Lambtron
Well-known member
Has anybody had any experience with a 4 bar or more loser that can give an approximate travel range from 100% to LBW, Summer or Winter? 100* to 40*.
Drivable mileage beyond 4 bar loss
- Thread starter Lambtron
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Valdemar
Well-known member
50 miles with careful driving is a safe assumption for -4 bars. But it will get worse pretty soon in Las Vegas, especially if you will be pushing the range on daily basis.
Lambtron
Well-known member
Valdemar said:
I'm going to be needing about 30-40 miles daily. no extended driving.
The beast just will not die. I have 3 wks to lose the bar. I'm at 44.01 today so I'm going into the acceptance mode of this experiment and planning to keep driving it as long as I can before purchasing the new battery. Do you have any 40*-50* numbers?
Valdemar
Well-known member
Lambtron said:
Um, not sure what you're after. Can you be more specific?
Lambtron
Well-known member
Valdemar said:
I'm tryng to figure out if a 8 or 7 bar car can get me through the winter at that use without charging at home.
I'm a cheapskate and want to hold off handing over the loot as long as possible.
Valdemar
Well-known member
7 bars should be enough to drive 40 miles without big elevation changes, if not already you should get more comfortable driving past the LBW, there is about 8 more miles from LBW to VLBW, and 2 more from VLBW to Turtle.
Lambtron
Well-known member
Valdemar said:
I actually meant to say "Only charging at home". I'm not THAT cheap and charging at work is a PIA. Thanks for the reply.
40 miles should be OK as long as you watch the heater consumption if you must use defrost. I strongly recommend the kit to add a switch to keep the heart from coming on when you just need ventilation for a 2011 or 2012. You won't make 40 miles if you run the heater much. I made my 52-mile round trip (26 each way and mostly freeway) after losing the 4th bar until Nissan replaced the battery in my 2011, but that included several miles after VLBW (very low battery warning) so it was almost to Turtle or Shutdown when I pulled into the driveway every evening.
Gerry
Gerry
Lambtron
Well-known member
Great it sounds like it should be do-able as I already have the heat disabled and very rarely if ever need the defroster; and am quite adept to dropping to 24 gids. See...less stressed already! Thanks.GerryAZ said:
dhanson865
Well-known member
Lambtron said:
You should seriously consider driving to VLBW.
The difference between LBW and VLBW is likely 10 miles. More if you are on back streets with low speed limits.
Get leafpsy and a OBDII adapter if the flashing GOM bothers you.
PatricioEV
Well-known member
I regularly drove my 39mile commute with 1/2 of that on hills and high speeds when my car went down to four bars lost. Sometimes with heavy (for TX) heat use I'd hit LBW, but rarely VLBW.
sub3marathonman
Well-known member
Six capacity bars lost, or if you're an optimist, six capacity bars remaining. 
I can go 33 miles from 100% charge to LBW, driving back roads, about 45 to 50 mph, flat, in Florida in the 80's. I'm thinking, even after that point, that I could go another 10 miles if I'd go 35 mph or so before it would be completely dead. Of course, no A/C no matter how much I'm sweating, and I won't even listen to the radio!
I recently took a 100 mile round trip, thought it would be about 75 miles, charged 13 miles from home, got from there the 38 miles or so with 8 on the GOM. Started coming back home, down on 6 on the GOM back in Winter Haven at about 8:30 p.m. I noticed that Hill Nissan was CLOSED!!! It was starting to get dark, but the gate was still open, so I pulled in to their QC. I was there about 10 minutes when one of the employees came around the corner and stopped. He said it was just fortunate that he had stayed late that day. Then he asked if I had gotten enough charge, or if I needed more, he'd stay a bit longer. That is why Hill Nissan is a FANTASTIC dealership in my opinion, he'd stayed late, but was willing to help me out anyway. Luckily I had gotten just enough to get the 13 miles back home without hitting LBW. I was truly worried how I was going to make it home if I hadn't been able to charge, I was going to have to stop somewhere and ask to use a 110V outlet.
Previously, with 8 capacity bars remaining, I did another one of those unplanned range tests, and driving a bit faster at 52 mph or so, I was able to go 50 miles to LBW, with I believe another 10 miles remaining at 35 mph or so.
It is really amazing how much further you can go at 30 mph or so, as I've driven 10 mile round trips before when closing in on LBW to try to maintain the charge.
Also, as many others have said, having the LeafSpy (I have the LeafSpy Lite but wanting to upgrade) and the OBDII scanner is a great help when you've lost the capacity. And as others have said too, it seems that more and more capacity is shifted to below the LBW, as when I've plugged in to a QC at just above LBW and 11 on the GOM, the QC showed about 45% remaining.
I can go 33 miles from 100% charge to LBW, driving back roads, about 45 to 50 mph, flat, in Florida in the 80's. I'm thinking, even after that point, that I could go another 10 miles if I'd go 35 mph or so before it would be completely dead. Of course, no A/C no matter how much I'm sweating, and I won't even listen to the radio!
I recently took a 100 mile round trip, thought it would be about 75 miles, charged 13 miles from home, got from there the 38 miles or so with 8 on the GOM. Started coming back home, down on 6 on the GOM back in Winter Haven at about 8:30 p.m. I noticed that Hill Nissan was CLOSED!!! It was starting to get dark, but the gate was still open, so I pulled in to their QC. I was there about 10 minutes when one of the employees came around the corner and stopped. He said it was just fortunate that he had stayed late that day. Then he asked if I had gotten enough charge, or if I needed more, he'd stay a bit longer. That is why Hill Nissan is a FANTASTIC dealership in my opinion, he'd stayed late, but was willing to help me out anyway. Luckily I had gotten just enough to get the 13 miles back home without hitting LBW. I was truly worried how I was going to make it home if I hadn't been able to charge, I was going to have to stop somewhere and ask to use a 110V outlet.
Previously, with 8 capacity bars remaining, I did another one of those unplanned range tests, and driving a bit faster at 52 mph or so, I was able to go 50 miles to LBW, with I believe another 10 miles remaining at 35 mph or so.
It is really amazing how much further you can go at 30 mph or so, as I've driven 10 mile round trips before when closing in on LBW to try to maintain the charge.
Also, as many others have said, having the LeafSpy (I have the LeafSpy Lite but wanting to upgrade) and the OBDII scanner is a great help when you've lost the capacity. And as others have said too, it seems that more and more capacity is shifted to below the LBW, as when I've plugged in to a QC at just above LBW and 11 on the GOM, the QC showed about 45% remaining.
Stoaty
Well-known member
You definitely want Leafspy or similar to know exactly how much juice you have left and lessen your stress. I have never been stranded, but came pretty close about a year ago. Forgot to charge one night, figured I would charge after work to have enough to make it home. Went to several charging stations that either weren't there or weren't operational. Finally decided I was wasting energy and should just try to make it home. Stayed in the right lane on the 101 freeway (Los Angeles) going at a fairly slow speed (fortunately helped by moderate traffic, so blended in well). Then climbed the steep hill on the 405 to the Sepulveda Pass. I had 10 Gids left when I got to the top, knew I could make it home with regeneration going down the South side of the Pass. Without a meter I never would have attempted the trip home without recharging (and of course had a bit of luck as well as VERY conservative driving).
jkline
Well-known member
Ok, I'm confused. Before I got Leafspy, me and my 2012 got by ok with the gom. If the gom said 35 miles, I could get 35 miles before the car started talking to me. According to the car, my 'fuel' economy was about 4.6 miles/kwh.
Then I get leafspy, and its numbers are way below what the car says. If I charge my car to 100%, leafspy says it is only 89%, and since leafspy says my average economy is 3.2 miles/kwh, it estimates I can only go about 48 miles until vlbw. Now you guys are saying with 8 bars you should be able to go 40 miles easy. So my question is just how accurate is leafspy?
79%soh. 11 bars.
Then I get leafspy, and its numbers are way below what the car says. If I charge my car to 100%, leafspy says it is only 89%, and since leafspy says my average economy is 3.2 miles/kwh, it estimates I can only go about 48 miles until vlbw. Now you guys are saying with 8 bars you should be able to go 40 miles easy. So my question is just how accurate is leafspy?
79%soh. 11 bars.
Valdemar
Well-known member
Iirc you set your economy yourself in LeafSpy and it gives you a prediction based on that and remaining energy in the battery. It remains a prediction still.
Stanton
Well-known member
dhanson865 said:
I'll second that motion as the more the battery degrades the more distance you get between LBW and VLBW, but the only way to safely manage that is with some sort of OBDII based device.
BTW, you still have a shot at dropping that 4th bar if you drive it a bit harder/faster in the summer heat; your current driving pattern definitely won't get you there in time to qualify for the warranty.
dhanson865
Well-known member
jkline said:
Leafspy is extremely accurate.
First I change the top section to show SOC% in the large numbers not GIDs. Either way if you are using leafspy you stop watching the GOM and go by leafspy. If you actually pay attention to SOC% for any reason, you might as well use it as your metric all the time (at least that's how I do it).
If the car dash says 4.6 miles/kwh then you should hit the + in leafspy to make your range estimate 4.6 or greater. Why greater? Because when you get to VLBW you are probably driving slower and getting well over 5 miles / kWh. Driving slow enough you'll get 8 to 12 miles per kWh. If you feel like you want more reserve set it to 4.5, if you want to try and stretch your range set it to 5.0 and push it there by driving slower when you need to.
On top of that with leafspy being so accurate you can drive until leafspy says you have 1 mile remaining and know it's right so you don't have leafspy show you remaining to VLBW, have it show you remaining to 0.5 kWh aka "reserve" (and make sure the reserve is set to 0.5 kWh). I only have 1 bar lost and I don't hesitate to dip below VLBW using leafspy. I charge to try and avoid VLBW but if I get there I still use it.
If you have it set right leafspy should always show you more miles remaining than what the dash says. You can tap to cycle through if you want to see miles to LBW and VLBW but when you need range have it show you miles to 0.5 kWh and use some of the pack you've been ignoring.
Driving those last few miles at 20 or 30 mph you'll have no worry about range, you'll drive 2 miles for every one that drops off the dash. And when the dash goes to --- you'll still know how many miles and SOC% you have left.
Lambtron
Well-known member
I have been using Leafspy religiously since I bought the car and have been driving it down to 49 Gids daily (LBW) and several times to 24 Gids (VLBW).Stanton said:
I have been driving it as hard as traffic will allow for the last 4 months including extra 60 mile drives every weekend. As of this morning, my readings have dropped to 43.88Ahr from 44.29 July 1
45.87 Hx from 46.53 July 1
66 SOH from 67 July 1
32000 mi as of this morning, 31606 as of July 1
I have been charging to 100% for about the last 8 mo. per Nissan but am finding if I only charge to 80% as I have been doing on the weekends, it seems to be a bigger hit to the battery , possibly due to heavier regen. Just some info and observations.
My biggest concern is the mileage hit below 8 bars in 40-50 degree weather.
Stanton
Well-known member
Lambtron said:
You're headed in the right direction with one exception: keep it charged to 100% no matter what it appears to be doing. Remember, 100% is really about 95% and it's a well known fact that keeping (any) battery "topped off" and hot is not good for it.
I know it may be difficult, but if you're really serious, double those "extra" miles on the weekend: driving hard and charging hot is very hard on the battery (and miles are not your problem). I can say from experience that a new battery pack is worth it in the end!
dhanson865
Well-known member
sub3marathonman said:Six capacity bars lost, or if you're an optimist, six capacity bars remaining.
I can go 33 miles from 100% charge to LBW, driving back roads, about 45 to 50 mph, flat, in Florida in the 80's. I'm thinking, even after that point, that I could go another 10 miles if I'd go 35 mph or so before it would be completely dead. Of course, no A/C no matter how much I'm sweating, and I won't even listen to the radio!
I recently took a 100 mile round trip, thought it would be about 75 miles, charged 13 miles from home, got from there the 38 miles or so with 8 on the GOM. Started coming back home, down on 6 on the GOM back in Winter Haven at about 8:30 p.m. I noticed that Hill Nissan was CLOSED!!! It was starting to get dark, but the gate was still open, so I pulled in to their QC. I was there about 10 minutes when one of the employees came around the corner and stopped. He said it was just fortunate that he had stayed late that day. Then he asked if I had gotten enough charge, or if I needed more, he'd stay a bit longer. That is why Hill Nissan is a FANTASTIC dealership in my opinion, he'd stayed late, but was willing to help me out anyway. Luckily I had gotten just enough to get the 13 miles back home without hitting LBW. I was truly worried how I was going to make it home if I hadn't been able to charge, I was going to have to stop somewhere and ask to use a 110V outlet.
Previously, with 8 capacity bars remaining, I did another one of those unplanned range tests, and driving a bit faster at 52 mph or so, I was able to go 50 miles to LBW, with I believe another 10 miles remaining at 35 mph or so.
It is really amazing how much further you can go at 30 mph or so, as I've driven 10 mile round trips before when closing in on LBW to try to maintain the charge.
Also, as many others have said, having the LeafSpy (I have the LeafSpy Lite but wanting to upgrade) and the OBDII scanner is a great help when you've lost the capacity. And as others have said too, it seems that more and more capacity is shifted to below the LBW, as when I've plugged in to a QC at just above LBW and 11 on the GOM, the QC showed about 45% remaining.
Oof, just took a peek and don't see your car listed on the wiki at http://www.electricvehiclewiki.com/Real_World_Battery_Capacity_Loss
Can you give me the details for adding it?
