New Leaf lasts 2 days before crashing

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Good for you for being Honest.. Yes the Car Beeps at you if you walk away with the Key fob in your pocket and the car in the On position.. Also if its on you will not hear the Relay Click when you plug in your EVSE... But Good on ya for being Honest and not blaming it on the car! :)


704hov1095 said:
mwalsh said:
Flame suit on.....but that sort of sounds to me like you left the car turned on. No timer charging would be my first indicator and the completely dead battery pack my second.

Ahem, the car is back from a day at the dealer. While there is no absolute proof, examination found 3 error codes that led to a "fail safe state" indicating with strong probability that DUMMY here, aka 704hov1095, to whom thousands trust their loved ones for complex medical diagnosis, exited the car while it was still on. DUMMY proceeded to insert L2 nozzle and to not take care in noticing the charging lamp was not lit. DUMMY's battery would not charge as car had entered the above state. Dealer was very nice about everything--free tow, no charge for the service, car returned washed again (3 times in 5 days, thank you), and DUMMY is released on his own recognizance again.

Some lessons learned here: (1) IMHO there is insufficient warning (supposedly I should have heard some chimes) when the car is left on and the door is opened; (2) on the AV EVSE, the lamp for active charging is partially lit from the glow just above it from the lamp indicating the vehicle is connected, possibly leading someone to think a good charge is underway (though DUMMY should have noticed no dash lights lit up); (3) there ought to be some sort of reserve power in the event of (near)accidental discharge of the main battery; (4) the help line folks in Ohio are still at the beginning of their own learning curves; (5) Weseloh Nissan here in Orange County is bending over backward to earn customer respect and loyalty.

My experience was mostly "no harm, no foul", and probably served some good in giving the local Nissan dealer some service experience with the Leaf.

The dealer service manager suggested I use Nissan's Facebook page (yet to see it) to post some suggestions that will contribute to a better Leaf II.

Otto (DUMMY for now)
 
mwalsh said:
I don't read manuals. When I don't understand something.....that's what you guys are for. ;)

I kid. :D But I'm a pretty intuitive guy. It has to be something pretty serious or obtuse to get me to hit a manual!
The PDF version of the manual makes finding words, and consequently, information, much easier. Then I go back and locate it in the paper one with a flag tag. And I agree, a forum revealed the manual pages as to how to shut off the horn honk on lock...!
 
Speaking of reading the manuals. I accidentally turned disabled the intelligent key lock/unlock feature in the menu. I thought my exterior unlock/lock buttons broke but apparently you can disable them :)
 
704hov1095 said:
Electronic crash, that is. Delivered 6/18 and drove just fine for 2 days, including recharging both with my AV L2 and trickle charging at work with L1 unit. Returned home from work 2 nites ago with approx. 12 residual miles, plugged it back into the L2 and went to bed. As I got up yesterday, the dash charging lights were off and the car would not do anything other than turn on the accessories. Called the EV hotline and the first guy was a total amateur (I could hear him turning pages of a manual) and we mutually gave up. I called a little later from work (took my fully reliable Honda Civic Hybrid, which thankfully I did not trade in) and spoke to a much more knowledgeable guy named Paul Smith. He waited until I got home (staying beyond his structured hours at his desk in Ohio), and walked me through several steps, none of which worked. He contacted my dealer, and the salesman who sold me the vehicle actually drove out to my house after he left work (about a 8-mile drive), confirmed the car was dead in place, and today the car will be towed to the dealer.

I'll let you know what happened. Needless to say, I am not a very happy new owner and am already wondering if these cars are ready for the real world...


Don't be too upset. My first car, a 1978 Ford Mustang (the biggest piece of junk ever to come out Detroit) had to be towed after 95 miles as the fuel line was not secured properly and twisted, choking off the gas supply. I'll never forget riding back in a tow truck with the cute girl I had hoped to impress at college with my new car. i never bought a Ford product again.
 
Yeah, don't feel too bad. I did the same thing with my Prius; about 2 hours after I parked and left a quiet car a co-worker came in and said "Some idiot left their car running in the parking lot". Four hours later I went to lunch and discovered it was me...........
 
chuck58 said:
704hov1095 said:
Electronic crash, that is. Delivered 6/18 and drove just fine for 2 days, including recharging both with my AV L2 and trickle charging at work with L1 unit. Returned home from work 2 nites ago with approx. 12 residual miles, plugged it back into the L2 and went to bed. As I got up yesterday, the dash charging lights were off and the car would not do anything other than turn on the accessories. Called the EV hotline and the first guy was a total amateur (I could hear him turning pages of a manual) and we mutually gave up. I called a little later from work (took my fully reliable Honda Civic Hybrid, which thankfully I did not trade in) and spoke to a much more knowledgeable guy named Paul Smith. He waited until I got home (staying beyond his structured hours at his desk in Ohio), and walked me through several steps, none of which worked. He contacted my dealer, and the salesman who sold me the vehicle actually drove out to my house after he left work (about a 8-mile drive), confirmed the car was dead in place, and today the car will be towed to the dealer.

I'll let you know what happened. Needless to say, I am not a very happy new owner and am already wondering if these cars are ready for the real world...


Don't be too upset. My first car, a 1978 Ford Mustang (the biggest piece of junk ever to come out Detroit) had to be towed after 95 miles as the fuel line was not secured properly and twisted, choking off the gas supply. I'll never forget riding back in a tow truck with the cute girl I had hoped to impress at college with my new car. i never bought a Ford product again.

A '78 Ford? Now, there was a real piece of junk! :eek: :shock:
 
planet4ever said:
Yes, I do believe in reading manuals, but I'm sorry, a five-state power button with no direct indication of which state you are in, and a complicated set of rules for transitions between states is a design usability problem, no matter how clearly it is spelled out in the manual.
So, I decided to back up my words with some experimentation and a picture of the results. One thing I hadn't even noticed before is that in addition to the chime you always hear when you press the power button there are often one or more beeps that follow it. The number of beeps I heard varied from 1 to 4½ but, at least in my car, appeared to be constant for a particular power state transition. Here is the state transition flow chart I came up with, including the number of beeps in a circle close to the destination state. "brake?" of course means, "Is the brake pedal depressed?" and the diamond shapes containing that each have a Yes and a No path out of them.

PowerStates.png


Ray
 
planet4ever said:

Thanks for the good job with the chart! I hope there exists a more direct route from LOCK to OFF? By Locking the doors perhaps?

I don't have a Leaf myself, but this whole 5-state-stuff feel far more complicated than should be necessary... :|
 
RuneW said:
planet4ever said:

Thanks for the good job with the chart! I hope there exists a more direct route from LOCK to OFF? By Locking the doors perhaps?

I don't have a Leaf myself, but this whole 5-state-stuff feel far more complicated than should be necessary... :|

That chart/manual makes it a whole lot more complicated than it is. I was worried about it as well but so far I've always found it very easy to use and don't ever have think about it. If you want to drive make sure your foot is on the brake :)
 
cyellen said:
I must be the only person who always has the radio on in the car...I always know the car is off because the radio goes off when I power it down. I've been petrified about leaving it on inadvertently , but I just can,'t really understand how it happens. Granted, my last car had pushbutton start too, so I am in the habit of pushing the button to turn the thing off.

My mother's ICE van has a strange key issue that makes it impossible to tell if you've got it off or in ACC mode. It only took one drained battery episode to learn to leave the radio on all the time as a failsafe indicator.
 
QueenBee said:
That chart/manual makes it a whole lot more complicated than it is. I was worried about it as well but so far I've always found it very easy to use and don't ever have think about it. If you want to drive make sure your foot is on the brake :)
You are almost right. The chart makes it a whole lot more complicated than it normally is. As you say, keep your foot on the brake and you normally don't have to worry about all those other states. But come the time you are talking to someone when you start it up and forget to use your foot, or the time when your finger jiggles on the power button, or the time you want to have just the radio for half an hour, you are likely to get very confused very quickly.

We got onto this tack because some people couldn't imagine how anyone could not notice the car was still powered up when they left it in the garage for the night. The answer is that it is quite possible, if you get off into one of those other states.

Ray
 
So... is there some light or something to check so that you are absolutely sure that the car is off? Just in case you have accidentally ended up in one of those (unnecessary and confusing) states?
 
Yes, look at the center console, though you may have to wait a bit for it to reboot if you accidentally "double-clicked" the power switch. If the center console says off then you are in either OFF or LOCK state, and either is fine. I personally have a problem with that, but I guess I'm weird. I often make fairly short trips without ever touching or looking over there, and my brain has learned to tune out the nag screen. (No, I never say "Yes", so I never get CarWings data, but that's OK with me.) I told you I was weird.

Ray
 
derkraut said:
chuck58 said:
704hov1095 said:
Electronic crash, that is. Delivered 6/18 and drove just fine for 2 days, including recharging both with my AV L2 and trickle charging at work with L1 unit. Returned home from work 2 nites ago with approx. 12 residual miles, plugged it back into the L2 and went to bed. As I got up yesterday, the dash charging lights were off and the car would not do anything other than turn on the accessories. Called the EV hotline and the first guy was a total amateur (I could hear him turning pages of a manual) and we mutually gave up. I called a little later from work (took my fully reliable Honda Civic Hybrid, which thankfully I did not trade in) and spoke to a much more knowledgeable guy named Paul Smith. He waited until I got home (staying beyond his structured hours at his desk in Ohio), and walked me through several steps, none of which worked. He contacted my dealer, and the salesman who sold me the vehicle actually drove out to my house after he left work (about a 8-mile drive), confirmed the car was dead in place, and today the car will be towed to the dealer.

I'll let you know what happened. Needless to say, I am not a very happy new owner and am already wondering if these cars are ready for the real world...


Don't be too upset. My first car, a 1978 Ford Mustang (the biggest piece of junk ever to come out Detroit) had to be towed after 95 miles as the fuel line was not secured properly and twisted, choking off the gas supply. I'll never forget riding back in a tow truck with the cute girl I had hoped to impress at college with my new car. i never bought a Ford product again.

A '78 Ford? Now, there was a real piece of junk! :eek: :shock:


Yes, but in 1978 there weren't many choices back then. Toyota, Honda and Datsun (Nissan) were in their infancy. It retrospect I should have bought the 1978 Toyota Celica.
So many problems they are too numerous to count. Looking back it's pretty funny. Nobody cared on the Ford assembly line in Mahwah New Jersey I suspect. The car was painted in water colors. Every time I washed it, blue paint would be on the rag after drying. Ford was a giant polluter in New Jersey, dumping paints into waterways and down wells. Areas still have not fully recovered. In my book good riddance to Ford. A terrible company, no matter what they say now.
Glad we are entering a new era of hybrids and electric vehicles.
 
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