Nissan Leaf

[dhanson865]

Originally Posted by NeilBlanchard

For some reason, the range remaining display goes to "---" flashing after I got down to 9 miles left. I don't know what is up with that.

That's called the Very Low Battery Warning (VLBW) it's accompanied by a voice alert over the speakers in the car.

Nissan doesn't want people relying on the guessometer (GOM) when they are that close to turtle (when the car limits power output)

[dhanson865]

BTW as an introduction for myself, I've known Neil for many years from other forums SPCR being the first place I saw him.

Apparently I've been a lurker on ecomodder for several years. I've been posting heavily on priuschat.com, mynissanleaf.com, and teslamotorsclub.com

I have a 1998 Saturn SL2 that I'm going to sell now that we have the Leaf.

I have a 2005 Prius that is one of our daily drivers but relegated to secondary if only one of us drives that day. I bought it for about $10,000 around the time of the unintended acceleration scare (Book Value the months before that was more like $15,000)

I have a 2012 Leaf SL that I got for $8995 from a used car lot that got it from auction after the first owner turned it in when the lease term was up. So the world calls me the 2nd owner ignoring Nissan and the used car dealer.

The Leaf has 16" rims with Goodyear Eagle RS-A tires. Heavy, poor rolling resistance.

I'm looking to do a -1 and put 15" rims on it and if I can get another set I'll put some Energy Saver A/S on it (they're doing fine on the Prius and I'd rather just get those than to have to figure out my 2nd best option).

btw the Leaf allows you to edit the speedometer accuracy +/- 2.5% in a service menu on the MFD.

(Audio Power off, Map, Map, Map, Audio Power, Audio Power, Map)

...

The adjustment in the service pages, "Navigation", "Speed Calibration", is only +/- 2.5%.

Word is you have to do it when the car is at a stop (going less than 5 mph) for it to stick.

I'm still trying to test vs an android GPS speedometer app to see if I can notice a change if I set it to the max one way then the other for what should be a 5% swing.

[MetroMPG]

Welcome to the forum, dhanson865.

Originally Posted by dhanson865

I have a 1998 Saturn SL2 that I'm going to sell now that we have the Leaf.

Advertise it in our for sale section, if it's a manual. That's a fairly popular fuel-saver around here.

I have a 2012 Leaf SL that I got for $8995 from a used car lot that got it from auction

Wow - great deal! Congrats.

[Daox]

Welcome to the site officially dhanson865. Nice fleet you got there.

[gasstingy]

dhanson865,

If you don't mind me asking, what kind of capacity loss does your new to you 2012 Leaf have? I'm thinking my weather is similar to yours, and I'd love to know.

Thanks,

Mark

[MetroMPG]

Would you trust the dashboard battery capacity gauge? I wouldn't.

[gasstingy]

Nor would I, but asking an actual owner about his range, hopefully will get an experience based answer and not a dashboad GOM answer.

[NeilBlanchard]

Good to "see" you here on EcoModder. I have run across way too many people in several different forums to be able to remember where (let alone when!) we first got acquainted.

I would recommend the Bridgestone Ecopia EP422 16" tires that came on our 2015 Leaf S. They are the lowest RR all season tires that I am aware of. They stick well enough, though I don't know how long they will last.

The Leaf S doesn't have the navigation system, so I can't calibrate the odometer. Though, it is odd that last year when I calibrated the Leaf, I had to subtract 2.3%, and this year (after swapping the Nokian Hakka R2 back off), they only are 1.7% too high.

The R2's by the way are even better RR than the stock Ecopia tires. They are simply amazing rolling resistance tires.

[dhanson865]

Originally Posted by gasstingy

dhanson865,

If you don't mind me asking, what kind of capacity loss does your new to you 2012 Leaf have? I'm thinking my weather is similar to yours, and I'd love to know.

Thanks,

Mark

11 bars showing. No one serious about the Leaf uses the dash. If you want to know the battery health you grab an android phone, an ODBII reader, and the leafspy app.

I did just that on the dealer lot before I even took it for a test drive.

The car was originally in North Carolina until about 83% SOH (SOH is from the leafspy/ODBII reading). I drove it over the mountains to Tennessee and its stayed at 83% for a few weeks then dropped to 82%.

Leafspy shows about 17.x kWh at a full charge (vs the 21.x kWh for a new one)

When I bought it the car had 0 quick charges and about 2000 L1/L2 sessions logged. I used the ChaDemo port 3 times on the trip from NC to TN.

[dhanson865]

Originally Posted by gasstingy

Nor would I, but asking an actual owner about his range, hopefully will get an experience based answer and not a dashboad GOM answer.

Well I could tell you the range I get but my commute is not the norm if you live anywhere remotely flat.

I posted a 63.x MPG tank on the Prius the week of me buying the Leaf.

My commute is about 15 miles one way with lots of hills, lots of speed variation, no chance for controlled hypermiling in the extreme sense. I have to use the slow speeds at each end of the trip to take advantage of the EV and keep speed up (drive with load style) for the hills.

As to my Leaf I still have these junky Goodyear tires on it that are NOT LRR. The dash shows 4.6 miles / kWh as my average on the commute but I expect that will change for the better when I change the tires/rims.

It's on my to do list. Not sure how many weeks or months away that change will be but since these tires have crummy wet and snow traction I want to change before things cool off.

Oh, and I'm still playing with that speedometer calibration before I do anything else I'm trying to figure out if that is actually changing things to be more or less accurate.