Awkward info from dealership for 3g TCU upgrade

[danterz77]

Hello my fellow Leafers :mrgreen:
I just got 2015 SV, 44k miles in Springfield IL.

To cut the story short.
I went to dealership last week to check for 3g upgrade. They've checked, everything matches and they'll have to order part and give me a call when it arrives. We confirmed it's $0 for 2015.
Wow...felling so happy. Everything went smooth. No hassle.
Parts came, they gave me a call and schedule for today, Saturday at 10am. Perfect!

I went today, they took my car, I got myself in a waiting area...and...
after like, less then half an hour. Guy comes and starts to apologize for inconvenience, this and that...telling me(explaining to me):
They didn't fully prepared themselves for task in hand. They have to download some software and that's going to take 7 to 8 hours and I'll have to leave the car for at least 2 to 3 days so they can finish activation.

And...I got puzzled there...

At that moment, I couldn't leave a car with them over weekend, since I didn't expect that kind of timeframe and they rescheduled me for Monday 8am.

So...has anyone here had this upgrade? What was your experience?
Is this true what they are saying? Does it take that long?
Or I'm just being paranoid and suspicious that they don't know what they are doing and just want to give themselves enough time if something goes wrong to correct it...or my leaf is going to be some guinea pig for their experiment.
That's the only Nissan dealership, here, in Springfield. I got a car last week and this is first time I'm dealing with them. And...so far...I think I'm the one and only Leaf owner here...saying this for questioning their experience with Leaf, electric vehicles.
If someone here has done this 3g upgrade, please leave few words about your experience.
Thank you in advance.

 

[cwerdna]

I went thru quite a saga even after waiting a few months for Nissan to hopefully work out the kinks.

https://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=494729#p494729 was some of it, including a link to a previous post.
https://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=494796#p494796

Even after the 3G TCU was installed and working properly, I had to do some workarounds to avoid a yellow ! car light and P3131 DTC. I pointed to someone else who had a 12 volt battery drain situation at https://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=531736#p531736. Also, the 3G TCU would sometime become unresponsive (wouldn't respond to queries nor commands) and required a pull of the stereo fuse (or 12 volt disconnect) to reset it. I could see the P3131 DTCs in Leaf Spy Pro and I could clear them. It wouldn't recur for awhile until it did, until I did the various workarounds to mitigate that.

Eventually, a TSB came out, NTB18-045 and I have no more yellow ! car problems and the unresponsive TCU prob is pretty much gone now. I posted about that at https://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=537283#p537283. NTB18-045b I believe is the latest rev: https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2018/MC-10145516-9999.pdf. Fortunately, all the TCUs installed after that point should have the non-buggy firmware.

 

[danterz77]

Thank you for extensive and thorough explanation.
I was on a verge, should i do it or not? Because i saw a lot of problems, regarding 12v battery drain.
But i see that since last revision, everything should be all right.
Like i said...My main concern is the timeframe dealership is giving me.
That's why I'm doubtful about their knowledge and expertise with EV.
I'm just in fear that they will mess something up and then wouldn't be able to figure it out and fix it.

 

[jlv]

And even after you get the free TCU upgrade and they apply the TSB to fix the lock-up issue that causes it to drain the 12V battery, you'll then be faced with inconsistent and/or slow Nissan infrastructure that made the remote access so problematic that it was nearly worthless. I remember using it in my office to tell my car to turn on the heat before my 5 minute walk to the parking garage. Most of the time I got to the car before the heat was turned on.

Also, AT&T's 3G network is going away in 2022.

 

[danterz77]

Well...it all over now...it has been done!
Went to dealership, they gave me a loaner and told me they'll try to do as fast as possible and give me a call, of course.
I got a loaner, stop by grocery and finish some things on my way back home. Got home, like hour and a half passed, dealerships is calling me. "We finished everything, you can come and pick up a car when you get a chance!" :shock: :!: :?:
And...that's it...got 3g upgrade and fixed recall for air bags.
Thumbs Up! for Green Nissan in Springfield IL

 

[danterz77]

And even after you get the free TCU upgrade and they apply the TSB to fix the lock-up issue that causes it to drain the 12V battery, you'll then be faced with inconsistent and/or slow Nissan infrastructure that made the remote access so problematic that it was nearly worthless. I remember using it in my office to tell my car to turn on the heat before my 5 minute walk to the parking garage. Most of the time I got to the car before the heat was turned on.

Also, AT&T's 3G network is going away in 2022.

Appreciate your answer and info.
I tried it when i got home. I see there is a lag , but for me, it's like 5 sec...i was in car, turned on a climate in an app and after 5 sec, its been turned on in car.
For battery drain...we'll see..time will tell.
And if 3g is going away, i think it is more beneficial and futureproof to have 3g TCU than 2g, if it comes to 4g upgrade.

 

[jlv]

For battery drain...we'll see..time will tell.
And if 3g is going away, i think it is more beneficial and futureproof to have 3g TCU than 2g, if it comes to 4g upgrade.

I would assume the TSB for the battery drain problem is already included in the unit they installed for you, so you shouldn't see it.

I don't think having the 3G TCU instead of the older 2G one will make a difference if/when they offer an LTE upgrade.

 

[cwerdna]

^^^
Agree with both. It's possible Nissan will not offer another TCU upgrade to support newer phone standards once 3G is turned off. Let's just hope the chipset in the TCU actually can support it and they can just enable it via a firmware update.

 

[tgeliot]

Hi folks.
I've never had CarWings or anything else like that working. I currently have a 2015 SV. If I did all this upgrade stuff, would I have to pay for a subscription to be able to pre-heat my car, or would I be able to do that for free?
Thanks.

 

[cwerdna]

I've never had CarWings or anything else like that working. I currently have a 2015 SV. If I did all this upgrade stuff, would I have to pay for a subscription to be able to pre-heat my car, or would I be able to do that for free?

At this point, it is free. AFAIK, Nissan hasn't announced any plans to subscription fees for NissanConnect EV/Carwings for gen 1 Leafs.

 

[Stanton]

^^^
Agree with both. It's possible Nissan will not offer another TCU upgrade to support newer phone standards once 3G is turned off. Let's just hope the chipset in the TCU actually can support it and they can just enable it via a firmware update.

We already know the 3G chipset won't support 4G...so we begin the "4G TCU update" watch (which I will definitely do).
There's another thread started on the subject; just do a search (because it isn't a "hot topic" it has fallen off the "new thread" list).