Nissan LEAF - General

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Master Geek
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#1921537 18-Dec-2017 22:09

Linuxluver: AA Glass replaced my Tekna windscreen after it was smashed only 10 days after I got the car. It was a piece of chip thrown off the top of the wheel of an incoming truck speeding through road works on SH2. I now always slow right down to the posted speed. Driving to fast is how wind screens gets smashed.

Anyway..... My rain sensor works fine.

Well, good to know that it can be done at least. The smash didn't happen at or near any roadworks, just small stone falling of incoming truck while both driving approx 90-95. My dashcam shows the event very nice. Nothing you can do about that, just unlucky I suppose.

Linuxluver

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#1921555 18-Dec-2017 22:26

Canada used to have road sweepers. I guess it was to get stones off the roads.

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numberonekiwi

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#1922713 20-Dec-2017 19:06

about to drop a bar ( or should of already )

as seen on trade me my understanding was 85% SOH for first bar 2013 buy now $21995 over priced anyway

12 bars
83% SOH

Linuxluver

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#1922747 20-Dec-2017 20:21

numberonekiwi:
about to drop a bar ( or should of already )

as seen on trade me my understanding was 85% SOH for first bar 2013 buy now $21995 over priced anyway

12 bars
83% SOH

That seems wrong.

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jonathan18

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#1923037 21-Dec-2017 10:40

So our new Leaf arrived yesterday; the gloss was somewhat taken off by finding a decent scratch (that’s dented the metal) in the front door, but the dealer has committed to sorting that out. There are a few things, though, that I hope someone here can shed some light on; my Google Fu has let me down in finding definitive answers/solutions to them.

1. Disconnecting the charging cable: For the life of me I can’t work out how to disengage the charging cable lock. I understood it is supposed to turn off when the car is unlocked etc, but no matter what I do or what buttons I press, what setting the ‘lock’ rocker switch is set to, whether it’s not started charging or has finished charging, whether the power is on or off, I just can’t unplug the cable. The temporary solution has been to use a screwdriver to lift up the silver catch on the connector (a Charge Amps Ray cable). Clearly this isn’t practical long-term – what am I doing wrong?!

2. Time zone issues: I’ve got the clock time showing correctly, but it’s showing a day earlier; this means the days when setting timers don’t align. I’ve changed the date in the service screen, but inevitably the car comes up with the message forcing me to elect to sync the internal and GPS clocks, so I’m back with the same problem. I had asked the dealer whether there’d be any issue with the timers, given he was replacing the head unit with an English language one, but was told there’d work fine. I’d have thought they’d have been best to disconnect the GPS when they replaced the unit – would this be a solution to the day problem?

3. Audio source selection: The buttons for selecting CD and TV/Aux don’t do anything, thus the only way of switching between sources is with the button on the steering wheel (which has like nine options to scroll through, so a real hassle). My initial thinking is that this may be caused by the head unit now being a US-sourced one, and the specific audio source switches of the US and Japanese units appear to be different (noting the buttons in the car are still the original Japanese, but the unit driving these switches is now a US one). Eg, I’ve seen photos of the US head unit and its middle button is for satellite radio, while the equivalent button on my Japanese car is for CD. Is this the likely cause, and do you think anything can be done to provide the ability to select inputs from the centre console?

4. Charging to 80%: Our car is a 2013, so should have the option to select to charge to 80%, but the option’s missing from the menu. Again, I wondered if this caused by the replaced head unit – if that’s from a car that’s newer than 2013 then it wouldn’t have this option. Does this sound the likely cause? And does anyone have easy strategies to stop charging at or near to 80%? My current thinking is to simply using a rough estimate of how long it normally takes the car to charge from say 20 to 80% (I’m guessing about five hours, based on it taking close to eight hours to get to 100% from a similar base), and set a timer that starts at say 11 and finishes at 4; over a bit of trial and error I’d have a better sense of how long it needs to get to 80% in relation to the initial battery charge. Would this actually work? It’s just I’m not sure if the ‘end’ time of a timer actually stops the charger (or is used solely to determine the start time where this otherwise isn’t set). Or are there other solutions anyone uses to ensure the car doesn’t charge through to 100%?

Thanks heaps for any advice you experienced owners can offer with these things!

EVsEnhanced

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Geek
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#1923059 21-Dec-2017 11:20

jonathan18:

2. Time zone issues: I’ve got the clock time showing correctly, but it’s showing a day earlier; this means the days when setting timers don’t align. I’ve changed the date in the service screen, but inevitably the car comes up with the message forcing me to elect to sync the internal and GPS clocks, so I’m back with the same problem. I had asked the dealer whether there’d be any issue with the timers, given he was replacing the head unit with an English language one, but was told there’d work fine. I’d have thought they’d have been best to disconnect the GPS when they replaced the unit – would this be a solution to the day problem?

3. Audio source selection: The buttons for selecting CD and TV/Aux don’t do anything, thus the only way of switching between sources is with the button on the steering wheel (which has like nine options to scroll through, so a real hassle). My initial thinking is that this may be caused by the head unit now being a US-sourced one, and the specific audio source switches of the US and Japanese units appear to be different (noting the buttons in the car are still the original Japanese, but the unit driving these switches is now a US one). Eg, I’ve seen photos of the US head unit and its middle button is for satellite radio, while the equivalent button on my Japanese car is for CD. Is this the likely cause, and do you think anything can be done to provide the ability to select inputs from the centre console?

4. Charging to 80%: Our car is a 2013, so should have the option to select to charge to 80%, but the option’s missing from the menu. Again, I wondered if this caused by the replaced head unit – if that’s from a car that’s newer than 2013 then it wouldn’t have this option. Does this sound the likely cause? And does anyone have easy strategies to stop charging at or near to 80%? My current thinking is to simply using a rough estimate of how long it normally takes the car to charge from say 20 to 80% (I’m guessing about five hours, based on it taking close to eight hours to get to 100% from a similar base), and set a timer that starts at say 11 and finishes at 4; over a bit of trial and error I’d have a better sense of how long it needs to get to 80% in relation to the initial battery charge. Would this actually work? It’s just I’m not sure if the ‘end’ time of a timer actually stops the charger (or is used solely to determine the start time where this otherwise isn’t set). Or are there other solutions anyone uses to ensure the car doesn’t charge through to 100%?

Thanks heaps for any advice you experienced owners can offer with these things!

2. You should still be disconnecting the GPS antenna on the US-spec head unit and then setting for the correct time/day in the 'secret' service menu.

3. This is to be expecting with a US-spec 'Carwings' head unit. Those two buttons no longer function and the 'source' on the steering wheel controls is the only way to get to those screens.

4. The US-spec Carwings head units that turned up on the market here not so long ago are all QY-7210N-P meaning they are from a US 2015 Leaf. If you remove the SD card from the unit then the blue NO-SD screen that appears tells you this part number. Unfortunately the 2015 US cars lost the option to charge to 80% so that functionality has been lost even though you have a 2013 car.

The exact issues you pointed out above plus the not ideal frequency steps (requiring 0.1MHz band expander for some regions like Auckland) are the things that let these US-spec head unit conversions down as far as I'm concerned. The Euro spec head units are ideal for conversions into Japanese cars, but sourcing them new is outrageously expensive and used Euro units are locked to the first car they are fitted to (unlocking them is not trivial).

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afe66

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#1923066 21-Dec-2017 11:25

What model version, year, jp Vs UK.

I have basic 2014 UK version and the unlock charge button is to the right of wheel.

80 charge option is under settings accessed through buttons to right of wheel. Not all versions have 80%

Do you have a copy of car manual in English.

Join nzev group on facebook as more leaf owners there. (2000 people in group) Post your questions.

Is the problem your not sure what to do or are you following the manual and it doesn't work..

graemeh

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#1923143 21-Dec-2017 13:17

jonathan18: 1. Disconnecting the charging cable: For the life of me I can’t work out how to disengage the charging cable lock. I understood it is supposed to turn off when the car is unlocked etc, but no matter what I do or what buttons I press, what setting the ‘lock’ rocker switch is set to, whether it’s not started charging or has finished charging, whether the power is on or off, I just can’t unplug the cable. The temporary solution has been to use a screwdriver to lift up the silver catch on the connector (a Charge Amps Ray cable). Clearly this isn’t practical long-term – what am I doing wrong?!

I understand your cable has its own lock, independent of the car. If you have the car lock switch set to the middle position then the car won't be locking the cable.

Join the NZ EV group on facebook and ask there as a few people there have them. Your dealer should also be able to tell you how to unlock the cable.

MarkH67

522 posts

Ultimate Geek
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#1923192 21-Dec-2017 14:19

jonathan18:

1. Disconnecting the charging cable: For the life of me I can’t work out how to disengage the charging cable lock. I understood it is supposed to turn off when the car is unlocked etc, but no matter what I do or what buttons I press, what setting the ‘lock’ rocker switch is set to, whether it’s not started charging or has finished charging, whether the power is on or off, I just can’t unplug the cable. The temporary solution has been to use a screwdriver to lift up the silver catch on the connector (a Charge Amps Ray cable). Clearly this isn’t practical long-term – what am I doing wrong?!

You need to cup your hand over the back of the charger plug (the bit that plugs into the car) and you should hear a click as it releases. There are left, right, up & down touch buttons around that little display, you need to activate all at once with your hand to get it to release.

jonathan18

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#1923359 21-Dec-2017 19:52

MarkH67:

jonathan18:

1. Disconnecting the charging cable: [Cut] I just can’t unplug the cable. The temporary solution has been to use a screwdriver to lift up the silver catch on the connector (a Charge Amps Ray cable). Clearly this isn’t practical long-term – what am I doing wrong?!

You need to cup your hand over the back of the charger plug (the bit that plugs into the car) and you should hear a click as it releases. There are left, right, up & down touch buttons around that little display, you need to activate all at once with your hand to get it to release.

Brilliant! Thanks for the advice on this specific model of cable - I'll give that a go next time I need to charge the car. That'll make things far easier...

I've only used the Ray with the 3-pin adapter thus far, and there haven't been any options on the LCD thus far - I'm assuming this is because that's there's no settings when using 240v/10A charging? Will try our caravan socket next charge to see how it functions differently using that source.

jonathan18

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#1923367 21-Dec-2017 20:08

EVsEnhanced:

2. You should still be disconnecting the GPS antenna on the US-spec head unit and then setting for the correct time/day in the 'secret' service menu.

3. This is to be expecting with a US-spec 'Carwings' head unit. Those two buttons no longer function and the 'source' on the steering wheel controls is the only way to get to those screens.

4. The US-spec Carwings head units that turned up on the market here not so long ago are all QY-7210N-P meaning they are from a US 2015 Leaf. If you remove the SD card from the unit then the blue NO-SD screen that appears tells you this part number. Unfortunately the 2015 US cars lost the option to charge to 80% so that functionality has been lost even though you have a 2013 car.

The exact issues you pointed out above plus the not ideal frequency steps (requiring 0.1MHz band expander for some regions like Auckland) are the things that let these US-spec head unit conversions down as far as I'm concerned. The Euro spec head units are ideal for conversions into Japanese cars, but sourcing them new is outrageously expensive and used Euro units are locked to the first car they are fitted to (unlocking them is not trivial).

Again, thanks so much for the specific and precise answers to my questions - looks like I was generally on the right track with the origins of the problems I was facing. I guess I'd be more tolerant of these issues if I'd been warned of them before handing over additional cash for having the head unit replaced!

I've spoken to the dealer, who's going to arrange an auto-electrician to disconnect the GPS antenna and install the appropriate band expander at the same time as checking out a clearly faulty speaker. Looks like we'll just have to cope with the function buttons not working - that's frustrating but not a deal-breaker.

Appreciate the responses, and note the comments re use of the EV owners' forum on Facebook; I've joined both that and the Leaf owners' forum, so will direct future specific questions to one of those forums.

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numberonekiwi

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Master Geek
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#1923545 22-Dec-2017 09:16

Maybe you could source some buttons from a US wrecker ( not sure if the UK ones are the same ) as there are some head units that come up on ebay now and then maybe ask them if they can sell the buttons separately

RUKI

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#1924710 24-Dec-2017 19:46

jonathan18: .....

3. Audio source selection: The buttons for selecting CD and TV/Aux don’t do anything, ......

I have posted the answer to that issue over 1.5 years ago when I imported first (to NZ) complete AV unit with both lower/upper Dash and two rows of buttons and other computers from the US 2013 wreck. Issue is caused by using Jap buttons with US AV unit.

US set of buttons have CAN bus in the different row. So do not buy just one row as advertised in eBay. Some dealers are importing just AV unit without those two rows of buttons and as a result loose that audio functionality. Japanese Solutions make silver stickers for Jap rows - so you may be unaware that what you are buying is Jap row with the English sticker.

There were other issues identified with those eBay sellers who offer AV units only - a number of those came from one particular dodgy seller from the rubbish bin - i.e. waste after warranty replacement. I advised couple of dealers not to import those - easily identifiable by serial number being covered with black ink and specific service center markings (familiar to me from the past life :) visible on the units. One of such units when arrived had door malfunction, another - fault in output audio channel. So buyer - beware...

As for UK units - there is at least one 100% working and not locked Bose AV unit from UK, but as per information above from Walter and similar info from Philip - UK AV units could be locked. I personally saw locked units in another UK Nissan, BUT those were not locked to the particular car, those just had anti-theft 4-digit password which can be sorted .. on many locked AV units.

As for the 0.1Mhz band shifter (it is not an expander as such) - old fellow in Onehunga, Auckland is making them inhouse (literally soldering from parts( - they are bulky but they work perfectly well in Auckland. FM frequencies in Welly and Kapiti coincide with US, so you would not need it over there.

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RUKI

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#1924716 24-Dec-2017 19:57

Linuxluver:

.....But at the same time, the tech is evolving so rapidly you would want to upgrade frequently for the next 1-5 years......like smart phones from 2008-2011.....a newer, better one every few months.

But now they are at a point where you can keep the same phone for years and be just fine. ....

He-he, I am still using simple Blackberry. It answers the calls :-) I do not need more than that...

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numberonekiwi

147 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 8

#1926062 28-Dec-2017 11:45

$52570 Will get you a new model 2017 LEAF

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