Rat
Well-known member
Now that AT&T has discontinued its 2G service I can no longer preheat my 2011 Leaf from the NissanConnectEV website. I am aware that I can get an upgrade installed in the car, but I don't think it's worth the money for the small use I would get out of it. The only time I ever want to preheat (or cool) is wintertime when I am about to leave for the gym in my shorts and T-shirt. It gets below 40 in my garage sometimes. This used to be easy. I'd log onto the website, click the heat icon and 3 or 4 minutes later the car would be toasty. When it was preheating it was plugged in and the blue light would come on showing that it was drawing power from the wall. The dash lights would be off.
I have tried going out to the garage before getting dressed for the gym and turning on the car to accessory mode to preheat, but the heater won't run in accessory mode. I can start the car up and put it in Park with the heater cranked up to 80 or so (the heater is so underpowered it's necessary to raise it that high to get any noticeable warmth out of it for the first 5 or 10 minutes). The car does preheat, although it doesn't pull the power from the EVSE, which means it is reducing my range by using battery power; that's not an issue since I only do short drives. All the dashboard lights come on along with whatever else is powered during normal operation. However, whenever I've done this, when I then unplug it and try to drive, it won't shift into drive or reverse. Instead it pops into Neutral and remains there. No matter how I move the shift lever, nothing happens. If I turn it off and start it again, every warning light on the dash comes on, some flashing, and the car won't go into gear at all. I think there's some sort of internal overheating going on, but I'm not sure. If I let it sit unplugged and turned off for about 5 minutes, it will then start up normally and drive.
I know there is a timer function, but I'm not on a regular schedule and some gym days I skip the gym altogether. It seems too cumbersome to go out and reset the timer for every single gym day and remember to unset it after I'm done.
My solution is the simple one of not preheating, instead wearing sweats over my gym clothes, and bearing the cold air blast from the vents while the heater comes up to temperature during the drive to the gym and removing my sweats in the parking lot when I get there. The car gets warm about two minutes before I arrive. Coming home is no problem because the car retains enough heat and I'm warmed up from the workout. The air temperature is usually moderate by then, too.
This is admittedly a minor problem that only applies two or three days a week in the winter, but it seems like there ought to be a simple on/off button to push inside the car to start and stop the heater using the exact command or process that was sent via the 2G system before. It should send all the power directly to the heater, not to the dash and traction motor until it comes up to heat. I'm also worried that I could damage something if I misjudge or get distracted when preheating the new way, which is why I don't do it.
Am I missing some easy solution? I've searched the manual for how to start just the heater and other than the remote or timer methods, I don't see any. Any suggestions?
I have tried going out to the garage before getting dressed for the gym and turning on the car to accessory mode to preheat, but the heater won't run in accessory mode. I can start the car up and put it in Park with the heater cranked up to 80 or so (the heater is so underpowered it's necessary to raise it that high to get any noticeable warmth out of it for the first 5 or 10 minutes). The car does preheat, although it doesn't pull the power from the EVSE, which means it is reducing my range by using battery power; that's not an issue since I only do short drives. All the dashboard lights come on along with whatever else is powered during normal operation. However, whenever I've done this, when I then unplug it and try to drive, it won't shift into drive or reverse. Instead it pops into Neutral and remains there. No matter how I move the shift lever, nothing happens. If I turn it off and start it again, every warning light on the dash comes on, some flashing, and the car won't go into gear at all. I think there's some sort of internal overheating going on, but I'm not sure. If I let it sit unplugged and turned off for about 5 minutes, it will then start up normally and drive.
I know there is a timer function, but I'm not on a regular schedule and some gym days I skip the gym altogether. It seems too cumbersome to go out and reset the timer for every single gym day and remember to unset it after I'm done.
My solution is the simple one of not preheating, instead wearing sweats over my gym clothes, and bearing the cold air blast from the vents while the heater comes up to temperature during the drive to the gym and removing my sweats in the parking lot when I get there. The car gets warm about two minutes before I arrive. Coming home is no problem because the car retains enough heat and I'm warmed up from the workout. The air temperature is usually moderate by then, too.
This is admittedly a minor problem that only applies two or three days a week in the winter, but it seems like there ought to be a simple on/off button to push inside the car to start and stop the heater using the exact command or process that was sent via the 2G system before. It should send all the power directly to the heater, not to the dash and traction motor until it comes up to heat. I'm also worried that I could damage something if I misjudge or get distracted when preheating the new way, which is why I don't do it.
Am I missing some easy solution? I've searched the manual for how to start just the heater and other than the remote or timer methods, I don't see any. Any suggestions?