replace telematics? low SOH battery

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AzLeafCpa

Member
Joined
Mar 28, 2021
Messages
6
I bought a used Leaf, 2013 SL 90K miles in Phoenix, I absolutely love the car yet I have 2 problems:

(1) The previous owner bought the $199 telematics upgrade in 2018, but the Telematics Control Unit does not work and is out of warranty. Per the dealership, it has power to the telematics but the car does not register it, therefore they are recommended I spend $520 to replace the whole unit. I showed the bulletin NTB18-045b, but they said it wasn't applicable.

Has anyone heard of this before? Is there a particular tech in Arizona that knows Nissan Leafs the best?

(2) The car is at a 47.61% SOH, it only gets about 44 miles of range on a full charge. I bought the car thinking I was probably going to replace the battery using EV Rides in Portland, in a year or 2. I have extremely short commute to work, under 5 miles so I wasn't too worried about the low range. Yet, per the dealership, if my car battery gets too low, the car won't even start.

Does this actually happen, and if so, what SOH% does this occur? Is there any, non-dealer tech, in AZ that works on Nissan Leafs?
 
You can just disable the telematics unit, removing power from it. I don't remember if you can simply pull a fuse, or if that fuse serves more than one system and something further is required. Others will remember.

The car can die unexpectedly if the charge gets low and one or more cells are weaker than the others. You will want to use LeafSpy to check the battery and also to monitor the remaining range at low charge levels. (It's also possible that the dealership was talking about the 12 volt battery, which can be drained by a bad telematics unit, and which can also disable the car - at least until it is charged with an external charger.)
 
AzLeafCpa said:
(2) The car is at a 47.61% SOH, it only gets about 44 miles of range on a full charge. I bought the car thinking I was probably going to replace the battery using EV Rides in Portland, in a year or 2. I have extremely short commute to work, under 5 miles so I wasn't too worried about the low range. Yet, per the dealership, if my car battery gets too low, the car won't even start.

Does this actually happen, and if so, what SOH% does this occur? Is there any, non-dealer tech, in AZ that works on Nissan Leafs?
I don't know but the worst I've seen anyone ever post pics of (and still drives their Leaf) is a 3 capacity bar car (9 capacity bars lost). There's a guy in So Cal that for some reason still drives his 3 bar car.

How many capacity bars remain? They're the thinnest bars all the way on the right, including the red ones. http://www.electricvehiclewiki.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Scott_3_bars_s.jpg is an example of a fully charged 9 capacity bar car (3 bar loser).

Would be interesting to hear of 0 bar cars.... I'd guess that the first low battery warning would come w/not much driving...
 
One of the members of these forums lives in SoCal and had a Russian guy do a 24 kWh -> 62 kWh pack swap for under $9k. You might want to DM that person for more info.
 
alozzy said:
One of the members of these forums lives in SoCal and had a Russian guy do a 24 kWh -> 62 kWh pack swap for under $9k. You might want to DM that person for more info.

Wow, I'll need to connect with this member. Thanks!
 
alozzy said:
One of the members of these forums lives in SoCal and had a Russian guy do a 24 kWh -> 62 kWh pack swap for under $9k. You might want to DM that person for more info.

Found the member, but it looks like there are moderation controls limiting my communication as I am a new member:

jbsocdelica
We are sorry, but you are not authorised to use this feature. You may have just registered here and may need to participate more in discussions to be able to use this feature."

When are these controls lifted?
 
AzLeafCpa said:
When are these controls lifted?
Either after 3 or 10 approved posts (I don't remember which). Since you just passed 3, you can try again.

(I've also PM'd him for you and pointed him to this thread)
 
Regarding LEAF techs in the Phoenix area, I recommend Pinnacle Nissan in Scottsdale. Before giving up on the telematics unit, there are some steps to take with Nissan EV Customer Service to get the system to work for a new owner. It may also require resetting the telematics unit by disconnecting power to it (removing the proper fuses for a few minutes). Get a second opinion from another dealer before paying for a complete new unit. If your car has 5 capacity bars showing (7 lost) and you are getting 44 miles of range, then the cells are reasonably well balanced so use the car as long as the range meets your needs. I recommend that you get LEAF Spy Pro and a suitable OBDII Bluetooth adapter to have the capability of reading/clearing DTC's (diagnostic trouble codes) and reviewing detailed battery information.
 
Just had my 2012 in for service at Melloy NIssan, Albuquerque, NM. Was experiencing 12volt battery discharge and after testing for a parasitic discharge overnight, this is what was done "Found TCM update per NNA for software update. Updated TCU -Verified proper operation of vehicle after service." My CARWings still doesn't work. I had the upgrade to 3G done back then and it worked until early 2019. I could use the app on my phone to turn on the heat! The app stopped connecting with the car. And the car cannot connect to Nissan. Since I'm now starting to drive more, it might be nice for this to work like it was supposed to. Since I've got 7 months before the 3G goes away.
After the upgrade I went into the CarWIngs screen and deleted then re-entered my username and password. The system could not connect to Nissan. I also noticed in the upper left corner of the screen the icon of a car with I think an antenna that was grayed out. I looked through the owners manual for the Nav system and no where could I find a picture of this icon nor an explanation of what it represents. Am I correct that it indicates the state of the TCM connection.
Thanks for any help.
Ed
 
The app stopped connecting with the car. And the car cannot connect to Nissan.

To be clear, the app communicates only with Nissan, and the car communicates only with Nissan's servers. There is no communication between the car and the app, AFAIK, which is part of what makes the process so slow and glitchy.
 
Coronado54 said:
I had the upgrade to 3G done back then and it worked until early 2019. I could use the app on my phone to turn on the heat! The app stopped connecting with the car. And the car cannot connect to Nissan. Since I'm now starting to drive more, it might be nice for this to work like it was supposed to. Since I've got 7 months before the 3G goes away.
So your telematics service hasn't worked since 2019? Even if you have "rebooted" the TCM (I suspect you have had reason to disconnect the 12v battery since then), at this point you probably need a complete reset/restart of your system. This may involve working with the Nissan hotline and/or a trip to the dealer (simply re-entering your user name, etc. isn't sufficient).
Since you know it once worked (with the 3G upgrade), there's a chance you can resurrect it...before 3G is gone (at which point I am putting in an OVMS module).
 
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