NissanConnect EV / Telematics Hardware Update, for the post-2G world

My Nissan Leaf Forum

Help Support My Nissan Leaf Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
VitaminJ said:
Why would you wait until it's working to disconnect the 12v battery? The idea is to disconnect the 12v to make it start working. In your case it's probably worth it as your unit is working from the car out, but not from outside to the car. Also the EV warning lights your describing is classic weak 12v, which causes the TCU to go into standby.
I already disconnected the 12 volt weeks for ago to see I could get it working. It didn't help. See http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=491430#p491430.

As for "classic weak 12v" causing the EV warning light, I doubt it. I charge up my 12 volt w/an my Tecmate Optimate 4 every now and then, often every week or two.

I think it's pointless to disconnect the 12 volt at this point when the EV support folks called me yesterday telling me the process is NOT complete on their end yet and to wait until Wednesday.

edit: 12 volt charged on my Optimate 4 overnight last night. Disconnected this 12 volt charger this morning. Received my first "Nissan LEAF update: Charging Stopped" at 1:30 pm Pacific that I've seen since the shutdown and upgrade to 3G TCU. Nissan Connect iOS app status check w/valid GOM values worked at 1:39 pm.

No warning lights after unplugging (still using the 80% midnight to midnight timer trick) but these time, I left my Panlong OBD2 dongle unplugged, for good measure.

Still no phone call from EV support folks.
 
Reading through your post history you said that Nissan support told you it may start working between 4/28 and 5/2...and now it is working (partially). The negative battery pull originated as a way to turn a partially working TCU into a fully working TCU and the culprit is low voltage on the 12v battery, typically overnight as the car sits undriven and the temperature lowers. You may indeed wait for Nissan to call you back instead.

I'm going to again suspect your 12v battery as you use a trickle charger on it, leading me to believe it's gone down on you before.

Lastly, you are talking about what you think is pointless, but what is actually pointless is removing the negative battery terminal from a fully functioning car. I'm not sure why you got that in your head as something you want to do or what it would tell you but from where I am sitting your are going about this whole process backwards. You reported a change in the behavior of your car's TCU, based on that change I offered advice, you denied my advice based on your experience from weeks ago before said change took place.
 
The 12-volt battery was not weak in my case. The incomplete shutdown sequence errors happened when I did not get charge complete notifications and were the apparent cause of the completely drained 12-volt battery. The plug in reminder and charge complete notifications along with remote status updates started working again after the car was jump-started to drive it and allow the 12-volt battery to recharge. The 12-volt battery is still OK after being completely discharged 3 months ago and the telematics unit (and EV Connect) has been functioning correctly ever since that incident. I never used an external 12-volt charger on the 2011 and have not yet used one on the 2015 (50k miles on 2011 and 39k miles so far on 2015).
 
OK, I just had the TCU updated and no matter what, I can't get logged in. It says "Connecting to information center" but then says the connection failed. I'll be calling Nissan tomorrow

(If they don't get it working, I'm asking for my $200 back.)
 
I first tried the Nissan EV Support line; they told me to go back to the dealer (who had said "it should just work").

I ended up calling the NissanConnect number, who looked up my portal login and told me there was a typo in my email. I don't know what that was: I had no problem logging into the portal. It was the car connecting to their service that was failing (on the initial sign-in).

I kept trying to sign-in the car while on the phone with her and all of a sudden it started to work. At almost the exact same time, she told me she could find nothing wrong. :?

None-the-less, I'm now able to remotely access the car again. The other interesting thing is that Nissano and LEAF Manager immediately worked, but the Nissan EV app didn't succeed in an update for about an hour. :roll:
 
The "fuse pull" (#34 Audio) seems to do the trick every time my car stops "talking" to the server. It would seem as though Nissan could isolate and fix whatever timeout is happening with the new TCU. Until then, I'm just going to execute the "fuse pull" maneuver whenever my "charge complete" messages stop showing up.
 
Stanton said:
The "fuse pull" (#34 Audio) seems to do the trick every time my car stops "talking" to the server. It would seem as though Nissan could isolate and fix whatever timeout is happening with the new TCU. Until then, I'm just going to execute the "fuse pull" maneuver whenever my "charge complete" messages stop showing up.
If you are needing to do the reset every few days or weeks then you need to stop mucking around and replace your 12v battery. With a healthy 12v the TCU will work 100%.
 
VitaminJ said:
Stanton said:
The "fuse pull" (#34 Audio) seems to do the trick every time my car stops "talking" to the server. It would seem as though Nissan could isolate and fix whatever timeout is happening with the new TCU. Until then, I'm just going to execute the "fuse pull" maneuver whenever my "charge complete" messages stop showing up.
If you are needing to do the reset every few days or weeks then you need to stop mucking around and replace your 12v battery. With a healthy 12v the TCU will work 100%.

Sorry, but I'm not convinced that all, most or even many of the problems with the TCU are due to a weak 12V battery.

After getting three TCUs installed, the third one has mostly just worked. The first two never even once worked. Not even a little bit.

One reset, a week after install. None since then.
 
WetEV said:
Sorry, but I'm not convinced that all, most or even many of the problems with the TCU are due to a weak 12V battery.

After getting three TCUs installed, the third one has mostly just worked. The first two never even once worked. Not even a little bit.

One reset, a week after install. None since then.
Hi! Welcome to post # 669 in this thread! Take a look around, there is lots of info to read! Stick around for some discussion!

Fuse pull = fixed? That's the 12v battery, nothing else.
 
WetEV said:
Logic reset.
Again, you are showing your ignorance.

As I have proven in this thread, pulling the fuse DOES NOT reset the TCU if the 12v battery is charged well. The fuse trick ONLY works when the 12v battery is weak in the first place.
 
VitaminJ said:
WetEV said:
Logic reset.
Again, you are showing your ignorance.

As I have proven in this thread, pulling the fuse DOES NOT reset the TCU if the 12v battery is charged well. The fuse trick ONLY works when the 12v battery is weak in the first place.

Calling me ignorant isn't convincing me.

Suppose your computer crashes. Power off then power on might will get it to boot up again. This trick works even if the power supply is exactly correct.

The TCU is, among other things, a small computer.
 
I'm the guy who discovered the link between the 12v battery and the TCU in the first place. You would be convinced already if you had read the posts and experiments that lead me to that conclusion.
 
VitaminJ said:
I'm the guy who discovered the link between the 12v battery and the TCU in the first place. You would be convinced already if you had read the posts and experiments that lead me to that conclusion.

I did.

I'm not.
 
Continuation from http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=492766#p492766 and http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=493278#p493278 ...

First off, I haven't followed this thread closely due to lack of interest and time. I've been really busy w/work and we have little visibility into the process, Nissan's systems, etc. 99+% of the people who get the TCU upgrade expect it to work and not require repeat visits to the dealer, calling Nissan support, etc., me included.

Since people have just been experimenting, I tried the first logical thing after getting nowhere w/Nissan support: pulling the 12 volt.
VitaminJ said:
Reading through your post history you said that Nissan support told you it may start working between 4/28 and 5/2...and now it is working (partially). The negative battery pull originated as a way to turn a partially working TCU into a fully working TCU and the culprit is low voltage on the 12v battery, typically overnight as the car sits undriven and the temperature lowers. You may indeed wait for Nissan to call you back instead.

I'm going to again suspect your 12v battery as you use a trickle charger on it, leading me to believe it's gone down on you before.

Lastly, you are talking about what you think is pointless, but what is actually pointless is removing the negative battery terminal from a fully functioning car. I'm not sure why you got that in your head as something you want to do or what it would tell you but from where I am sitting your are going about this whole process backwards. You reported a change in the behavior of your car's TCU, based on that change I offered advice, you denied my advice based on your experience from weeks ago before said change took place.
To me, it's pointless to screw around w/the 12 volt when they know they're not done on their side. Backwards? I went thru the process the best I could.

More chronology, now that I've found some time but a call or two might be missing:
Mon, 5/1 - received voice mail that they're still working on it and will get back to my by Wednesday
Wed, 5/3 - voicemail w/update on my escalated case from Sirius XM (they used these words), was sent to escalation on 4/27. They received email that it's been escalated to a lead specialist. No update. Will call me back in 2 days: Friday.
Fri, 5/5 - no phone call

At some point between 5/1 and 5/8, more stuff was working but the NissanConnect iOS app had funky behavior like being able to update but then telling me an error had occurred and that I'd need to sign out and back in. That didn't help as the error would happen again.

Mon, 5/8 - I received a call and spoke for 2 minutes as I was driving and going to be late to a work meeting if I stopped to talk in any detail. I think by that point, everything was fully working before she even called, possibly Thursday or Friday.

All had been well for awhile and even the yellow ! car icon stopped happening after charging. Everything was all working perfectly thru 5/15/17 until 5/16/17.

Today (5/16), I noticed no charging completion notification email. Status updates from the iOS app wouldn't work (would show 0 miles). Status updates via their web site (login via https://owners.nissanusa.com/nowners/) wouldn't work either. Remote command via iOS app to start charging would fail. Received auto-generated email "Nissan LEAF update: Start Charge Request Failed..."

And, no surprise, I got a yellow ! car after I returned to my car after charging today.

Sigh... It's annoying I've wasted a bunch of time on this. I wouldn't be surprised if I have to call Nissan EV support again. The original 2G/2.5G TCU never had these probs on this Leaf nor the previous '13 I leased for 2 years.

I previously hadn't cleared any DTCs since it can hinder diagnosis. I figured, well, I'm going to do it anyway and see if they return.
P3131 000B EV/HEV System Shutoff Timeout EVC-220

U1A00 0008 TCU ACC No Conn AV-194
U1A04 0008 TCU VIN Unfinished AV-198
U1A05 0008 TCU USB Comm AV-199

Let's see if these return. I have a screenshot from 4/28 w/the above DTCs present, just like they were tonight (5/16).

As for 12 volt, I keep it topped up for a potentially longer life usually once a week or so, since it's well-known the charging algorithm is crap. Lead acid batteries like to be full. The algorithm doesn't do that at all. I also move around my car often 1-2 times a day besides a short drive + normal driving, which means it's drained more for startup and there's very little DC to DC converter on-time during the moves. And yes, once I had a scary no start situation w/my uncalibrated OBD2 dongle showing a low voltage. (I'm pretty sure this was BEFORE I paid for the 3G TCU uprgade.)

The 12 volt that came w/my used Leaf went bad and was replaced for free in Oct 2015 (http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=440192#p440192 then http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=440419#p440419). The replacement looks rather different than the original.

edit: added clarification as to when I had my one time no start episode on my replacement (current) 12 volt
 
I did the upgrade, and it worked for a week. I called Nissan and they told me to go back to the dealer for a replacement. That is when I came to this board and I read that if I disconnected the 12v and waited 5 minutes it would reset. Well, it did.

That did not last long. After reading more I learned about the Battery Minder to desulphate the battery and slowly raise the voltage of the battery back up to as-new levels. I bought the extension to permanently attach the leads to the terminals, then I drilled a small hole in the plastic at the charging "flap". Now, when I am not leaving the next morning to go out I plug in the Minder. This is done once a week, and if I miss two to three weeks the battery level falls, and the TCU stops communicating.

For example, yesterday, for two days the TCU would not connect through the internet or my cellphone. I came home and plugged in the battery minder. This morning I checked and it responded within 30 seconds. No, the EVSE was not plugged in, and I do not plug it in when the minder is attached.

My battery is the original one, 7/14 car manufacture date.

Your experiences may differ...
 
From the above, what i'm hearing is that people did not have 12V battery problems before performing the 2G --> 3G telematics upgrade but do have 12V problems after.

I know that from my experience, with 65k miles on the car, my problems began within 2 days of having the telematics upgrade done. I've been through 5 batteries since the 'upgrade' was performed in December, and regret it deeply.

This leads me to believe that the telematics unit plays a part in the 12V battery. Perhaps the mediocre charging algorithm was adequate enough to cope with the previous generation TCU but not with the likely-greater-power-draw of the newer generation. That seems reasonable to me (thanks, Occam!) but I could be wrong (thanks Hickam!).

In either case, if these problems don't resolve, I'm moving away from a Leaf, likely towards a Hyundai Ioniq with their very appealing (to a 20k/year driver) unlimited mileage lease.

Picking the car up from the dealer today, after two weeks, 3rd time it's there since the telematics upgrade. They didn't identify or thereby resolve the problem, but assured me that "it turned on for 3 days in a row" so I'm very comforted and going to test drive a Hyundai in the next week or two.

Best,
Tal
 
taloyd said:
From the above, what i'm hearing is that people did not have 12V battery problems before performing the 2G --> 3G telematics upgrade but do have 12V problems after.

I know that from my experience, with 65k miles on the car, my problems began within 2 days of having the telematics upgrade done. I've been through 5 batteries since the 'upgrade' was performed in December, and regret it deeply.

This leads me to believe that the telematics unit plays a part in the 12V battery. Perhaps the mediocre charging algorithm was adequate enough to cope with the previous generation TCU but not with the likely-greater-power-draw of the newer generation. That seems reasonable to me (thanks, Occam!) but I could be wrong (thanks Hickam!).
I doubt the power draw of the 3G TCU could be that high vs. the old 2G one. However, I suspect either a design flaw or software/firmware bug that's preventing it or some other system in the car from going into a lower power state.

Or, you have some mysterious drain or problem charging the 12 volt (via DC to DC converter) that happened to develop around the same time. The charging problem could be hardware or software.

---------------------------------------------------------------
Continuation from http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=494729#p494729:

Had used 12 volt charger overnight. Unplugged morning of Wed 5/17.

Nissan Connect didn’t look like it was working. In the afternoon, the iOS app would show 0 miles. Didn’t receive charging complete email. When I went back to my car, I saw the yellow ! car re-appear. Checked DTCs but didn’t make a note as I had to go somewhere immediately. I later confirmed it was the same as before:
P3131 000B EV/HEV System Shutoff Timeout EVC-220

Eventually yellow ! car went away. Later in the day, I heard the nav system recite stats from its feed.

At 9:13 pm, the Nissan Connect iOS app was working. It was able to retrieve proper values and charging status Charging complete email showed up at 10:25 pm and there was no yellow ! car on the dash.

Let's see if this problem recurs, goes away, recurs, etc.
 
I had the TCU update done 3 weeks ago. It finally started working after I called them.

I was getting charge completed SMS messages, but the Android app would never finish an update -- it would only hang there spinning. If I went to the website and clicked 'Refresh', it would get an update from the car (it still took 30s, but at least it completed).

I uninstalled and reinstalled the app for a completely fresh state, and it started working - at least when I manually selected update. If I turn "Update at Startup" back on, then it goes back to never finishing an update. So I think all the uninstall did was reset this setting back to the default (off) and that's why it started working.

So I'm just using the app with "update at startup" turned off.
 
Back
Top