Lose four bars in ten miles?

[mbender]

I left on a short errand today with 10 (of still 12, @14k) bars showing and in only 7 miles it dropped 3 bars, and after 10 miles I was down to 6. I drove maybe 3 of the 10 miles at 25 mph and 7 at ~50.

Now, I don't have a GID meter and I am leasing, so it's not a major issue, but it still concerns (or at least puzzles) me. Is it normal to lose those bars so quickly? Perhaps I was just barely at 10 to begin and on the high end of 6 when I returned? But even then, three full bars in only 10 miles seems pretty quick.

This is mostly asked out of curiosity (and for others' edification via the responses). Especially because I live in a mild climate, still have all 12 bars, and am leasing.

 

[klapauzius]

Yes, I have seen this happen, especially in "cold" winter weather (high 30s to mid 40s) with heating on.
I also have 12 bars still (after 3 Years 1 Month at 28k), but likely lost 10-12% of capacity, according to LEAF Spy.

 

[leafwing]

I left on a short errand today with 10 (of still 12, @14k) bars showing and in only 7 miles it dropped 3 bars, and after 10 miles I was down to 6. I drove maybe 3 of the 10 miles at 25 mph and 7 at ~50.

Now, I don't have a GID meter and I am leasing, so it's not a major issue, but it still concerns (or at least puzzles) me. Is it normal to lose those bars so quickly? Perhaps I was just barely at 10 to begin and on the high end of 6 when I returned? But even then, three full bars in only 10 miles seems pretty quick.

This is mostly asked out of curiosity (and for others' edification via the responses). Especially because I live in a mild climate, still have all 12 bars, and am leasing.

:lol:

 

[adric22]

I left on a short errand today with 10 (of still 12, @14k) bars showing and in only 7 miles it dropped 3 bars, and after 10 miles I was down to 6. I drove maybe 3 of the 10 miles at 25 mph and 7 at ~50.

Now, I don't have a GID meter and I am leasing, so it's not a major issue, but it still concerns (or at least puzzles) me. Is it normal to lose those bars so quickly? Perhaps I was just barely at 10 to begin and on the high end of 6 when I returned? But even then, three full bars in only 10 miles seems pretty quick.

This type of thing seemed to be happening to my 2011 quite often towards the end of my lease. It would lose a bunch of bars really fast during a longer drive, but then the bottom 3 or 4 bars would seem to go on forever, essentially making up for the difference.

 

[Limey]

I left on a short errand today with 10 (of still 12, @14k) bars showing and in only 7 miles it dropped 3 bars, and after 10 miles I was down to 6. I drove maybe 3 of the 10 miles at 25 mph and 7 at ~50.

Now, I don't have a GID meter and I am leasing, so it's not a major issue, but it still concerns (or at least puzzles) me. Is it normal to lose those bars so quickly? Perhaps I was just barely at 10 to begin and on the high end of 6 when I returned? But even then, three full bars in only 10 miles seems pretty quick.

This is mostly asked out of curiosity (and for others' edification via the responses). Especially because I live in a mild climate, still have all 12 bars, and am leasing.

Its hard to say, but that seems like a lot to me.

I drive 10 miles to get my kids to school. About 3 miles is at 45-50 and about 7 at 25-35. With my trip I'm usually getting close to losing my 2nd bar in winter (usually there between 80 and 85% battery left from full charge) and yes, heat and seats are on.

Was the drive all up hill? Were you blasting the heat @ 90? What year car do you have?

 

[ksnogas2112]

Not exactly surprising. I have seen similar this winter. 12 bars @~23k miles my2012. With cold battery, using full heat, driving interstate with the battery just barely tweaking the 10 bar and then just barely falling into the 6 bar it makes sense. What you probably had was an actual loss of 2 bars and the display just GOM'd.

 

[Becky50]

I have noticed a huge impact while driving the last few days in the heavy rain and wind in the SF Bay Area.

 

[mbender]

The drive was flat, essentially round-trip and during a sunny respite (no heat or wet roads), so I'm not sure what explains it. I'm guessing the calibration of those top bars is a little off, as adric and ksnogas suggest.

And I take leafy-wingnut's cryptic response to mean "You're complaining about that?!", given his or her loss of capacity bars and the fact that I am leasing and live in a mild climate.

 

[GaslessInSeattle]

I've seen some weird stuff like this the last few weeks with colder weather. various indicators suggest to me that things are going down hill for the battery and the cold seems to be effecting it more than the other Leaf's I've owned. We've only got about 6K miles on the car in a year. I do keep it at 80% pretty much 24/7, which I'm doing out of convenience and because I'm leasing and frankly am less concerned about babying the battery. honestly, I'm counting the months till I can hand it back in, i'm pretty disappointed with Nissan at this point. there have been a few times where I've gotten in the car after charging it up to 100% only to see 11 bars showing. The 12th bar seems to have quite a short life, just a few miles now. it kind of feels like i'm headed to loosing my first bar permanently soon. I really hope Nissan comes up with a better battery, this one is, well, just lame! Not being able to warm it up without heroic efforts with prolonged pre warms is one of the greatest draw backs. the whole thing feels like a downward spiral, in the summer you loose range due to ambient temps in the winter the summer losses are compounded by range loss due to cold, each year you go further down the tubes ... didn't expect to see so much permanent range loss in this cool climate!