Telematics upgrade for US import to Canada

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alozzy said:
Based on the experience of a few pioneers like tysoncooper who did the 3G TCU upgrade (required, as Nissan says the 2G original TCU will NOT work in Canada), Carwings seems to be working although many people are frustrated by intermittent operation, having to reset their Carwings connection (via Nav system), 12V low battery flakiness, etc (see here: http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=21573)

Assuming your 12V battery is in good condition, you signup for a US account, you get the 3G TCU upgrade done by a dealership with experience, and you cross all your fingers and toes - it should work. At least, it should be about as reliable as Carwings was in the past ;)

I'm still holding out to see if Canadian dealerships will start to offer the TCU upgrade co-pay option, as I can't really spare the time to take a day off work to get the TCU upgrade done at a US dealership. Maybe during Spring Break, haven't decided yet...


But if you read others comments a lot of them said they have it working without the TCU upgrade.. They all had it working in the past and in Jan it stopped, but they found a work around.

So my question is, being a new user, where do i start to get to the work around?

1st thing they say is delete your VIN from the website.. since mines not even entered i dont know what to do..
 
Yeah, I was included in that group. It was working in Canada but Nissan apparently purged their database of all 2G TCUs without regard for US cars owned by Canadians.

It's now necessary to upgrade the TCU, you won't get it to work with the 2G TCU. Been down that road and wasted too many hours myself trying...
 
The work around was working for around 3-4 weeks until Nissan killed it on their end entirely. So the 2G units still function, but Nissan's server refuses to talk to it (even though it can) by blocking the VIN.

Essentially they're forcing everyone with a US car to get the 3G upgrade if they want to continue usage of Nissan Connect.

At the moment we're waiting for medtech1 to see if a local dealer will do the install for her.

Chiv.
 
I had asked my local dealer this:

I had ordered a TCU from the US to replace mine for my 2013 Leaf. I'm hoping it will come in this week.

Manufacture Date Part number
12/1/2012 - 09/30/2015 283B0-3NF2A

Can I bring it to you for the take care of the activation portion of the installation?


They responded with:

"If they got their own parts then it becomes customer pay $143.00"


I hope to book something next week.

Will update then!
Michelle
 
medtech1 said:
I had asked my local dealer this:

I had ordered a TCU from the US to replace mine for my 2013 Leaf. I'm hoping it will come in this week.

Manufacture Date Part number
12/1/2012 - 09/30/2015 283B0-3NF2A

Can I bring it to you for the take care of the activation portion of the installation?


They responded with:

"If they got their own parts then it becomes customer pay $143.00"


I hope to book something next week.

Will update then!
Michelle

So pretty much just labour costs.

Hoping they'll be able to do the whole order and install for us!

Thanks for keeping us updated! :)

Chiv.
 
I am adding a me too on a positive experience with a TCU upgrade like tysoncooper. I took my Leaf from Vancouver to Bellingham Nissan. Fortunately they had all the parts for my 2013 Leaf SV. They serviced it in about 90 minutes and billed me US$199. I jumped in and the TCU was communicating with Nissan servers. I checked by downloading nearby charge stations. I'm still in the 24 hour period and what's working is I can see my Leaf and it's status on the Nissan USA owner's portal. I have the US version (?) of the Nissan Connect android app and it's currently throwing up a error code 20033. I suspect I need to wait for this to be working.

This thread has been very informative in getting my Leaf upgraded and working to this point. And lots of other good stuff to learn from others on this board!
 
Nice.. more success. I had my 2G TCU working on both the US and Canada Nissanconnect (last round was US Nissanconnect), but I am hoping when mine is done, they can connect it to the Canadian version so the email notifications work.
 
Coreminator said:
I forgot to add that once back in Canada the TCU was able to communicate with the Nissan servers such as updating with nearby charge stations.


thanks, i might go down tomorrow and get this done.. did you have to book an appointment?
 
Bellingham Nissan wanted an appointment. It seemed busy when I visited. I did book an appointment so I was assured I could wait for the service to be completed.
If you didn't know, there's a free DC fast charge station on their lot. That gave me the quick boost to drive back north. :)
 
I found out I was using the wrong android app to connect my Leaf. It should read NissanConnect EV and the icon in the Google Play store is the Zero Emissions logo. The app current version is 4.0.3. This it the US version. Since I am still registered as US (i.e. accessing the owner's portal via Nissan USA), the range is report in imperial units.

The Canadian version looks identical except it is identified as "NissanConnect Canada EV" and it is version 3.0.5. However, when you first sign in you can identify which country your id is registered to...i.e. US or Canada. When I was logging in via the Canadian app I set the country to US...that works with measurements reported in imperial.

So has anyone converted/registered their Leaf with Nissan Canada in the Owner's Portal? What was that experience like? I suspect the range reported will be stated in metric.
 
Coreminator said:
The Canadian version looks identical except it is identified as "NissanConnect Canada EV" and it is version 3.0.5. However, when you first sign in you can identify which country your id is registered to...i.e. US or Canada. When I was logging in via the Canadian app I set the country to US...that works with measurements reported in imperial.

So has anyone converted/registered their Leaf with Nissan Canada in the Owner's Portal? What was that experience like? I suspect the range reported will be stated in metric.

Yeah, that's been annoying me a bit with this... no option to choose your units in-app. I didn't even try the Canadian app, didn't realise it would allow you to point to the US site. But no point anyway if the units are still imperial.
 
Does anyone know how the System works exactly? What is the difference between a US and Can Leaf? Is it simply just a web address somehwere that the ECU points to? http://www.us.gohere.com or http://www.can.gohere.com? Seems to me that canadians with a 2013 CND leaf would still have access to carwings or do they also need to upgrade the ECU to get it to work?

Side note, i was wondering if this info was stored on the SD card? Got me thinking of what would happen if i plugged in a cnd SD card in my car, would it connect to Canada's Connect?

after some research i found this
the sat nav is like a mbl phone and is locked to the card at the factory or dealership on delivery. therefore will only work on that hardware. Another card wont work

so no
 
Coreminator said:
I found out I was using the wrong android app to connect my Leaf. It should read NissanConnect EV and the icon in the Google Play store is the Zero Emissions logo. The app current version is 4.0.3. This it the US version. Since I am still registered as US (i.e. accessing the owner's portal via Nissan USA), the range is report in imperial units.

The Canadian version looks identical except it is identified as "NissanConnect Canada EV" and it is version 3.0.5. However, when you first sign in you can identify which country your id is registered to...i.e. US or Canada. When I was logging in via the Canadian app I set the country to US...that works with measurements reported in imperial.

So has anyone converted/registered their Leaf with Nissan Canada in the Owner's Portal? What was that experience like? I suspect the range reported will be stated in metric.

When we had the work around, triflic was able to get the Nissan Rep to add his VIN to the Canadian Portal, so it was almost like a Canadian LEAF. I suspect this was a no-no. You can always ask though.

Chiv.
 
FYI, for anyone living in Greater Vancouver, check out this thread:

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=23349

Sounds like Jonker Nissan in Surrey are doing the TCU upgrades for $200 CA!
 
stonymtnleaf said:
Well, another week has gone by. ....
Back on the phone to the service manger (at the original dealer in Minneapolis) to see what can be done. His explanation was that the final step of the 3G upgrade is to "wake up the TCU" by connecting a Nissan supplied computer to the car and sending appropriate commands to the TCU. This apparently is not a user key-stroke in the car process. What I should have asked (but didn't) is if this is to the OBCD port or some other connection to the car. It would be nice if one of the generic OBCD readers would do the job but not clear at this time.

Will try some of the other Wpg dealers next week to see if one of them has the right magic Nissan computer on hand to "wake up" my TCU.

The saga continues ...
So yet another week has gone by ...

Yesterday, I went to another Wpg Nissan dealer on the far side of town. On the phone they had said "yes, can do" and did not run away when I mentioned a US spec Leaf. After explaining my situation and having the hourly shop rate carefully pointed out to me, off they went with my Leaf.

An hour later it was back, and CarWings was working! Had to go home and update my password again but the full suite of CarWings services seems to be working despite my rural location and sometimes marginal cell phone reception. So let's declare success and move on .

Bottom line was $315 Cdn for the part and then $135 for one hour of dealer shop time and taxes of $17.50 for $152.50 to get things working. Total cost for my 3G upgrade thus abt $467 Cdn; a bit pricey but then I have been paying Volvo bills for over 20 years so it's all relative. The $199 USD conversion works out to abt $267 CDN, add 15% for Ottawa and your Province and that's $307, so I am abt $160 more. So for those located close to a US Nissan dealer, it's worth the trip.

Next question I suppose would be when/if the Cdn cell companies shutdown 2G forcing Nissan Canada into a wide spread 3G upgrade campaign and what it will cost locally, taxes in.

On a technical note, the tech brought the car back with a laptop running some sort of Nissan software and connected to the usual OBDC port, so that's how it's actually done.

Now to try and get my Android phone's NissanConnect app to work ...
 
I'm booked for Friday at Jonker Nissan in Surrey, copay confirmed for $199 CA. Nice!

I'll post back to let you all know how it's going.
 
alozzy said:
I'm booked for Friday at Jonker Nissan in Surrey, copay confirmed for $199 CA. Nice!

I'll post back to let you all know how it's going.

That's awesome! Let us know how it goes. $199CA is amazing.

Chiv.
 
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