2018 LEAF; Day Two, The Settings

 Its Day Two of the 2018 LEAF Saga and despite this supposed to only be a Settings Only blog, I must digress.  The differences from last year to 2018 are simply piling up too fast!

Yesterday, I couldn't help but notice that Eco B provides almost as much regen as E Pedal! This was a bit a shock really.  Eco B works a bit slower than E Pedal but for predictable in town driving, its probably just a pinch less efficient that E Pedal and eliminates any possible friction braking action. My original intent was to drive around enough to get full regen available but found that the regen in Eco B kept making regen bars disappear!   So started playing with it instead and found that Eco B max'd out at street speeds but stayed pretty high for a much longer period than my S30 did.  In reviewing LEAF Spy logs, I found that the resolution is not good enough to make good side by side comparisons but did see regen hitting just over 40 KW a definite improvement over 30 kwh packs!  This  does put a new task on my list to measure regen going down a BIG Hill.  Below is a video descending the Martin Way hill to the Nisqually entrance to I-5. Although rather steep, its less than a mile long. Now thinking I need to do something like Highway 18 Eastbound a few times!

Settings

Having had 2 S's in a row (2013 and 2016) I am really quite unfamiliar with what other trims had so forgive me if its old news to you but its NEW NEWS to me!!

As you can see, there are a LOT of menus to peruse.  Some are basic and boring but we will probably look at all of them anyway.

First off, ( I tried but I just cannot resist! ) remember the two clocks and how they had to be set separately? I used to joke around with my passengers and tell them one was my Standard Daylight time and the other was my Daylight Savings Time.  😎

But Nissan has solved it! Now the center display sets BOTH clocks which naturally means

Again, I apologize but I simply COULD NOT resist! 😁

VDC Setting

I liked this better when it was a button on the lower left corner of the front dash where it was much easier to access.  Great when you are stuck and need to rock.  Getting stuck sucks but then again,  rocking with electronic shift by wire is pretty cool! 

Driver Assistance

A few head scratchers here so if anyone has insights as to why these options exist, please chime in. 

Emergency Forward Braking alerts you to an impending collision along with some braking help (if you have the guts to wait that long. I don't) 

Timer Alert

Ever have those days where you are not sure you can stay awake at the wheel or simply have to take a pill on a strict schedule?  Well you can configure your LEAF to remind you...

Low Temperature Alert

I'd say with the level of heater use I employ, I don't need this but some of you might like it. 

Chassis Control

This goes by a lot of different names but its essentially anti skid control that can vary braking force and power (if available) on each individual wheel to prevent skiding, etc.   And yes, it can be turned off which has to be THE stupidest idea ever. 

E Pedal 

As we all know us Hypermilers hate the fact that our LEAF cannot accept the fact that we want to drive in Eco B ALL THE TIME! So its a constant double shift to get there EVERYTIME we shift to a forward direction.  Well, E Pedal does the same thing EXCEPT when "Retain Mode" is enabled! 😀

Customize Display

Main Menu Selection

Ok, so if you read the previous blog , some of the dozen screen options were kinda....well, of lesser value lets just say. No Problemo!! Here you can turn them off! 

ECO Info Settings

Want to bask in  the glory of a highly efficient month of driving? Here is where you would do it... You can also delete the history if you don't want anyone to see how badly you did as well. Actually since I have only had the car 2 days, I don't know how much history is available but I see 5 on mine! So apparently it divides them up from power up or the manual reset?  I don't have 5 of either.  I have only 2 manual resets but more than a dozen power ups but didn't actually go anywhere so maybe it only logs info after a certain distance which makes sense. Plus I can only guess what the dealer did since I had over 20 miles on the Odo when I picked it up. 

Welcome Effect

Allows you to tweak the boot up show. Well, not really but this is the place to try. 

Vehicle Settings

Lighting
The LEAF now comes with custom auto headlights. They will come when its dark or after they sense 4 sweeps of the windshield wipers so you don't have to worry about idiots not using their wipers and hitting you in the rain!

How dark do you want it to be when the lights come on? Around here, in Winter; 

early. In Summer? Not so much

Locking

Have no idea why anyone would want to disable the button on the door handle

but disabling Selective Unlock to allow entry for all is great and saves the 

double tap when you have passengers!

"12 Volt Battery Torture Setting" 

Here you can configure how long the headlights stay on after shutting down. My choice? 

Garage light is set to 2 minutes. Good enough for me! FYI; 30 seconds is the default. FYI; headlights stay for a period after the car is shut down until the first door is opened. 

7 Position Speed Sensitive Intermittent Wipers.

California and Arizona LEAFers might not get this, but this is literally a godsend.  In my previous LEAFs, I would flip my wipers on and off about 20-50 times an hour. But then again, that is Washington rain for you where it can rain 10 days straight and not add up to an inch...

How does it work?  Level one at a standstill, the wipers sweep once every 35-38 seconds. At 40 mph, they sweep once every 10-12 seconds.  LOVE IT!!!

EV Settings

Here is where another 2016 Button is buried AKA Charge Connector Lock.  This is good because too many people did not understand how to set it to "Auto" to unlock when the charge session was completed. This is a personal beef with me.  Hopefully while digging thru the menus, one will have time to think about the proper setting... 

Charge Timers

With the extra range the 40 kwh pack affords us, leaving home with a full battery becomes less of a priority and will likely lessen your rate of degradation considerably but no, there no custom SOC settings so the next option is timer manipulation.   So DO NOT turn on "Full Charge has Priority" because;

1) The end time will be ignored if the battery is not full
2) The start time will be changed if the car determines there is not enough time to fully charge the battery
3) Climate Control Timer can also mess up these preset times.  In an area with extreme TOU rates, this is... well... it sucks!

I guess this is one of many reasons why I never used the timers other than one short experiment on manipulating end SOC's.  Now I know why it didn't work.

Charge Time
Ok, so sadly no 80%  charge option BUT Nissan does know about our thoughts on this and I have proof. As mentioned before, there are several charge speed options you can select for your charge time estimate and I have the two most common below. Notice something? 

Despite not giving us custom charge options, they DO tell us how long to charge

to what? 75% I am guessing because earlier screenshots only had one time estimate

but what should appear as soon as I drop below 75%? TWO estimates!! 😲

Notice the dashes below? Can we assume estimates for 50 and 25%?

Climate Control Timer

One of the things that I am shocked over despite knowing better having lived in hot areas extensively thru out my life is the temperatures people preheat their car to.  Nissan recognizes this and you can custom set your temperature AND run your battery down too if you want! 

TPMS Settings 
You have already seen this but I think its still pretty cool! To be honest with you, this was a bit of a letdown. I was hoping for an idiot light setting that would turn on at a predetermined pressure. I always do 44 PSI in Summer and as low as 42 PSI in Winter. But a dash alert when any tire goes below say 40 PSI is what I was hoping to find here...

Maintenance
No change here. Same settings for Tire rotations and Other... I would post pix and I even took one but too lazy.  

Clock  
LOL!!! Kidding!! 

Unit/Language

Mileage/Energy
Ever wish you could post super impressive GOM figures like Canadians do? Granted its Kms but still for a second, nearly everyone is fooled! Now you can!  No wh/mile option here although you can see that in Energy History graph. Would be nice to see a running total though...

Tire Pressures
Same menu as the TPMS sensor menu. Told you it was in several places!


Temperature
No Submenu here. Just toggles from F to C

Language
Hmm, guessing this is a regional option here...

The last remaining option is Factory Reset. Guessing you know what that is all about.

Finally something that probably should have went in Day One but We have an adjustable light setting to brighten or dim the dash along the the Trip resets that are located just left of the steering wheel. Not easy to see but there nevertheless. 

I had hoped to try at least a few QC's by now to check cold weather ramp down, knee SOC, etc  but this range is just sooo tough to run down!  So may have to do a "Day 3" So stay tuned!