Braking?

[HungryTurkey]

<comment removed>

 

[user 10599]

Gulp!

I bought my 2013 Smyrna built leaf 2weeks ago. Been loving the car and should get the home charger installed next week.

Out of town on business so my wife tries to drive the car. B4 she heads out, she says the brake light came on. Checking under the hood she thinks the brake fluid is low.

Update: Got home and checked the car. It turns out my wife misinterpreted the door ajar warning as a brake warning. Turns out she was looking at the coolant reservoir, not the brake fluid reservoir. Fortunately, I talked her out of topping off the brake fluid until I got home to check the car. That probably would have killed it and voided the warranty - in under 3 weeks of ownership.

So we are back to confidently loving this car. Though my wife is now forbidden from opening the hood.

 

[ichristopherg]

Wow! Scary stuff! So far my new Leaf has been braking well. *knocks on wood* Got cut off on the freeway the other day by some idiot who cuts me off then slams her brakes; I slammed on mine and car stopped on a dime! My tires screeched a tiny bit but it was crazy how fast I was able to stop! I'm hoping these are isolated cases and nothing that is wide spread to all leafs. Mine was built back in July.

 

[HungryTurkey]

Got my car back with new ECU. Guess it's working great, except I noticed my windshield wipers weren't working while driving home from he shop... /sigh. I'm hoping it's a wire they forgot to plug back in or a fuse or some crap. I just want my Leaf back and fully functional... waaah!

 

[jelloslug]

Got my car back with new ECU. Guess it's working great, except I noticed my windshield wipers weren't working while driving home from he shop... /sigh. I'm hoping it's a wire they forgot to plug back in or a fuse or some crap. I just want my Leaf back and fully functional... waaah!

You just can't win.....

 

[cwerdna]

Gulp!

I bought my 2013 Smyrna built leaf 2weeks ago. Been loving the car and should get the home charger installed next week.

Out of town on business so my wife tries to drive the car. B4 she heads out, she says the brake light came on. Checking under the hood she thinks the brake fluid is low.

Update: Got home and checked the car. It turns out my wife misinterpreted the door ajar warning as a brake warning. Turns out she was looking at the coolant reservoir, not the brake fluid reservoir. Fortunately, I talked her out of topping off the brake fluid until I got home to check the car. That probably would have killed it and voided the warranty - in under 3 weeks of ownership.

So we are back to confidently loving this car. Though my wife is now forbidden from opening the hood.

Yeah, it's can be easy to misinterpret the warning lights. I remember one time I recall the yellow ! was on and I was thinking "uh oh!" It turned out that the hatch wasn't fully closed.

This is a digression but I was thrown off by the Intelligent Key behavior being different than Toyota's SKS. One day when I arrived at work and pushed the silver button to lock the doors, I recall getting the light flash and hearing some locking (I think I actually didn't hear any) but no confirmation beeps. I had to go to work.

I glanced thru the manual and later came back, futzing some more, thinking I'd disabled/muted the beeps. Turns out that a door or the hatch was still ajar --> no confirmation beeps when locking. In fact, the it seems that pushing the silver buttons on the door handles has no effect if a door/hatch is ajar. But, one can still lock the doors via the power door lock switches and the lock button on the key fob.

On a Toyota w/SKS (Smart Key System is what they call it), if you have a door/hatch ajar when you try locking w/the black button/ridges (on most newer Toyotas/Lexuses), you'll get a VERY long beeeeeeeeep and it'll refuse to lock any doors.

 

[user 10599]

On a Toyota w/SKS (Smart Key System is what they call it), if you have a door/hatch ajar when you try locking w/the black button/ridges (on most newer Toyotas/Lexuses), you'll get a VERY long beeeeeeeeep and it'll refuse to lock any doors.

Yes, we also have a Highlander Hybrid. The different behavior of the smart key system has taken me some getting used to. I do like the warning that Toyota gives if you attempt to lock but a door is ajar. But otherwise, different isn't bad, just different and takes some getting used to.

In my wife's defence, I have to admit that the rear hatch is a bit finicky when closing. We often think it is closed and don't find out otherwise until the car balks.

As I'm only 4 weeks into owning this, and was out of town 1 week, I'm still getting used to the car and learning its quirks. But I must say at this point I'm very impressed with what Nissan has accomplished.

It looks like my normal commute works well with an 80% charge and I finish the day with 20-30% remaining. So my normal commute appears to be well suited for maximizing battery life.

 

[HungryTurkey]

Well, on the plus side, the wiper problem, as suspected was simply a case of the tech forgetting to reconnect it. So as of now, everything appears to be operating within normal parameters. I'm crossing my fingers that this Leaf will now cooperate and be the car I know it *can* be, based on my first one. It's gotta' re-earn my trust, but I'm cautiously optimistic the worst is behind at this point, and after 6 visits and 42 days in the shop, that would be a good thing. I hope the plant is performing some root cause analysis on warranty issues, so they can make the car more reliable.

 

[jelloslug]

Well, on the plus side, the wiper problem, as suspected was simply a case of the tech forgetting to reconnect it. So as of now, everything appears to be operating within normal parameters. I'm crossing my fingers that this Leaf will now cooperate and be the car I know it *can* be, based on my first one. It's gotta' re-earn my trust, but I'm cautiously optimistic the worst is behind at this point, and after 6 visits and 42 days in the shop, that would be a good thing. I hope the plant is performing some root cause analysis on warranty issues, so they can make the car more reliable.

If you do have to take it in again I suggest you head over to Nissan of Greer.