Bizarre regen/brakes issue!

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IBELEAF

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 7, 2010
Messages
1,235
Location
Seattle, WA
Earlier today my Leaf got "stuck" from the start in some sort of brake/regen mode and brakes were much harder to push. Basically, if I let go of accelerator on the flat surface my car immediately would start braking with 4 regen bars. I drove like that for couple of miles then stopped and powered the car off thinking that would go away. Suddenly another issue, I could not turn the car back on because it kept asking me to push brakes. After several tries I finally got it turned on by pushing brakes as hard as I could and the earlier issue went away... So, got me a little worried and I was trying again to reproduce this issue again, but no luck so far.

Now, before it happened I can't exactly recall if I did anything, but I do have some details. I parked the car backwards and turned it off bypassing P button as I usually do and I think I had my foot on brakes for about 5 minutes as I was sitting in the car waiting for my wife. Then I turned it on and discovered this issue immediately, which freaked me out at first.
 
Sounds like you unlocked super regen mode. How did you do it? Was it a secret shifter combo? Left, left, down, down, left, down?

Seriously though, sounds like there is an issue with the brake booster so it was kicking in more regen as a safety method to slow you down. Pretty smart. I would like to find out how to trigger that mode on demand. I bet a relay or resistor could could do it. Any more info on how, when it kicked in? Speed, drive mode, charge level?
 
IBELEAF said:
EVDRIVER said:
You must always push the brake to start the car.
i am aware of that, but in this case it required more force then usual

The brake sensor switch is on or off, pushing harder does not make it contact more:)
 
GroundLoop said:
The description sounds very interesting. I'd certainly like to get into that mode, only with fully-operative (normal pressure) brakes.

Well, to be honest, I didn't think it was interesting at that time, I was just worried that something gone wrong with the brakes. That was the most uncomfortable part actually where I had to apply more pressure to the brakes, hence I could not start the car on the first attempt by applying normal pressure to the brakes. Software bug? In any case, if I ran into this again or find a way to reproduce it I'll update, but until then it's just a "fluke"... like a heater problem that I had a few weeks ago...
 
Something that causes the brakes to require MORE force than normal seems like it would have to be related to the brake booster or ABS. I've had ABS failures (false "ice' detection) that turn the brake pedal into a wooden block.. requiring herculean strength to press.

A total failure of brake boosting could also feel like more force is required.

Seems like something somewhere would have logged an error code. Me, I'd bring it to the dealer, exhibiting or not, and have them read out everything. Brakes -- not something you want to mess with.
 
I wonder if IBELEAF's "more force" might be related to an odd thing I have been noticing. Sometimes, maybe one time out of three, when I first get into the car and push the brake pedal before hitting the start button, I feel a "catch" in the pedal. It stops at about the depression where it would normally start to cause some braking if the car was powered up. It's a sharp stop feeling, like it hit something metal. But in my case it then releases without much extra pressure, and the pedal does down quite a bit further to the firm cushioned depth that I am used to feeling when the power is off.

Ray
 
Thanks for reporting your "wierd-brake" experience. Do go get the codes (if any) read by a helpful dealer.

However, we can all be more watchful for this "feature".

Like the "Teakettle Syndrome" by "starry" (apparently turned out to be a stuck/defective relay in (or associated with) the battery pack that powered-on just the Heating Element, only while charging), until we can give Nissan's EXCELLENT Task Force engineers something to work on, they cannot fix it and suggest improvements to Japan.
 
garygid said:
Like the "Teakettle Syndrome" by "starry" (apparently turned out to be a stuck/defective relay in (or associated with) the battery pack that powered-on just the Heating Element, only while charging), until we can give Nissan's EXCELLENT Task Force engineers something to work on, they cannot fix it and suggest improvements to Japan.
Absolutely. This needs to be "officially" reported to Nissan right away. Get thee to a dealer.
 
I don't know if it's related or not, but I've sometimes noticed the brakes are inexplicably significantly more grabby than usual. This has happened to me several times and I've been unable to figure out a pattern...
 
I experienced the strange, almost "grabby" brakes ONE time,
with the pedal seeming to go much further down than usual.

MAYBE it was the ONE time that I heard what sounded like the fans
coming on as I turned the car ON for the first time in the morning.
As I started moving backwards, the fairly loud "fan" noise quit.
 
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