Grabby Brakes?

[TEG]

Did people discount my comments that it could be the "brake assist" "feature" being too touchy?

Brake assist has a pedal velocity sensor that measures how quickly you press on the pedal.
Repeated quick "jabs" could result in it activating brake assist and causing more braking action than intended.

 

[GeekEV]

I don't doubt the way the feature works, just that the theory doesn't mesh with all the times I've seen it. Sometimes, maybe, but no way on others. I've also tried to reproduce it based on that theory to no avail.

 

[poolrider]

It's been two weeks since i contacted Nissan about my brake problems and have gotten no reply or updates. They were supposed to send an engineer to the dealership to discuss it with them, but they never did. I'm really disappointed with them. You still having issues with your brakes? I am.

 

[davewill]

Did people discount my comments that it could be the "brake assist" "feature" being too touchy? ...

I did. It just doesn't seem to fit my experience. It happens most often to me when feathering the brakes coming up to a traffic light.

 

[poolrider]

same here. it happens mostly when i slow to a stop. it's hard to do it without your head jerking.

 

[LTLFTcomposite]

Ours has gotten worse. I just got off the phone with customer service about the problem. The rep said they have been getting a lot of calls about the problem. It is important that everyone experiencing this problem call customer service and alert them, as it is the number of reports that will drive them to debug the problem and come up with a fix.

877-664-2738

The guy I spoke to is Wesley, ext 457250

If you have had the problem please make the call and report it; don't sit back and assume everyone else is (as I tend to do )

 

[poolrider]

Thanks, my feeling exactly. I'm getting a lot of denials and non-responses and being told that it meets the specifications of their their engineers. The most irritating response was that it was a "World Car" and as such it needed to conform to European standards. As if the Europeans require jerky brakes. There is clearly a problem because I've never experienced this kink of braking in any vehicle I've driven. My guess is that they can't admit that there's a problem because then they would have to recall the vehicle and get bad PR. Also, this type of thing is ripe for a class action suit. Remember Toyota.

You are right. We need to stay on top of them until they respond. Hopefully it won't require people having accidents for them to do something about it. It's unfortunate that we have to waste our time with this.

 

[LTLFTcomposite]

The last thing I want to do is crater the car's image. The EV world does not need s black eye. Much better to figure out the problem and fix it, but because it is intermittent only a large number of complaints will produce the needed data to attract their attention.

 

[poolrider]

I agree. I wouldn't be driving an electric car if i didn't have a conscience. This doesn't need to get out to the global warming deniers. But at some point soon I need Nissan to make me think that they care and I'm not getting that right now.

 

[planetf1]

Hit this problem today. I was in a very slow moving queue and it happened at ~2 mph. A little surprising.

It comes across as a software bug.

I think the scenario is definately that of continual braking at varying pressures and at some point it goes into this mode. If the pedal is released/reapplied the problems clears and braking is very smooth again.

Car is a week old, I've done around 350 miles. Drive mode ~6 deg.C, wet

Definately one to keep an eye on

 

[TEG]

Yes, those are the symptoms. Occasional hard stop (grabby brakes) at slow speeds generally in slow traffic.
I still think it is the brake assist "feature" being activated by the timing of multiple brake pedal pushes.

 

[LTLFTcomposite]

Hit this problem today. I was in a very slow moving queue and it happened at ~2 mph. A little surprising.

It comes across as a software bug.

I think the scenario is definately that of continual braking at varying pressures and at some point it goes into this mode. If the pedal is released/reapplied the problems clears and braking is very smooth again.

Car is a week old, I've done around 350 miles. Drive mode ~6 deg.C, wet

Definately one to keep an eye on

Please call customer service and report the problem. Have them give you a case number. Nissan needs to be hearing about this from a lot of customers.

 

[cdrews]

So far I have had no success getting Nissan to fix this. I reported the problem to my dealership in January of this year. The Leaf tech confirmed that there is something wrong with my brakes and promised to get the attention of Nissan's engineering department to take a look at it.

Then nothing happened for months, despite my repeated followup calls.

Eventually my service rep recommended I open a ticket with Nissan directly. I did that and eventually got a phone call from a Nissan Engineer that is responsible for the SF Bay Area. The phone call was very strange. He basically told me about the complexity of the braking system. It sounded a little bit like "Look, it's so high tech, it's ok to suck a little". He promised to call me back soon to schedule a timeframe to look at it. That has not happened in the 4 weeks since the phone call.

I get the sense that Nissan is aware of problem, but it only affects a few cars. Either they have not found a solution yet, or they have and it's too expensive so they are waiting to see if they can get away with not fixing it.

Did anyone have any more success in having Nissan take a look at this and attempt to fix it?

-= Clemens

 

[UkrainianKozak]

I had exactly the same thing, regularly happening to me while trying to stop very slowly, but it's been a week since my 1 year service (with software upgrade) and I do feel that brakes are now noticeably smoother in very low speeds, and in a week after the service my brakes never grabbed in low speed.
I'm not 100% sure if that is software-related or they bumped something while rotating the tires, but I do feel the difference...

 

[GeekEV]

I did that and eventually got a phone call from a Nissan Engineer that is responsible for the SF Bay Area. The phone call was very strange.

Was his name Bill Grossi?

 

[mkjayakumar]

I have noticed that two times in the 2800 miles I have driven so far, both at extremely low speeds.

But then it doesn't concern me so much to warrant a fix, for me to get the attention of the dealer or Nissan.

 

[TomT]

I had the service and software upgrade and see absolutely no improvement in the brake issue.

I had exactly the same thing, regularly happening to me while trying to stop very slowly, but it's been a week since my 1 year service (with software upgrade) and I do feel that brakes are now noticeably smoother in very low speeds, and in a week after the service my brakes never grabbed in low speed.

 

[UkrainianKozak]

Could it be because of rain/wet pads so they feel more grabby when they dry up? I haven't rained since my service yet...

I had the service and software upgrade and see absolutely no improvement in the brake issue.

I had exactly the same thing, regularly happening to me while trying to stop very slowly, but it's been a week since my 1 year service (with software upgrade) and I do feel that brakes are now noticeably smoother in very low speeds, and in a week after the service my brakes never grabbed in low speed.

 

[GeekEV]

I had the service and software upgrade and see absolutely no improvement in the brake issue.

+1 me neither

Could it be because of rain/wet pads so they feel more grabby when they dry up? I haven't rained since my service yet...

Nope. I just had it happen to me yesterday with passengers in the car and it's been 80+ degrees all week here.

 

[poolrider]

has anyone compared the problem by driving without the ECO mode on? A Nissan engineer recommended it. Without the eco mode on, the brakes work better. They're still not great, but better. It might be a problem with the regen system.

He also recommended just charging to 80%. I don't even know how to do that and don't think that i should sacrifice range to get better brakes.