2016/17 LEAF RC-6559409 LBC Reprogram - Successful?

Hello,

Back in Sept 2014 I purchased a brand new 2015 LEAF and fell in love with it. A week and a half ago it was totaled. UGG! Had over 62,000 miles on the car and the battery was in great shape with 12/12 bars.

Couldn't really afford a 2018 or wait around for the 2019 so I did the next best thing. Bought a used 2016 SL with only 18,200 miles on it. I thought a newer 30kw battery, I'm going to be cursing easy! Not the case. After I brought it home and charged it up to 100% the Guess-O-Meter (GOM) had only 88 miles on it. WHAT! That just can't be right! Doing some research I've found it probably isn't right. AWESOME.

Anyway, I see now that Nissan has recently put out a recall (RC-6559409) to reprogram the LBC. I've seen a TON of threads and posts on myNissanLeaf but I haven't seen one that just has the basics. We'll here it is. . . . For those of you who have had the upgraded completed can you respond with:

Pre-Reprogram
Battery health bars: XX/12
GOM at 100% Charge: XX miles

Post-Reprogram
Battery health bars: XX/12
GOM at 100% Charge: XXX miles (Hopefully 3 X's )

And any other helpful info that you can think of. EXCEPT. . . How about no LEAF Spy images. Let's keep this thread for the lower level tech people like myself. There are many posts on this topic for all the HighTech LEAF folks.

THANKS!

Those GOM numbers are crazy low for a 30kWh pack. Have you driven the car a while to give it a chance to learn your driving style?

In any case, I had my 2017 firmware update done. My GOM numbers vary a lot depending on where I was driving before I charged and I rarely charge to 100% but a normal GOM for me is about 130miles at 100% charge. It usually drops very quickly once I start driving but I average about 110-120 per full charge based on the amount of charge left and miles on the trip meter since the last charge. Eg, start at 90% charge, drive to 20% charge will take me about 85-90 miles usually.

My car was 12 bars before and after the firmware update. The SOH (from LeafSpy) went from about 94.5% before update to 97.5 % after update. It was about 92% earlier this year when the weather was colder. I don't know why it varies so much so I'm learning to ignore it all and just enjoy the car.

“Enjoy the car”. Best advice for sure. I’ve loved the LEAF since day one.

So I’ve only had this one since last Friday but I’m already figuring things out. My work commute is 26.2 miles each way. Going to work I used 31% of the battery and going home 23%. Yes, overall uphill going to and downhill going home. Bottom line, I calculated somewhere between 115 and 120 mile from 100% to 0% regardless of what the crazy guess-o-meter says. Those are great numbers as far as I’m concerned.

My battery health bars jump between 11 and 12 so I’m hoping that when they perform the re-programming on Thursday it sticks at 12.

Thanks for the info.

I just use the % of charge on the dash and ignore the GOM. The % of charge seems much more reliable and with a range of 115-120 it has the nice feature that it conservatively yields 'remaining range' if you just assume 1% / mile. That works pretty well for me and it also has a nice cushion on the low end since my real range is a tad over 100 miles, at least in the summer. You could probably use it all year since the SL has the heat pump heater. That is one feature I really wish my S had but I didn't want the nav, fancy seats or lights or especially the extra $3k so I settled for the basic mode. Fortunately in CO winters are pretty mild so I don't have to run the heat very often. I'd say my range would drop to 80-90 if I was running the heat continuously. AC seems to have very little effect and I assume the heat pump heater would be the same although I don't really know. I don't know about Firestone but I sure see a lot of Leafs here around Boulder. Must be the Leaf capitol of the US :mrgreen:

Good way to estimate for sure!

Yeah, ton's in Boulder. This one was originally purchased there by someone from Niwot.

The story I've made up in my mind is that they had some serious cash and were getting worried it was loosing range too quick and just wanted to get rid of it. They traded it into to Sil-Tehar and I came in a few days later and scooped it up.

The real question is "Did the distance that you can drive change compared to before the software change?" I'd like to hear from someone who was 2-3 bars down before the update. What was the % SOH before the update and after the update? Did the distance you can drive between charges actually improve? Compared to before the update has the percentage used for a typical trip dropped? I can't answer these questions since I had the battery changed at the same time the update was done.

FWIW, and I know it's not much, but I just clocked 120 miles on my 2017 S between 100% and 14% charge. It was very cool earlier this week so I let the car charge up to 100% for the first time since about May. I'm now at 14% after having driven 120 miles. It's been my usual 50/50 mix of city and town (35 mph) vs highway (60 mph). Light on the AC and I tend to drive conservatively.

SOH shows 96.9%. It was as low as 92% this winter then went up to 95% before the firmware update and 97% after it.

OP: the data you are requesting will not answer your *real* question, which is whether the update increases car range under otherwise identical conditions.

The simplest and most straightforward way to answer this question is this:
How many kWh were consumed at the meter to charge from LBW to full before and after the update * ?
Most people do not have an L2 meter at home and L1 is too variable so a public ChargePoint is usually the easiest.

* The rationale is straightforward: if more kWh are used to charge up the car after the update, those extra kWh are available to extend range.