NissanConnect EV / Telematics Hardware Update, for the post-2G world

TomT said:

They could continue to use 3G if they like, if it is cheaper for them, but it was stupid to not build in 4G and LTE to future proof it since it costs nothing more in hardware...

JPWhite said:

I wonder what the cost of 4G would be to Nissan vs 3G. The old network maybe really cheap.

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Does anyone know, for sure, that this is a 3G only modem?

barsad22 said:

For me, it comes down to the fact that I was never promised it would remain free.
I was expecting that at some time, I would have to pay monthly for the service.

That never happened..

So $200 considering how long I've had the car and will have it for another year+, I'll consider that my monthly fee.. ;-)

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I suspect the sun-setting of 2G made Nissan forgo the monthly charge after 3 years. Now that there is continued service, I would not be surprised if you started getting charged $10/month for this feature.

lorenfb said:

GerryAZ said:

Blank data fields may indicate that the information such as VIN were not copied over from the old module by the technician using Consult.

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Your suggestion at this point appears to be the most plausible, e.g. tried entering AT&T as the carrier with no luck. [...]
Inadvertently, the Nissan tech left the detailed update procedure in my vehicle. One of the initial steps required
when using the Consult diagnostic tool is that a tech must "Sign into the TCU with the customer's User ID and Password".
At the drop-off time, the service advisor asked for my Carwings ID & PW. [...]

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The people who have done the upgrade: did your tech ask for you CARWINGS/NissanConnect EV ID/password? I don't think anybody has mentioned that?

aqn said:

lorenfb said:

GerryAZ said:

Blank data fields may indicate that the information such as VIN were not copied over from the old module by the technician using Consult.

Click to expand...

Your suggestion at this point appears to be the most plausible, e.g. tried entering AT&T as the carrier with no luck. [...]
Inadvertently, the Nissan tech left the detailed update procedure in my vehicle. One of the initial steps required
when using the Consult diagnostic tool is that a tech must "Sign into the TCU with the customer's User ID and Password".
At the drop-off time, the service advisor asked for my Carwings ID & PW. [...]

Click to expand...

The people who have done the upgrade: did your tech ask for you CARWINGS/NissanConnect EV ID/password? I don't think anybody has mentioned that?

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In one of the many posts, in the multitude of threads, covering this topic, someone mentioned that the dealer has the ability to lookup the Carwings ID and Password. I printed a copy to leave in the car, for the tech, when I get my upgrade done.

aqn said:

The people who have done the upgrade: did your tech ask for you CARWINGS/NissanConnect EV ID/password? I don't think anybody has mentioned that?

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Yes. I had it already printed out in the glove compartment , but failed to mention that. The dealer called me about an hour after I dropped it off to ask for my credentials. I knew it was necessary to log back into the system once the upgrade was complete, so I printed them as much for me as for them.

I did not realize they need them just to get the installation registered properly, but it does sound like that's the case.

Persistence resulted in the problem being resolved. On my 5th visit to the dealer with a discussion with both the
advisor and the tech, the problem was resolved in little over a hour. Luckily, as posted before, the tech had left the
setup procedure documentation in the vehicle when it was picked-up. As previously indicated, there's a procedural
step requiring that the tech while connected with the Nissan diagnostic tool, i.e. the Consult, that he log-on to the
Nissan network and enter the vehicle's Carwings ID & PW. When I mentioned that to both the advisor & tech, the tech
disagreed. After referencing that in the Nissan document, the tech agreed that he would re-do the setup procedure.
I asked to observe the process, but was asked to wait in the customer's waiting area. When the service was complete,
I was asked by the advisor to verify the functionality. I just entered the Carwings mode and selected "Update Stations".
There was no need on my part to personally enter my ID & PW. Again, the dealer has access to obtain the vehicle's
Carwings ID & PW, i.e. not requiring the owner to provide it, although it may expedite the process a little.

Thanks to all who provided info tips.

lorenfb said:

step requiring that the tech while connected with the Nissan diagnostic tool, i.e. the Connect, that he log-on to the
Nissan network and enter the vehicle's Carwings ID & PW. When I mentioned that to both the advisor & tech, the tech
disagreed.

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Re: the bolded part, I'm guessing you're referring to Consult III plus (referred to at https://www.nissan-techinfo.com/ecm07.aspx, and many other places).

edit: Whoops, somehow I think I clicked Quote instead of B earlier. Fixed that.

cwerdna said:

lorenfb said:

step requiring that the tech while connected with the Nissan diagnostic tool, i.e. the

Connect

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, that he log-on to the
Nissan network and enter the vehicle's Carwings ID & PW. When I mentioned that to both the advisor & tech, the tech
disagreed.

Click to expand...

Re: the bolded part, I'm guessing you're referring to Consult III plus (referred to at https://www.nissan-techinfo.com/ecm07.aspx, and many other places).

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Yes, a typo. Thanks, I'll fix it.

cwerdna said:

lorenfb said:

step requiring that the tech while connected with the Nissan diagnostic tool, i.e. the Connect, that he log-on to the
Nissan network and enter the vehicle's Carwings ID & PW. When I mentioned that to both the advisor & tech, the tech
disagreed.

Click to expand...

Re: the bolded part, I'm guessing you're referring to Consult III plus (referred to at https://www.nissan-techinfo.com/ecm07.aspx, and many other places).

edit: Whoops, somehow I think I clicked Quote instead of B earlier. Fixed that.

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Sorry for being daft here, but can someone give me a slightly more technical explanation as to why the login sequence with the advisor software is critical?

The dealer tech swears to me that the new TCU passes all of their communication tests locally (green light versus red) but he, nor I, could ever get the login piece to work. I've had it for over a week and it always shows 'failed to connect to center'. There are times when the unit ID screen shows nothing in the info screen and other times when its populated. I have used the fuse pull method to reset the TCU/modem for the aforementioned problem but it still won't connect. Nissan tech support was totally unhelpful when I explained the issue and told me that the dealer needs to fix. The dealer says the issue is between tech support and me.

I hate this so much right now. Textbook run around, incompetence, last minute notifications of the upgrade cost and zero awareness by the installation tech as to how this worked. The dealer had my car for a total of 4 days and gave me back non-working TCU. I have enjoyed my LEAF, but I hate Nissan. Never again. Tesla Model 3 cannot come soon enough.

Print out your CarWings/ConnectEV login and password page from the website (not your user id and password to login to the website) and take it to the dealer. Ask them to get an updated copy of the setup procedure and go through it, one more time, step-by-step. There is a part of the process that requires using the Consult tool and logging in with the CarWings login and password to properly register the TCU unit.

It is possible that you have a defective unit that is not properly storing the information, or a loose cable that is causing the TCU to randomly or repeatedly power-cycle.

For users of the LeafDD battery data display unit, the TCU upgrade has affected how the Leaf's battery data are updated,
i.e. one now needs to scroll the screens/pages to update some of the display data. I tested the LeafSpy and as of now,
it's not affected. For more info, check here;

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=12561&start=390

I called my dealer, Empire Nissan in Ontario, CA (California, not Canada!), about this update and the person on the phone was completely clueless. So last week when my wife took the other car in for service, she showed them the letter and asked about it. They said they don't have a LEAF tech and can't do the upgrade. This was news to me, as they certainly did replace my battery pack under warranty last year!

So I guess I need to find a new dealer for service. Any recommendations in southern California? I see a number of folks have gotten their TCU upgrades done at Downtown LA; that's doable but pretty far. The closest dealers to me are Metro Nissan in Montclair and Corona Nissan. Performance Nissan in Duarte is also very close to my work. I've been searching this forum for recommendations or reviews of these for service, and mostly coming up empty. I'm certainly willing to drive farther for a service department that's more committed to the LEAF.

Thanks!

DoobeeDude said:

Mine never did kick in by itself. Here's what I did to make it work.

Got to the "Phone & Carwings" Settings menu.
Select "Data Communication"
Then, go to the "Select Carrier" screen.
Turn off "Automatic Setup", and select "Manual Setup"
Chose your carrier on the next screen. The only available option for me was "AT&T".

Now, when you go back to the Data Communication screen, it should indicate the carrier is "User Settings".

That was it. Once I had done this, I was able to immediately connect.

Let me know if it works, and I'll post it on Reddit and send an email to my dealer.

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And today... Nada. Kaput. Cannot connect. Will check my Carwings settings when I can get back in the car this evening

Had mine done today. Took them 4-1/2 hours. First one they've done. Told me no problem changing out the unit and programming it, but they were on hold with Nissan for hours waiting for them to do their end.

Car connects OK, can update charge stations. iPhone app doesn't connect yet, gives me a weak service error message. Called support and they gave me the wait 24-48 hours speech, so we'll see. At least it didn't cost me anything.

I had my car done Monday morning. It took 24 hours to work. One thing I did notice is you only need a active device ( 3g TCU) to retrieve things like charging stations update. If you want to access any information about your car need to active Nissan connect account. You need go to the Carwings setting and choose the Sign-in option then choose the send ID and password. You will get a message saying your account has been activated . If you don't this step when you try access your car via Nissan EV you will get a error message that your account is not active.



Mark

markbb99 said:

I had my car done Monday morning. It took 24 hours to work. One thing I did notice is you only need a active device ( 3g TCU) to retrieve things like charging stations update. If you want to access any information about your car need to active Nissan connect account. You need go to the Carwings setting and choose the Sign-in option then choose the send ID and password. You will get a message saying your account has been activated . If you don't this step when you try access your car via Nissan EV you will get a error message that your account is not active.



Mark

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That sounds right, but is not my experience.

At this point, I can connect from my car, update stations, and sign on (getting the message that my account has been activated). But, apart from a brief 2 day window after I manually entered AT&T as the service provider, I cannot connect from desktop or mobile App.

I'm wondering if I should switch the car back to "Automatic" network detection.

Got mine replaced yesterday, and same with yall, no connection just yet. At first they were fighting me about a co-pay, but I guess they typed in the wrong VIN or something at the time. Good ol Service

Switching back to auto-detect of the carrier did not work.

Quite frustrating. I checked my Carwings (Nissan Connect) account and my driving history is being updated each time I connect from my car (it even has this morning's commute logged, and associated with my logon id). But from the same online session I can't call "into" my car to turn on HVAC or request a status update.

If it keeps up, I guess I'm going back to my Nissan dealer, but I'm not sure exactly what I expect them to do, except to re-register the TCU with the car and my ID.

The larger problem is that cars are engineered to last 10 years or more, while cellular devices/telematics (are engineered to) become obsolete in about 2 years.

The entire auto industry is fertile ground for some engineer to figure out a modular device that allows cellular customers to split/share their cellular service between two or more devices.

Instead of this semi-obsolete 3G telematics upgrade, It seems to me that it would be more worthwhile for Nissan to install a cellular/wifi 'hot spot' dock/connector so that owners can just plug their own Hot spots/phones/cellular service into their own Leaf.

Nothing new there, they have had them for boats for many years...

LeafingLA said:

The entire auto industry is fertile ground for some engineer to figure out a modular device that allows cellular customers to split/share their cellular service between two or more devices.

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