Inconsistent braking feel. (Not common brake sensitivity)

[seans]

Hi all,
I have owned my LEAF for over a year (9k+ miles) and think it is a great vehicle. I haven't had any problems or issues until recently.

About two months ago I had the brake service bulletin completed. The bulletin fixed the common brake sensitivity issue that most talk about. However, I recently have been experiencing a much more random issue with my breaks, especially at slow speeds. It is most noticeable when pulling into a parking spot. Generally, when pulling into a spot I will put my foot lightly on the brake and use the vehicle's "creep" power to slowly move me into the spot, and then smoothly press the pedal when it is time to stop. Both at home and at work I park the front my LEAF about two feet from a wall so I get a lot of practice at this. The problem is that recently the pedal location at which the brakes "grab" seems to change at random. Sometimes they grab sooner than expected which is fine except that it makes me look like a bad driver. Other times the pedal must be pushed down much farther than normal to stop the car. This is a bigger problem as I stated I routinely park feet from a wall. A few times I had to "mash" the pedal inches from the wall as the car was not stopping as expected.

Are there other drivers experiencing similar issues? Is there a fix for this?

Thanks for any advice!
-Sean
2012 LEAF SL

 

[RegGuheert]

As we have discussed in the other thread on the grabby brakes, several of us have noticed that the grabbiness occurs at a slower speed after the reprogram (which is an improvement, IMO).

The other issue you mentioned, however, sounds more like what was described in the post about almost killing a kid. In that case, the 12V battery was failing and the low voltage caused some sort of communications issue over the CANbus, resulting in loss of the brake pedal. I would recommend that you immediately check the voltage of your 12V battery (or have the dealer do it).

I will say that I have never seen this issue with the pedal that you describe. Good luck!

 

[Duncan]

I know it's a bit old fashioned, but could it be an issue with the hydraulic system rather than electric? Esp at slow speeds I would have expected most of the braking to by hydraulic.

I'd start by bleeding the brake fluid.

 

[seans]

Thank you for the info. I checked the voltage of the battery last night at it read 12.2v. I believe that is low for a Pb battery, correct? Outside temp was about 80dF.

 

[RegGuheert]

Thank you for the info. I checked the voltage of the battery last night at it read 12.2v. I believe that is low for a Pb battery, correct? Outside temp was about 80dF.

That's actually pretty normal for the LEAF. It does not do a good job of keeping the 12V battery fully charged. Instead, it lives around 60% charge a lot of the time, which is why you see the fairly low voltage.

Perhaps it makes sense to check the hydraulic aspects now, as Duncan suggests. Since it is under warranty, I would definitely recommend going over your problem with the dealer so they can have a look.