My Nissan Leaf Forum

It's evident that the heater/AC arrangement was the super duper cheapest available ... like the paint thickness ... like the ultra chintzy carpet (tantamount to mear padding) ... like the low amperage traction charger ... it's the very very least Nissan could get away with, sadly. Nissan cut corners so that it'd be as affordable as possible. By purchasing these first gen EV's, Nissan is afforded the ability to recoup some of their R and D costs, so that hopefully, rev 2 will be better.

I was looking at the heater wiring schematic in the service manual this weekend, thinking that I surely I could ad a 12V switch in the system somewhere to turn the heater off myself. Sadly, although there seems to be both 12V and high V inputs to the heater, I don't yet see how to do it...

+1!

Here's my fix!

-Phil

Yeah!!

If it is cold out and I have the temp set high why Nissan do you illuminate the A/C light? Why not have two lights so we know what system is actually using power? And we could turn off the item we do not want running.

For instance I may have the temp set at 74 on a cool morning and press AUTO. But I don't need heat. I just want outside air to come in until the day warms the car and the cooling is needed.

I think an AUTO COOL and separate AUTO HEAT buttons would be better. Push both if you want both as I assume the car could figure out what system to run or stay off.

I want a button that I can push when I get out to tell the car to keep the climate control on. If it shuts off when it is getting low on power needed to get home, that would be a nice feature.

Additionally, can someone explain why the fan does not blow harder when the interior is cold? It should take a few seconds for the heater to have warm air and it should blow hard to get the temp in the interior up to the target. When I get out of the car, use the carwings thing to turn on the climate control, then get back in, the fan will be blowing hard and the interior temperature will be above the target. When I turn on the car the fan slows down. This makes no sense. The fan speed should be proportional to how far the interior temp is from the target temp regardless of whether the car is on or just the climate control is on.

What is going on?

I agree, in an ideal system it "should" take only a few seconds, but the LEAF doesn't have an ideal system. The electricity has to heat the coil, then the coil has to heat the coolant (water+antifreeze) and only then can the coolant start heating the air in the heater core. You see, Nissan gave the LEAF a traditional auto heater, but just used an electric coil to replace the non-existent engine.

Ray

+1. I think this is the simpliest idea.
A software update that when you set the temperature lower than 16c/60f degrees to a position called "Off" (I prefer this rather than "Low" as it suggests the heater stills runs). When in the Temperature "Off" setting the heater would just not switch on with the fans or modes. A/C already has a button to stop it if needed. Also this way, there is no changes to the console/facade and should be backward compatible.

I would also suggest an extra mode that just pointed at the windscreen instead of windscreen and feet. I understand pressing the windscreen button does this but it also switches on the fans and A/C. I would just like it so fresh air came in and went to the windscreen without cooling down my feet.

Finally, when controlling fan speed you should be able to go lower than 1bar and effectively stop the fans.
Thanks

Using defrost shouldn't lock in the use of outside air only. You should be able to use defrost and recirc. Especially when it's very cold outside.