Driving range display 'changes' after NTB11038 Svc Campaign

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I know I in the past arrived home after my 76 mile drive to work I had 1 white bar and 2 red bars with 20+ highway miles in the average.

I am not sure but would it have been close to needing 2 bar to do 20 miles?
 
mwalsh said:
I was (am) personally always very wary of the red bars, having been there once of twice and seeing the remaining range deteriorate very rapidly. But then, red does mean danger!
Absolutely. I think any planned trip that includes the red bars is pushing it ...
 
Gonewild said:
I know I in the past arrived home after my 76 mile drive to work I had 1 white bar and 2 red bars with 20+ highway miles in the average.

I am not sure but would it have been close to needing 2 bar to do 20 miles?
May be they have removed the "turtle" (or even very low battery) from the range and SOC bars ? That makes sense - those should be for last resort usage rather than a figure some might use to plan the trips.
 
I'm going to agree with the others that this change was different than I was expecting. The range estimate seems to be the same as it was prior to the update, but the SOC bars seem to be going down faster than they were.

I drove my car about 32 miles to the dealership, and my range estimate went from around 100 to about 65, so it was working about right for the way I was driving the car. Very flat roads all freeway with CC set to 58mph.

I had my car charged at the dealership prior to the update, and then after the update, when I picked up my car the range estimate was in the high nineties (97 I believe) and the mileage was about 35 miles driven, and when I got home after driving 31 miles the range extimate was 52 which is about right for the drive given that it looks like a little bit of charge was removed from the car before I drove it off plus about 3 miles added at the dealer. The only strange thing is that the SOC bars went down much further than I was expecting. I came off of the first bar quickly and I'm assuming this is because of the miles that the dealership put on the car testing the car after the modification. But then the SOC dropped much further on the way home that usual for this trip. In the end I lost about half my SOC in 31 miles (34 if you include the dealer miles), and normally I could drive about 45 miles before losing that much SOC at these speeds.

So the range estimate dropped appropriatly but the SOC dropped inappropriately in my view for this trip. I'll have to run a few more tests to be sure, but at this point, I'm in agreement that the change was strange.

20110422-033516.jpg
 
palmermd said:
I'm going to agree with the others that this change was different than I was expecting. The range estimate seems to be the same as it was prior to the update, but the SOC bars seem to be going down faster than they were.

I drove my car about 32 miles to the dealership, and my range estimate went from around 100 to about 65, so it was working about right for the way I was driving the car. Very flat roads all freeway with CC set to 58mph.

I had my car charged at the dealership prior to the update, and then after the update, when I picked up my car the range estimate was in the high nineties (97 I believe) and the mileage was about 35 miles driven, and when I got home after driving 31 miles the range extimate was 52 which is about right for the drive given that it looks like a little bit of charge was removed from the car before I drove it off plus about 3 miles added at the dealer. The only strange thing is that the SOC bars went down much further than I was expecting. I came off of the first bar quickly and I'm assuming this is because of the miles that the dealership put on the car testing the car after the modification. But then the SOC dropped much further on the way home that usual for this trip. In the end I lost about half my SOC in 31 miles (34 if you include the dealer miles), and normally I could drive about 45 miles before losing that much SOC at these speeds.

So the range estimate dropped appropriatly but the SOC dropped inappropriately in my view for this trip. I'll have to run a few more tests to be sure, but at this point, I'm in agreement that the change was strange.

20110422-033516.jpg


It was "strange" because you drove a total of 66.6 milies..... :evil: :D
 
Gonewild said:
I know I in the past arrived home after my 76 mile drive to work I had 1 white bar and 2 red bars with 20+ highway miles in the average.

I am not sure but would it have been close to needing 2 bar to do 20 miles?

Absolutely. I did not make 19 miles with 3 bars (albeit it was at ~ 32 F). At that time the car was giving me a 26 mile range for those 3 bars at the beginning of that trip, which left me stranded a mile from home with a dead battery.
(which was a VERY awkward experience .... ;) )
If they did improve the range estimate, especially at low charge, to be more accurate, that would be a very good thing.
So no reason to be unhappy about reduced range, as long as it reflects more closely what you actually will get.
 
Gonewild said:
I know I in the past arrived home after my 76 mile drive to work I had 1 white bar and 2 red bars with 20+ highway miles in the average.

I am not sure but would it have been close to needing 2 bar to do 20 miles?
It is quite possible that the system was incorrectly estimating SOC before, based on information from the battery. But IF that was correct, then three bars means your SOC was somewhere between 20% and 28%. Even when the last "red" bar disappeared you would still have 4% SOC.

Yes, you certainly need more than "2 bars" to do 20 miles, but you had that and more according to the display. Counting that last 4% (invisible ½ bar) you had somewhere between 2½ and 3½ bars left.

If your third bar was still "full" then you were at 28% SOC and you would have used 72% to go 76 miles. That's pretty good mileage, and works out to 106 miles on 100% SOC. At that rate you would be able to go 30 miles more, including some turtle time.

If your third bar was about to disappear, then you were at 20.1% SOC and would have used 79.9% to go 76 miles. At that rate you will go 95 miles on 100% SOC, and have 19 miles more before the car stops.

At least that's the way I look at it. I say 100% SOC is the most the car will let you put into the battery. 0% SOC is when the car won't let you take anything more out of the battery. It sounds as if you might be looking at it differently, Gonewild. Are you thinking of 0% SOC as when you get into the "red" bars? Or when the last one disappears? Or when you get the low battery warning? Or turtle mode? None of those match my worldview of SOC.

Ray
 
DarkStar said:
Gonewild said:
I wonder if Nissan removed some of the usable battery as to make the battery they have to warranty last longer? They may have new data since they said 8yrs 100,000 miles.
I'm not sure that would be legal. They sold the car with a 24 kWh usable battery, so if they, for example, took that down to 20 kWh, they are removing an item from the vehicle that was otherwise paid for. Also, it would invalidate the EPA tests and would have to go back through that process too.

Because of those two reasons, I'm fairly confident the vehicle has the exact same "pack range" that it had before the update. The information presented to the customer is just different...
Suggestion: Take two fully-charged LEAFs (one with, one without update) ... drive them "side-by-side" (or best equivalent thereof) together ... let's see what happens. (Plan on L1/L2 at/near the expected "dead" spot; or run each to the "very Low Battery" warning, with charging nearby.)
 
I know 0% is a dead battery yes. I just do not see how I now get home with 10 miles and I am driving on the last bar instead of 20 miles and low battery warning on first of the 2 red bars.

So your saying the last bars where fakes and I would have never made half the 20 miles only ten?
 
LEAFer said:
Suggestion: Take two fully-charged LEAFs (one with, one without update) ... drive them "side-by-side" (or best equivalent thereof) together ... let's see what happens. (Plan on L1/L2 at/near the expected "dead" spot; or run each to the "very Low Battery" warning, with charging nearby.)

That would be so cool. Reminds me of the Shell commercials from my youth:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TthbkRBjtY[/youtube]
 
LEAFer said:
Suggestion: Take two fully-charged LEAFs (one with, one without update) ... drive them "side-by-side" (or best equivalent thereof) together ... let's see what happens. (Plan on L1/L2 at/near the expected "dead" spot; or run each to the "very Low Battery" warning, with charging nearby.)

turbo2ltr mapped out stuff before - betting we just need to do it again with someone who has the update. Turbo - is it something one of us who had the update can do with the right equipment and the OBD port?
 
Gonewild said:
I know 0% is a dead battery yes. I just do not see how I now get home with 10 miles and I am driving on the last bar instead of 20 miles and low battery warning on first of the 2 red bars.

So your saying the last bars where fakes and I would have never made half the 20 miles only ten?
There certainly have been plenty of reports of milage dropping like a rock after thel low battery warning, so yeah, I think that's the prevailing theory.
 
sdbonez said:
LEAFer said:
Suggestion: Take two fully-charged LEAFs (one with, one without update) ... drive them "side-by-side" (or best equivalent thereof) together ... let's see what happens. (Plan on L1/L2 at/near the expected "dead" spot; or run each to the "very Low Battery" warning, with charging nearby.)

turbo2ltr mapped out stuff before - betting we just need to do it again with someone who has the update. Turbo - is it something one of us who had the update can do with the right equipment and the OBD port?
What we really need is the updated service manual pages explaining the SOC % and the 12 display bars... Unfortunately I don't want to spend the $20 until I know it's updated...
 
DarkStar said:
sdbonez said:
LEAFer said:
Suggestion: Take two fully-charged LEAFs (one with, one without update) ... drive them "side-by-side" (or best equivalent thereof) together ... let's see what happens. (Plan on L1/L2 at/near the expected "dead" spot; or run each to the "very Low Battery" warning, with charging nearby.)

turbo2ltr mapped out stuff before - betting we just need to do it again with someone who has the update. Turbo - is it something one of us who had the update can do with the right equipment and the OBD port?
What we really need is the updated service manual pages explaining the SOC % and the 12 display bars... Unfortunately I don't want to spend the $20 until I know it's updated...
Screw the manuals and theories ;) let's have some *FUN* ... Tandem ROADTRIP anyone ?
 
I just got home from having the update done to my car. Went in with 85 miles range showing. They did not charge the car. When I left the dealership I had 101 miles range showing.
 
rawhog said:
I just got home from having the update done to my car. Went in with 85 miles range showing. They did not charge the car. When I left the dealership I had 101 miles range showing.

They must've updated your car with latest beta version of software that increases the range estimator :lol:
 
sdbonez said:
LEAFer said:
Suggestion: Take two fully-charged LEAFs (one with, one without update) ... drive them "side-by-side" (or best equivalent thereof) together ... let's see what happens. (Plan on L1/L2 at/near the expected "dead" spot; or run each to the "very Low Battery" warning, with charging nearby.)

turbo2ltr mapped out stuff before - betting we just need to do it again with someone who has the update. Turbo - is it something one of us who had the update can do with the right equipment and the OBD port?

Gonewild and I are working on it. Having a little technical difficulties.
 
I had the upgrade done Friday and immediately noticed my miles per kwh drop from 3.8 to 3.2.
Just did a 12 mile round trip starting with a 100% charge and used 4 bars and range went from 86 miles at start to 65 miles after the trip?
I know I definitely lost some efficiency due to lost regeneration because I started with a 100% charge but a loss of 4 bars (around 28%) for a 12 mile round trip?

I will have a better idea after my regular commute on Monday but so far I'm not liking what I see.
 
MrFish said:
I had the upgrade done Friday and immediately noticed my miles per kwh drop from 3.8 to 3.2.
Just did a 12 mile round trip starting with a 100% charge and used 4 bars and range went from 86 miles at start to 65 miles after the trip?
I know I definitely lost some efficiency due to lost regeneration because I started with a 100% charge but a loss of 4 bars (around 28%) for a 12 mile round trip?

I will have a better idea after my regular commute on Monday but so far I'm not liking what I see.
Are you in ECO mode or D and you must be driving at 70+ mph? Ya
 
OK. No one else here seems to have said this out loud yet, so I will. I had the recall software update done Friday. I think the bars are disappearing faster than an adjustment of the rate at which the last 15 miles decrease would warrant. What if Nissan decreased the available portion of the battery? Is there any way to check to see if we still have 24 kwh available? I'm not sure why they would do this, but I'd like to hear from those of you that have the means to check if the portion of the battery available for use is still the same following this recall work.
 
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