Gen 2 Leaf... Did You Add Knee Pads?

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retrodog

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 17, 2010
Messages
103
Location
Houston/Galveston TX
I got mine last Friday. I love the car, but by Monday (yesterday) I started getting irritated with my right knee leaning against the center console protrusion.

I ended up going to Home Depot last night and getting some black foam padding with adhesive on the back. I put a couple of layers on the side of the center console, where my knee rests against it. This helped quite a bit. What a weird-ass problem. The Gen 1 didn't have that at all.

So has anybody else felt compelled to do something about this interference issue? If so, what did you do?
 
retrodog said:
I got mine last Friday. I love the car, but by Monday (yesterday) I started getting irritated with my right knee leaning against the center console protrusion.

I ended up going to Home Depot last night and getting some black foam padding with adhesive on the back. I put a couple of layers on the side of the center console, where my knee rests against it. This helped quite a bit. What a weird-ass problem. The Gen 1 didn't have that at all.

So has anybody else felt compelled to do something about this interference issue? If so, what did you do?
I only have a gen 1 Leaf(that doesn't bother me) but I have sat in several cars where the center console comes out way too much and it's made me basically scratch that car of my list. Prius did the same thing several years after our '07 and again I basically wrote it off my list. It's a very annoying(and painful) thing to me and unfortunately I didn't think foam would fix the problem because anything would move my leg even further upright, which was already a problem. I told my wife if I was forced to get such a car I'd get out my reciprocating saw and cut out a notch in the damn center console, she said she wouldn't want a notch cut out of the counsel of a new vehicle so agreed to just scratch off any vehicle on our list that had that issue :)
I personally hate the cramped cockpit design, several Volts we drove come to mind among other vehicles. They may be ok for skinny minnies but not me!
 
jjeff said:
retrodog said:
I got mine last Friday. I love the car, but by Monday (yesterday) I started getting irritated with my right knee leaning against the center console protrusion.

I ended up going to Home Depot last night and getting some black foam padding with adhesive on the back. I put a couple of layers on the side of the center console, where my knee rests against it. This helped quite a bit. What a weird-ass problem. The Gen 1 didn't have that at all.

So has anybody else felt compelled to do something about this interference issue? If so, what did you do?
I only have a gen 1 Leaf(that doesn't bother me) but I have sat in several cars where the center console comes out way too much and it's made me basically scratch that car of my list. Prius did the same thing several years after our '07 and again I basically wrote it off my list. It's a very annoying(and painful) thing to me and unfortunately I didn't think foam would fix the problem because anything would move my leg even further upright, which was already a problem. I told my wife if I was forced to get such a car I'd get out my reciprocating saw and cut out a notch in the damn center console...

Lol. My feeling about this exactly, right up to the jigsaw.
 
Agreed that they are trying too hard to style the car with that. It would have been better to leave it up and put in a second set of cup holders.

Sometimes I think car companies forget their market. Leaf drivers are practical and economical. Hence our low insurance rates (per an article posted today).

Its also why we generally outperform EPA range on the car.
 
I'm looking into removing these wings to the left and right of the center console completely and replace them with maybe a custom made 3D printed cover that's a lot smaller. Will take my car into the dealership this week and ask whether or not these wings can be removed (they look like separate parts, but since it's a lease I'm not going to mess with this without some professional help).
 
TheBruce said:
I'm looking into removing these wings to the left and right of the center console completely and replace them with maybe a custom made 3D printed cover that's a lot smaller. Will take my car into the dealership this week and ask whether or not these wings can be removed (they look like separate parts, but since it's a lease I'm not going to mess with this without some professional help).
It looks like they are a single molded piece with the center portion that houses the USB, power socket, and heated seat buttons. It would still be feasible to cut them off and add some trim, I suppose, but I'd want to see the results of someone else doing it first. I also worry that removal of this part would essentially be removing something that acts, at least partially, as a brace between the dash and the center console.

The padding that I added has improved the feel quite a bit. My leg still rests against it, but the padding is makeing it easier to get used to. I used two layers of the adhesive backed padding strips. I'll try to take a photo of it later and post it here.
 
Newporttom said:
It's the single thing I dislike most on my 2018
The irony is that car manufacturers rarely come out with a fix for something like this. They just phase it out over the course of a few years to make it look like it was a style change, not a response to the customer dissatisfaction.


Has anybody priced the assembly to see what it would cost to replace it? If I could buy one for a few hundred dollars, and it was somewhat straightforward to change out... I might buy one and keep it around for an eventual retrograde when I decided to sell the car, then cut the existing one up to get it out of the way for now.
 
I went by the Nissan parts department at one of my local dealerships today. I ordered the all weather floor mats. While there, I inquired about the center console. We looked through a bunch of parts but it was uncertain from the pictures which one was the side panel that my knee contacts. The center part that has the cutouts for the starter button and other various stuff (depending on options) was almost $300. That's interesting. As in "ouch". Doesn't really look like much.
 
The dealer contacted Nissan Engineering and they said...

The trim piece you are interested in is part of the center console assembly 969105SA1B. It's not available separately. You'll need to acquire the assembly to get that part.

The price at the dealer is $545.45
The price online from an OEM supplier is around $340

If I can figure out how to safely remove the existing one, I might just go the route of a total replacement with an entirely fabricated piece. One of the main reasons I was wanting a new one from Nissan was to see what kind of fasteners it uses and be more confident about the removal process.
 
Test drove a new 2020 and immediately noticed this issue. These cars are just not made with the long legged in mind. My 2012 is great, but thinking about a new one. Did happen across this that might help. https://h5.aliexpress.com/item/33019330256.html
 
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