just a SIM card change, if they still offered 2G service.
Has anyone tried swapping the SIM for a T-Mobile one and confirming that it works?

I found https://newsroom.t-mobile.com/news-and-blogs/att-2g-iot-lifeline.htm. Not sure how much data goes up/down each month via Nissan Connect.
Any word on this? Anyone tried?

It seems the AT&T 2G service in my part of the SF Bay Area stopped working sometime last week.

If I could get a free SIM w/no monthly service fee, that's obviously FAR preferred to paying $199.

I'm sure T-Mobile will give you a SIM for free. You will be responsible for the ongoing monthly connection fee to the T-Mobile network. Whether or not it will work is unknown. Maybe you can find someone with T-Mobile service and borrow their SIM card long enough to test it in the 2G TCU (assuming it has an accessible SIM card).

The 2G service here was turned off last Wednesday (the fourth). I opted to pay the $199 for the TCU replacement.
 
I actually have 2 T-Mobile SIMs w/service, but would rather not have to remove the glovebox again to try it... Hoping someone else already did. :)

And, I don't know if I can get a T-Mobile SIM w/a low enough monthly fee (or one w/free monthly service) to make it worth it, assuming it even works. There could need to be APN configuration on the car (nav system) side.
 
If that actually works, I have an extra SIM with T-mobile service as well. I'd love to plop it into the Leaf to get carwings back.
 
I went ahead and replaced the AT&T SIM card in my TCU with a T-Mobile SIM card. This post was helpful. Remove the glove box, Detach the TCU, remove the SIM card cover, and replacing it is pretty simple.

First the good news:
  • The "SIM ID" and "TCU Phone No." fields shown on the Nav's SIM information screen have been updated.
  • The Nav unit was showing no signal (like this), and now shows a signal (like this)!

But all attempts to contact the CarWings server are failing. I'm guessing that the CarWings server is checking that the request contains the correct SIM ID, and ignoring it if it does not. If anybody has any ideas of next steps to attempt, please let me know.
 
The point is moot. If you have an older Leaf you have two choices. Upgrade for $199 or loose the Carwings functions. I personally have not used Carwings since I got my Leaf. The climate timer is more useful for me to warm the car. Never the less I am having the upgrade done next month since it could come in handy in the future. We are so used to getting things for free in today's economy, we forget that someone has to pay for the cell service, and also for the tech to install the hardware. The cost of the hardware is negligible. When you concider the Billions that Nissan spent developing the Leaf and the money they lost with the unfortunate timing of the drop in fuel prices. This car is a bargin.
 
My car is at Nissan for the 3G upgrade now. When I pick it up is there something I should check before leaving? From what I've read NIssan needs 48 hours to refresh the info in their database so it probably won't work today, but is there some other sign of functionality I should check? This Nissan dealer is definitely Leaf certified and knew exactly what I was asking about so I think I'm good on that front.
 
VitaminJ said:
My car is at Nissan for the 3G upgrade now. When I pick it up is there something I should check before leaving? From what I've read NIssan needs 48 hours to refresh the info in their database so it probably won't work today, but is there some other sign of functionality I should check? This Nissan dealer is definitely Leaf certified and knew exactly what I was asking about so I think I'm good on that front.

The dealer will say it takes 4 hours to 4 days for the server to connect. The Nissan Leaf phone folks will tell you that they should verify it is working before you leave the lot. Before you leave, go into Carwings and navigate to Unit ID Information and make sure all the numbers are populated. Once numbers are there it will be a matter of time.

Sometimes the numbers will turn to asterisks after a day or so, and they will want you to take the car in for a reset. You can do that yourself by removing the negative battery terminal for 5 minutes, then reinstall it and wait a minute. That will reset the TCU and repopulate the numbers.
 
Perfect, thanks! That's exactly what I was hoping for. I'm already signed up on NissanConnectEV and have had Nissan change the registration from the previous owner to me.
 
Well it works! I was able to sign in in the parking lot and everything appears to be functioning 100% already. This dealer knew what they were doing and also gave me a two-page instructions sheet which I will scan later for others to use. It basically just tells you to sign in. The app works and I can also update all the nav stuff in the car. So much for 4 - 48 hours!
 
is the carwings / nissan connect still free or are you guys having to pay monthly after getting the hardware upgraded?
 
estomax said:
is the carwings / nissan connect still free or are you guys having to pay monthly after getting the hardware upgraded?

It still continues at no additional charge. For how long, no one knows. Originally, it was intended to be a pay service after the first three years. It is speculated that Nissan will continue the service at no charge since they are asking the user to share in the hardware upgrade cost.
 
Got my new unit installed Friday and everything is working great again! Seems to work faster too. Honestly, the only thing I use this for is to turn cooling/heating on a few times a year, but it sucked not being able to when I wanted. Plus I figure it's best to keep my cars fully functional as long as I have them. Easily worth the $199 in my book.
 
I got mine upgraded. it worked for 1 day. now it doesn't. It's throwing codes related to the TCU (and the 'EV system' warning light is turning on after overnight charging...).

I'm going back to the dealer to try to resolve.
 
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