Can regen cancel turle mode?

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.

rolfdust

New member
Joined
Feb 13, 2018
Messages
2
Location
Cape Town, RSA
Just got my 2015 Leaf about a month ago and am absolutely loving the ride.

My daily commute takes me over a mountain pass and it has been a quick learning curve to ensure I have enough range to reach the summit, them I gain about 12% range by the time I reach home. Have had the LBW on a few times already, don't want to test turtle mode, but would be nice to know the answer to my question just in case it happens one day and I can get over the summit then regen home. Be a bit of a bugger if speed is limited even once i have enough range from the regen.
 
Welcome to the forum, rolfdust!

I don't know the answer to your question, but I will tell you a couple of things which might be helpful:

1) Most people on here avoid the turtle like the plague. Why? Because once you hit turtle, your car could disconnect the battery at any time. I have seen it only once in nearly six years of ownership and I was just barely able to make it home from two miles away on flat, slightly downhill land. If you hit turtle going up a mountain, you will lose most of your power and may find that you cannot make it to the summit before the contactor to the battery opens.
2) If you get to the point where the contactor opens, you have to add quite a bit of energy back into the battery before the vehicle will start again. In other words, you can't just put in a mile or two worth of charge and drive, even if that is all you need to get home.
3) The good news is that when you hit LBW, you may have fifteen or more miles available before you see the turtle, depending on terrain, weather, condition of your battery, etc.

Interestingly, the one time I hit turtle, I was about 14 miles from home and just starting to climb the other side of a nearby mountain when LBW occurred. I climbed over the mountain and regened on the way down, hitting VLBW about six miles from home. Turtle came on about two miles from home and the contactor opened as I costed up our driveway. The childtren pushed the car the rest of the way to the garage so that I could charge it.
 
RegGuheert said:
...The good news is that when you hit LBW, you may have fifteen or more miles available before you see the turtle, depending on terrain, weather, condition of your battery, etc...
Sometime, a lot more than 15 miles.

...Both times I drove this route last Summer (2016) I got the LBW just before the summit, and made it home after another ~81 miles, without reaching the VLBW...
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=5022&start=10

I drove that same trip again last Summer, BTW, using my nine-capacity-bar OE pack 2011.

Regen will cancel the LBW (at ~4.4 kWh LBC-indicated capacity, If I recall correctly) for my LEAF, a regular occurrence in my mountainous region.

Back to the OP's question, I have never needed to use the capacity below VLBC regularly myself, but IIRC, forum members have reported canceling both VLB and turtle using regen.
 
Regularly running the battery to VLBW or even worse to turtle is not good for the battery - too much depth of discharge.

If my daily commute took the pack charge down to LBW or lower, I would charge the pack immediately to get the SOC up over 40% or to 80% if I knew I'd need the range later.

Short version, avoid high DoD whenever possible and minimize the amount of time the pack is at either very high or very low SOC.
 
alozzy said:
Regularly running the battery to VLBW or even worse to turtle is not good for the battery - too much depth of discharge.

If my daily commute took the pack charge down to LBW or lower, I would charge the pack immediately to get the SOC up over 40% or to 80% if I knew I'd need the range later.
Our MY2011 LEAF with nine capacity bars remaining now hits LBW at 26% SOC. Given that the 2011 Chevy Volt used 20% SOC as the lower level of their greatly-restricted range, I have no concerns about driving a few miles past this level and leaving it there.

A new LEAF, OTOH, may already be below 18% when you hit LBW, so stopping there makes sense.
 
Many thanks to all for the comments and sharing personal experiences. I will certainly make every effort to avoid VLBW, but probably will encounter the occasional LBW as I approach the summit. I have already set myself a target range remaining as I start the climb and have a public charger a few miles away that I could visit to give a small boost if required.

Having made contact with people from around the globe has been a wonderful experience. I'm from Cape Town in South Africa and one of only 7 Leaf owners in this region. Feel privileged to have made the connections, thanks again to all who responded.
 
Never done it in my leaf but families out in cali I've noticed the even in turtle mode you still get 100% of the regen capability. So assuming you crest the summit or very damn close before turtle kicks in you would still be able to regen the whole way down.
 
Regeneration will work and add charge to the battery even in Turtle mode. There is significant range still available at LBW and several miles (on the level) after VLBW before Turtle. There is very little energy left once you hit Turtle mode. My 2011 would only go about 1/2 mile maximum (on the level) at low speed. My 2015 will go further, but I don't want to find out how much. Unless you are within a few hundred feet of the summit when you hit Turtle, you will not make it. Also, do not turn the car off until you are at a charging station if you hit Turtle because it may not start and go into Ready mode without charging. Once the main contactor opens, you must charge the car enough to get above the VLBW threshold before it will go into Ready mode again so turn around and head downhill to a charging station immediately if you hit Turtle while going uphill.

Don't be afraid to use the range down into VLBW if you need it--just try to charge within a reasonable amount of time. I routinely discharge my car into VLBW and wait until off-peak power rates (maybe 3 or 4 hours) before charging and my battery deterioration (in both 2011 and 2015) was and is no worse than others in my climate.
 
Regen will no cancel turtle mode, though battery will charge and available power will restore.
After vehicle switch off and immediate switch on, Turtle mode will be gone.
 
Back
Top