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

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I'm actually wishing I hadn't done it. I had finally gotten used to checking the car each day to see if it was plugged in yet (*), so I could have lived without the (normally) unreliable network access. That the 12V battery can be drained is an altogether new hassle, and I could've saved $200 by not having it done.

(*) We have 20+ shared EVSEs at work, and if I can find out if I've been plugged in yet, it can save me a walk to the parking garage.
 
GerryAZ said:
I had a couple of times in the last week without receiving plug in reminder/charge complete emails and texts and I noticed that remote climate control/status updates were no longer working. I pulled the 20-ampere fuse (number 34) for a minute or two this morning before starting the car and everything is working fine again. I hope that a future software update for the telematics unit will fix this occasional glitch, but in the mean time I can pull the fuse whenever necessary.

Someone with more automotive / electrical know-how than me: is there any way to automate this process? E.g., every time the car is shut off, cut power to that one fuse, wait ten seconds, then fire it up again? Like an in-line fuse holster with a timer relay, hooked up to something that would signal a power-off state?

Sad to consider resorting to this, but frustrating to have to pop the hood each time the Leaf stops talking to me.
 
In my case it has only failed twice in 6 months so it is not worth the effort to design a suitable circuit (which might cause other issues). Also, I'm not sure how long the fuse needs to be out in order to reset the telematics unit (10 seconds may not be enough.
 
GerryAZ said:
In my case it has only failed twice in 6 months so it is not worth the effort to design a suitable circuit (which might cause other issues). Also, I'm not sure how long the fuse needs to be out in order to reset the telematics unit (10 seconds may not be enough.

^^^ THIS...plus you can hear a faint "click" when you pull the fuse...after which you can plug it back in.
The car will start responding to commands again almost immediately after you re-boot.
 
For anyone buying a used Leaf what is the process to tell if the Telematics has been updated or not? I just purchased a car that I am waiting to be shipped to me. However I do not know if it has the updated telematics. Is there an easy way to check this when the car gets here? You guys have me a bit worried. I am kind of hoping that it hasn't been updated given the issues being reported here.

Also the next question is regarding the fee or subscription. Is Nissan charging for NissanConnect on these or are they still providing the service free of cost? Thanks.
 
MalcolmReynolds said:
For anyone buying a used Leaf what is the process to tell if the Telematics has been updated or not? I just purchased a car that I am waiting to be shipped to me. However I do not know if it has the updated telematics. Is there an easy way to check this when the car gets here? You guys have me a bit worried. I am kind of hoping that it hasn't been updated given the issues being reported here.
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=496305#p496305
MalcolmReynolds said:
Also the next question is regarding the fee or subscription. Is Nissan charging for NissanConnect on these or are they still providing the service free of cost? Thanks.
It's still free.
 
MalcolmReynolds said:
Thank you that is very helpful. I will make sure to check it out as soon as the car arrives.
No prob. I realized I should've pointed to http://mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=477934#p477934 instead. There apparently can be some confusion as to those numbers.
 
Another way to check is to set up your account in the owner's portal, & try to connect to the car. If it needs an update, you should get an error message to that effect.

Note: new owners of a used vehicle may need to contact support to get the VIN # re-registered.
 
I can confirm that if you bought a used Leaf you will likely have to contact customer support to get the car released from the previous owner and moved over to your account.

I tried this last night and it tells me I need to call to get it released. You have to provide some sort of proof you own it now. So I will try to get some time to fight that battle some time this week. On a side note the telematics system here at my house says there is no service. I don't know if it is my location, or the telematics unit, or what might be the cause of that error. I will try again when I am out running errands today to see if location makes a difference.
 
I contacted the owners portal to get my car added to the system and they informed me that the TCU needed to be upgraded. They also told me that there is a recall for some airbag reprogramming. So the car is going in for the airbag work.

Now I am trying to determine if I should risk messing with the TCU upgrade. It sounds like far more problems than it is worth, but I would like to get your feedback. Does this affect everyone who has done the TCU upgrade to have to mess with fuse pulls, and dead batteries? Or is it just some units that have this issue? Thoughts?
 
MalcolmReynolds said:
I contacted the owners portal to get my car added to the system and they informed me that the TCU needed to be upgraded. They also told me that there is a recall for some airbag reprogramming. So the car is going in for the airbag work.

Now I am trying to determine if I should risk messing with the TCU upgrade. It sounds like far more problems than it is worth, but I would like to get your feedback. Does this affect everyone who has done the TCU upgrade to have to mess with fuse pulls, and dead batteries? Or is it just some units that have this issue? Thoughts?

I had the TCU replaced and the air bag recall on my 2015 completed in December. The air bag indicator now stays on all the time unless there is an adult in the passenger seat so that is annoying. The TCU worked flawlessly for 30 days. I then had the EV system warning light after charging for a couple of days (light would clear after turning car off and back on) and did not get charge complete messages those days. I ran some errands in the morning that second day to get the battery down to between 60% and 70% SOC before parking in the driveway and leaving for an out of town trip in another vehicle. I returned 5 or 6 days later to a completely dead Leaf. I connected a 12-volt booster battery long enough to start the Leaf then ran some errands. I charged the car over night and received charge complete messages (text and email) normally. The EV system warning light did not come on when I started it so the TCU was apparently reset by the complete discharge of the 12-volt battery. It was fine until some time in June so I had to pull the fuse. I can handle pulling the fuse once every few months for the convenience of using remote climate control and the other features of EV Connect.

My recommendation is get the upgrade if you want to use the features of EV Connect, but make sure you go to a dealer that has plenty of experience performing the upgrade. If you don't care about remote climate control and text/email status messages, then skip the upgrade.
 
Continuation of my last post from http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=495975#p495975 ...

I've not had a single DTC P3131 nor yellow ! car light since the last one on 6/20/17.

Prior to 6/20/17, I had it bunch of times. I'd confirm it was the same code, clear it and the DTC and warning light would surface later within a day or maybe a week at most. As I think I mentioned elsewhere, a well-known Leaf tech in the PNW on FB suggested it might be due to a connected OBD2 dongle at the time of shutdown. I found 0 correlation to that. I could receive it when none was connected.

Anyway, from hints elsewhere here, someone turned off/declined data transmission to Nissan. I do that now and leave it that way. From my notes, it looks like that still doesn't help. And, oddly (?), even though it's declined, I will still sometimes (usually) receive charging complete/stopped emails from Nissan Connect. And, I can usually still check charging status and GOM via their iOS app.

I did do Delete Saved Locations & Reset Messages so my Saved locations for unplugged messages is empty. I think I turned off Autosave New Charging Station. It's hard for me to know what's really off/on because most Carwings settings are inaccessible when you decline and only accessible when you accept. It's unknown if the latter changes any settings/defaults.

I now definitely receive no more plug-in reminders.

I think the bolded part is the key to no DTCs. If possible, disable anything and everything related to transmitting, autosaving, and auto-updating. I haven't done any fuse or battery pulls since my last post on 5/31/17 nor called Nissan. Leaving my OBD2 dongle connected on shutdown hasn't caused any DTCs or warning lights either.

I usually park at work in a covered concrete parking structure (so no GPS signal) and sometimes in areas w/almost no AT&T coverage. Most of my charging is at work in that structure, as well. Sometimes, I move my car to/from the station within the garage, all w/o GPS signal. Sometimes, I charge underground in another garage (GPS cannot work down there).

Perhaps there's some bug related to added/preferred charging station locations and it wanting to send or not send a reminder? I wonder if my GPS and AT&T conditions on conjunction are related? I really hope Nissan can figure this out and issue a fix for this. Hoping the TCU is flashable.

MalcolmReynolds: As I said, I haven't mucked w/fuse nor battery pulls. If I had a dead 12 volt since the TCU upgrade, it's happened either only 0 or 1 time. I do at least weekly charge my 12 volt with an Optimate 4 charger, so if the TCU is causing an excess drain, my 12 volt charging is masking it.

I'd suggest you hold off for now, unless you really want to use the features. I do agree w/Gerry's point in finding a dealer that has plenty of experience doing the upgrade. I figured the one I went to would but I had to go back (http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=492766#p492766). Don't worry about the "hack" reference. I'm pretty sure they were referring to https://www.slashgear.com/nissan-shuts-down-nissanconnect-ev-app-due-to-hacking-exploit-25429095/, which finally got addressed.
 
MalcolmReynolds said:
Now I am trying to determine if I should risk messing with the TCU upgrade. It sounds like far more problems than it is worth, but I would like to get your feedback. Does this affect everyone who has done the TCU upgrade to have to mess with fuse pulls, and dead batteries? Or is it just some units that have this issue? Thoughts?

I guess I'll "weigh in" to break the tie on feedback you've specifically received.
If you like/use any of the remote car functions (like charge complete messages), I recommend you get the TCU upgrade as it's the only way to continue the service. At this point it's obvious that Nissan is never going to charge (current owners) for the CarWings/EVConnect service, so $199 is not a bad deal if you're keeping the car.
To answer your other question: I haven't had any 12v battery issues, and I can live with the "fuse pull" whenever I stop getting messages (once every few months). At least the fuse is easily accessible.
 
I recently had the upgrade done. I had a devil of a time after the fact accepting the terms of service on the website and having the system recognize that I had actually done the upgrade. It was about 2 weeks before Nissan finally fixed the issue which they said was with their website. After that however I am happy to report it seems to be working fine even though I am in Canada and the vehicle is a US import with a US 3g upgrade unit set to ATnT. I really appreciate being able to check on the state of charge when at a public charging station. :)
 
At the risk of reposting information that someone else already posted in the last 71+ pages (I did scan through them first), I thought I'd share my update. I have a 2013 SV, got my 3G TCU upgrade in Dec. 2016, and have suffered through the trials and tribulations that everyone else has referenced. After performing my 10th fuse pull last week, the frustration got to me and I called the Nissan EV support center. I got the standard runaround from a friendly level one representative and after a week of mind numbing back and forth calls with him, I demanded to be escalated.

I received a call the next day from a member of the escalation department and he too was very friendly. The key difference was that he apologetically acknowledged that Nissan is well aware of this problem with the 3G TCU and they conducted a "scramble" in June, bringing engineer's from overseas to the United States for the purpose of diagnosing and developing a fix. He said that a fix is in the works and should be available soon. He then shared that, although not formally prescribed by Nissan, in the interim, a fuse pull will solve the issue (resetting the TCU) without the safety risks or side effects of disconnecting the battery terminal. He also mentioned that there was a sequence one could follow to reset a wedged TCU, it involved updating in the app data in concert with turning the car on and off. I apologize that I was unable to clearly document the specifics of that sequence - I sorta tuned out when he said it only worked 7 out of 10 times during their testing.

My personal guess is there will be a recall campaign of sorts in the next 2 to 4 months that involves bringing the vehicle back to the dealer to either replace the 3G TCU hardware or perform some type of software update. Far from ideal, but much better than their previous response that they had not heard of the issue and if my 12 volt battery was going dead, it was because it was a bad battery... So, between now and the "fix" I will pay closer attention to whether or not the car sends the notifications I've set. When I notice it didn't, I'll perform a fuse pull. In the event I miss one and discover a dead battery, I will simply use the small, nifty lithium power bank I picked up from Costco thanks to the post of a kind member in this forum... Cheers!
 
Plugg said:
He said that a fix is in the works and should be available soon. He then shared that, although not formally prescribed by Nissan, in the interim, a fuse pull will solve the issue (resetting the TCU) without the safety risks or side effects of disconnecting the battery terminal. He also mentioned that there was a sequence one could follow to reset a wedged TCU, it involved updating in the app data in concert with turning the car on and off. I apologize that I was unable to clearly document the specifics of that sequence - I sorta tuned out when he said it only worked 7 out of 10 times during their testing.
That is a positive bit of news. Nissan is aware, they are working the issue, and hopefully there will be some sort of update, upgrade, or fix of some sort so that these systems begin to work as they should. That is exactly what I was hoping to hear.

Once members of our community hear about this upgrade and share their experiences then I would be interested in upgrading the car. But until I hear you guys all signaling "all clear, come on in the water is fine" I will just keep watching for updates. This is at least a positive piece of news that something may be happening soon to remedy the situation.
 
Plugg said:
My personal guess is there will be a recall campaign of sorts in the next 2 to 4 months that involves bringing the vehicle back to the dealer to either replace the 3G TCU hardware or perform some type of software update.
Thanks for the update!

Recalls are generally for safety defects or non-conformance with FMVSS. More likely would be a service campaign or TSB issued.

I may turn back on some of the features and let it save charging spots to get the yellow ! car light and DTC to register and thus appear when I take my car in for its annual battery check (a bit overdue). At least, the dealer and Nissan can have another data point.

I know what you mean about mind numbing. It doesn't seem like some of their support folks are that knowledgeable. I have no time to go down that route nor bring my car in for multiple visits, which may not solve anything (for now) anyway.
 
That certainly is good news if true regarding Nissan working on a fix for the glitchy connectivity.

As far as whether the features are worth it... All it took for me to know was one particular DCQC session after my 3G upgrade. I plugged in, started charging, & headed off for coffee... About 12 steps from my car I got a text that charging had stopped. Returned to the vehicle to find an error message on the charger. Saved me half an hour & a lot of headache. That alone was worth the price if admission.
 
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