Climate Control Solution - Gain Control of your Heater!

[Herm]

Exactly. A $16 K econo box gives a person more control than our $35 K machines.
Bill

Bill, you ARE driving a $16k econobox with $16k worth of batteries and motors in it.. what other car besides an econobox would use a Clarion radio? .. Please respect that battery and be proud of it instead of complaining about minor issues.

If you want luxury get yourself a Tesla or a Volt.

 

[TomT]

If we want to ultimately sell the Leaf to the masses in 6 digit quantities, I don't believe that sort of logic is going to work.

Bill, you ARE driving a $16k econobox with $16k worth of batteries and motors in it.. what other car besides an econobox would use a Clarion radio? .. Please respect that battery and be proud of it instead of complaining about minor issues.

 

[ebill3]

Exactly. A $16 K econo box gives a person more control than our $35 K machines.
Bill

Bill, you ARE driving a $16k econobox with $16k worth of batteries and motors in it.. what other car besides an econobox would use a Clarion radio? .. Please respect that battery and be proud of it instead of complaining about minor issues.

If you want luxury get yourself a Tesla or a Volt.

Point taken, and I realize that I am paying for the motor and battery.

BUT, a user friendly climate control system is not a luxury. My old base model Toyota van certainly was not luxurious, but I could control the heater and defroster.

Bill

 

[EVDRIVER]

Exactly. A $16 K econo box gives a person more control than our $35 K machines.
Bill

Bill, you ARE driving a $16k econobox with $16k worth of batteries and motors in it.. what other car besides an econobox would use a Clarion radio? .. Please respect that battery and be proud of it instead of complaining about minor issues.

If you want luxury get yourself a Tesla or a Volt.

Not really. The motor cost less than an ICE and the pack is likely not as costly as Nissan would like people to believe when the cost is fully realized. Most Nissan and infinity products are a bit cheap IMO but on the LEAF they really cut corners. Besides, it would not have cost more to do many of these things properly. The LEAF stinks of poor product dev people that had no idea how EV features should work. They were given advice form EV advocates early on and they chose to ignore much of the feedback which they will likely regret. I bet most people involved with the car rarely drove and EV, it's the "we know all about cars" mentality and poor marketing and cost courting in the wrong areas. Any person that had used an EV would not have designed the heater to function the way it does, this is a reflection of blind design. The car was also rushed to market so likely folks like Clarion were the only choice to do the NAV with Nissan requirements or the cheapest. I give Nissan a F grade on the entire NAV/Stereo and climate control, it's embarrassing for a product like this.

 

[Herm]

I give Nissan a F grade on the entire NAV/Stereo and climate control, it's embarrassing for a product like this.

Come on!, its cant be that bad.

 

[TomT]

It IS pretty bad! I'm probably grade it a D-.

I give Nissan a F grade on the entire NAV/Stereo and climate control, it's embarrassing for a product like this.

Come on!, its cant be that bad.

 

[larrys3255]

Phil

This definitely would be nice to have.
I have another suggestion if you are hacking the climate control: Enable using "recirculation" when the front window defrost is "on". Right now it automatically opens "fresh air". I want to be able to defrost the windshield without having to breath all the car exhaust from the cars ahead of me.
Larry

 

[jclemens]

I'm probably just a Neanderthal here, but is there a visible cabin temp sensor where one could hang a chemical hand warmer in front of to fake it into thinking the temp is above 60 degrees?

that got me thinking of a very simple solution that wouldn't throw any DTC faults.

The interior temperature sensor is located behind the trim under the start button.
if anyone wants to muck around with it, post your results. I might get around to it eventually, first by warming it up to see if it turns off the heat, then I might wire a resistor (with an accessible switch) in parallel to it to lower its resistance. This makes the car think the interior is warmer than it actually is.
Info on this is pg 12 of HAC of the service manual (INFOID:0000000006997088)
the location is shown on page 136, (INFOID:0000000006960527).

 

[SierraQ]

Phil
This definitely would be nice to have.
I have another suggestion if you are hacking the climate control: Enable using "recirculation" when the front window defrost is "on". Right now it automatically opens "fresh air". I want to be able to defrost the windshield without having to breath all the car exhaust from the cars ahead of me.
Larry

Like many other things, this is normal behavior for automatic climate control systems which are sometimes undesirable but nonetheless intentional design aspects. Defrost switches to fresh air and turns on A/C automatically to produce maximum defrost effect (the least amount of humidity in the blowing air). You can always override it at the risk of foggy windows.

 

[ebill3]

Like many other things, this is normal behavior for automatic climate control systems which are sometimes undesirable but nonetheless intentional design aspects. Defrost switches to fresh air and turns on A/C automatically to produce maximum defrost effect (the least amount of humidity in the blowing air). You can always override it at the risk of foggy windows.

Have you been able to do that? Override the fresh air intake while in defrost mode? I don't think so.

Bill

 

[larrys3255]

I myself have not been able to override it. Would be nice it I could.

 

[edatoakrun]

I'm probably just a Neanderthal here, but is there a visible cabin temp sensor where one could hang a chemical hand warmer in front of to fake it into thinking the temp is above 60 degrees?

that got me thinking of a very simple solution that wouldn't throw any DTC faults.

The interior temperature sensor is located behind the trim under the start button.
if anyone wants to muck around with it, post your results. I might get around to it eventually, first by warming it up to see if it turns off the heat, then I might wire a resistor (with an accessible switch) in parallel to it to lower its resistance. This makes the car think the interior is warmer than it actually is.
Info on this is pg 12 of HAC of the service manual (INFOID:0000000006997088)
the location is shown on page 136, (INFOID:0000000006960527).

Even simpler. The next cold and wet day, I'll try using my 12 V accessory heater. It should be able to heat up that area above 60 degrees, to "fool" the sensor, quite easily.

Could you more precisely state the sensor location(s?), for those without the service manual?

 

[hill]

Not really. The motor cost less than an ICE and the pack is likely not as costly as Nissan would like people to believe when the cost is fully realized. Most Nissan and infinity products are a bit cheap IMO but on the LEAF they really cut corners. Besides, it would not have cost more to do many of these things properly. The LEAF stinks of poor product dev people that had no idea how EV features should work. They were given advice form EV advocates early on and they chose to ignore much of the feedback which they will likely regret. I bet most people involved with the car rarely drove and EV, it's the "we know all about cars" mentality and poor marketing and cost courting in the wrong areas. Any person that had used an EV would not have designed the heater to function the way it does, this is a reflection of blind design. The car was also rushed to market so likely folks like Clarion were the only choice to do the NAV with Nissan requirements or the cheapest. I give Nissan a F grade on the entire NAV/Stereo and climate control, it's embarrassing for a product like this.

Are most of the folks on the mynissalLeaf.com web site too young to remember Nissan's EV Altra?

Now THAT was a junky EV. Nissan couldn't yank them back fast enough. So Nissan HAS gotten better EV's on the road - only they haven't taken advantage of their miserable failure NEARLY as much as they should have.

I have screwdrivers, and will get whatever else is required. Bring it on!

Bill

I'm in ... I hope by the time I read to the end of the threads, it'll finally be available. HOW MUCH LONGER!? I gotta drill down into these topics more frequently. But yea . . . I got screwdrivers ... Tom Collins ... Long Island Ice Teas . . . all the beverages that make DIY jobs more fun.

 

[jclemens]

There is a little vent under the start button, that is where the sensor is. If/When i get a 12v heater, i was going to try this, but please post your result here if you can get it to avoid turning on the main heat.

Even simpler. The next cold and wet day, I'll try using my 12 V accessory heater. It should be able to heat up that area above 60 degrees, to "fool" the sensor, quite easily.

Could you more precisely state the sensor location(s?), for those without the service manual?

 

[GaslessInSeattle]

I used EVnow's suggestion of turning CC off and using the mode button to switch to foot and defog mode and sure enough the draft just from driving down the highway was enough to keep the windows clear! My MPkW went from 3.3 to 4.0. I don't know how many other folks are like me and missed how significant that little button can be in helping to mitigate the fogging up of windows without having to turn on the fan/heat. try it out if you haven't!!!

 

[hill]

I just added this li'l 12v mod. Harbor Freight - $9 with coupon.

Surprisingly - it puts out a reasonable amount of heat - and you can't beat the price. It has a regular cool fan as well as a retractable handle for flashlight mode. I'm guessing it's maybe 150 watts with the ceramic heating element running ... a HUGE energy savings over the OEM heat. I don't know how they do it.

 

[brent]

I don't know much about thermocouples / sensors but what would happen if we just cut the wire on the sensor and put in a toggle switch to either open or close the circuit bi-passing the sensor. Then normal function would be available on the flip of the switch and heatless fan mode would be likewise available.

 

[Tinyscrafts]

Does anyone know how to close off the foot vents? Mine seem to leak cold air up my pant legs no matter what I do, Climate control off, face vents on, defrost on. What is this craziness?? Brrrr!

 

[Navin]

Make sure you hit the recirculation button. The car always defaults back to fresh air and the cold air is getting in even when climate control is off.

 

[GaslessInSeattle]

using recirculation only makes matters worse, IMHO, at least in terms of fogging because you then end up turning on power defrost, get cold, turn on heat and end up in that downer range spiral.

I do wish there was an option with CC off, to have just defog instead of foot defog together. I too get cold feet sometimes.

Make sure you hit the recirculation button. The car always defaults back to fresh air and the cold air is getting in even when climate control is off.