The Boring Cars of KwS

[kws]

One difference the Pre-Facelift Carib has is that the taillights are big solid colour blocky things. I didn't really like them, so off they came.

The original taillights always looked dated to me, which made the car look older than it is.

The facelift model of both the Carib and Corolla wagon got a slight upgrade in the taillight department. Removing and replacing the lights is very easy on these, so I grabbed a pair of facelift lights from a Corolla wagon at Pick A Part and finally got around to replacing them today.

With the tailgate open, it's just two screws to remove the lights. I guess this was designed to be easy as this is also how you change the bulbs.

Remove the screws and then the light just pops out. There are two plastic pins on the opposite edge of the light, but these are often broken.

In typical fashion, the lights on the Carib were loose, so that wouldn't be helping. With the light removed it uncovered a haven for grot

A quick clean, and then it's just a case of swapping the bulb holders to the new lights, and slot the light into place.

Rinse and repeat on the other side, give them a polish with some PlastX and that's the job done. They came up really well with a polish, and fit better than the old lights.

Much better

Nice and easy.

I also gave the paint a quick going over with Bowden's Own, to get rid of more of the sunscreen on the paint.

I was initially very sceptical about this, as it's well known how hard it is to remove sunscreen, but checking out reviews and Youtube videos of this stuff convinced me to give it a try. The difference to most other options is that this is oil-based and lifts the oil-based sunscreen out of the pores in the paint.

Just over a month ago I gave it a quick test on a small spot that had some clear and obvious finger spots.

Pour some on a microfibre, rub it into the paint and buff off. It's not rocket science.

But sure enough, there was no trace left at all. And over a month later, there is still no trace.

Despite what I've been told, I'm not an idiot, I know how bad sunscreen is for paint, but the results speak for themselves so far. If it lasts, awesome, if not, I'll try again.

With that success in mind, I went around the rest of the car today and just spot polished where I could see sunscreen marks. The car looks a lot better now, with a more uniform shade of black. I still need to give it a clean and a proper machine polish and wax but that will come in time. The paint has a really nice flake, so should look great when polished.

[kws]

One thing that bugged me since I got the Carib was that the ignition barrel had been damaged, both making it hard to accurately insert the key, and making it look somewhat dodgy.

I haven't mentioned this previously, because I wanted to fix it before I bought it to attention, just in case it made it easier to steal. It didn't look particularly good and my WOF guy had a good laugh when asking me where the rest of the barrel went.

As part of other work I was doing on the car, I had the column shrouds off so took this chance to fix it. I had previously picked up a replacement barrel from Pick A Part (which was a pain in its self due to having to find a car with a suitable barrel, that they had the key for).

With the shrouds off, it's just a matter of inserting the key and turning it to ACC, pressing the button on the underside of the barrel and gently pulling on the key which will remove the barrel. The button cannot be pressed without the correct key inserted and turned to ACC.

I was then left with the pair of barrels. Thankfully I just needed the main tumbler, since the housings were slightly different. Replacement on the left, original on the right. The original has a smaller face to accommodate the illumination ring, which I guess the poverty pack Sprinter I got the replacement from didn't have.

You can see the tumbler is well recessed in the barrel of the old one, with the wafers visible

I didn't realise until now that the ignition lock had not been working. There is a lever on the top of the barrel that triggers it when the key is removed.

Steering lock engaged

Steering lock disengaged

This had been disabled in the old barrel by bending back the tab that actuates the lever. This was an issue for two reasons. First, I couldn't withdraw the tumbler as normally you lift the tab with the lever to give clearance, and mine was jammed down. Second, It wouldn't work with the replacement tumbler as it is. Careful use of a small spanner looped over it had a gently bent back into place.

Once the circlip on the back was removed, this allowed me to remove the tumbler. You do not need the correct key to remove the tumbler, so my key worked to remove both.

You can see how much of the tumbler is missing in the above photo. I suspect someone tried to steal the car and broke the end off as it is sheared off, not cut off.

With both barrels side by side, it was just a matter of carefully removing the wafers from the replacement tumbler with fine needle-nose pliers, leaving the springs in place

You can see the third wafer is made up of two pieces. This is what is called a split wafer, and as long as it works it's fine, but they're well known to fail and jam, stopping the lock from working and causing a whole lot of issues to fix it. The general advice is to remove them and leave them out. There are enough standard wafers to keep the lock secure.

So with all the replacement tumblers wafers removed, I carefully moved the original wafers to the replacement tumbler. Refitting into the same position is crucial, and make sure you do not let the wafers drop out when handling the tumbler.

The damaged tumbler was actually missing a whole wafer as it had broken through the slot the wafer sits in. Some trial and error found one of the spares from the replacement tumbler a perfect fit, so that was fitted.

The tumbler was then refitted to the barrel, and it works perfectly. Even the steering lock arm is working as it should.

And refitted to the car. Much better.

That was quite an easy job at the end of the day, just a pain you need the steering wheel off to remove the shrouds.

[kws]

Finally, second time lucky, it was time to replace the old four-spoke wheel with my three-spoke.

Before selling the Liftback I swapped the original wheel in and kept the three-spoke, as I knew I would want it in the Carib. I like how it looks and feels.

A few weeks ago I actually tried to install the wheel but fell short due to the airbag connector on the clock spring being completely different.

The Liftback/three-spoke has this style

Which is completely different to what's in the Carib

I gave up that night and just refit the standard wheel. I had a plan though; swap the clock spring with one that has the right connector.

A few days later a trip to Pick A Part sorted me out with a clock spring from an AE112R liftback like my old one, which since the wheel worked on my car, it should work with that one too.

Before starting the job of fitting the wheel again, I had a stitch on cover show up. I had previously used one of these on the MX5 and liked how it felt. This one was better quality and designed to fit a bit nicer than that one.

After a couple of hours with a needle and thread, this is what I had. It's not perfect, but a damn sight better than the old worn leather.

To fit the wheel I started by removing the old wheel and the shrouds on the column. One screw underneath, and two on the front behind the steering wheel sees the shrouds off. The top one was stuck, but I could work around it without removing it completely.

There is a hidden screw for the top shroud near the ignition barrel

The clockspring is held in place with four little screws, and two plugs (the black and yellow ones in the photo above). The yellow plug has a retaining clip over it which has to be disengaged first.

Before fitting the replacement clockspring (unless it's new and locked) it MUST be centered, otherwise you risk breaking it the first time you turn the wheel to lock. The big yellow sticker on the clockspring says how many turns end to end it has, and to gently turn it to the left until it stops and then turn it back the other way half of the amount of full turns it has. In my case mine has 5 turns end to end, so I rotated it to the stop, and then 2.5 turns will mean it's in the center. If you have done this right the arrow on the sticker and the arrow on the housing should line up. Now you can fit it to the column.

The new wheel simply slips on the splines, the nut is tightened, everything plugged in and the airbag fitted. Everything plugged in as it should. I did grab the horn connector with the replacement clock spring as that was different on the old wheel too.

And it looks great!

The airbag light is off, and the horn works. Great success.

Of course, since the battery was disconnected I had to take the car for a spin, just to help the ECU learn again. The wheel feels great in the hand, with a slightly thicker rim now, and the better shape and smaller diameter over the old four-spoke wheel really helps make the car feel sportier.

A job that was harder than it needed to be, but in the end well worth the wait.

[kws]

Spent a few hours polishing the Carib.

From this.

Didn't look bad when it was wet, except there was zero beading.

But the horrors it hid

To this

[kws]

And thats a wrap. Carib went off to its new owner today. Will be in wellington for a bit and then heading up to Whangarei.

Its a shame to pass it on without driving it in anger on a track, but the wagon ruined it for me. I miss the Liftback, it was a far better platform to drive. I never built up any confidence in the wagon, and it wasnt enjoyable to drive.

I found it quite funny, I took the Tomcat out for a quick drive after work, and then drove the Carib to meet its new owner. The Carib was such a contrast; the controls were light and easy, but it felt like it was powered by a 500,000KM 4AF. SO slow and gutless around town. On the motorway, up at high RPM, thats where it shines, but otherwise shit it was flat.

The Tomcat on the otherhand left me grinning and chuckling like an idiot.

[Pininfarina]

On 21/05/2021 at 22:16, kws said:

Ever since looking for a Corolla, the goal was that it HAD to be manual. Autos are lame, and no good for a fun weekend/track toy. With my car, I made the compromise of an auto based on availability and cost, but with the knowledge it would be manual swapped in the near future. Well, that time has come.

I've been squirrelling away parts for the swap since I got the car, and a couple of months ago the big bits fell into place. A C52 manual transmission, flywheel with near new clutch and various other bits I need.

During the Pick A Part run when I first got the car (the same time I got all the seats) We also pillaged a manual AE111 wagon there for the other major manual bits we would need like the shifter base with cables, master cylinder and pedals.

With everything finally falling into place I arranged a time to take up some space that Iain, the friend helping me with the swap, has at a lockup, as doing the swap there with ample space will be easier than in my garage.

We planned that with the two of us it should take two days, but we were realistic that if anything goes wrong it would be pushed out, and that was OK, but it had to be done by the end of the week.

The plan was to remove the engine and box complete. I had debated if this was the best way and came to the conclusion that it will be easiest to deal with the various bits we need to swap over (such as fitting the shifter cables which is a ballache with the engine in place), and if I choose to do the cambelt and waterpump at the same time this would be a lot easier than in the car. Having the engine out of the car means we wouldn't have to try deadlifting the gearbox up onto the engine from under the car and line it up. That's never fun.

Sunday
The day before we were due to pull the engine out I had a list of jobs to do to prepare the car for the work. The main one was to strip all the interior dash trims out to gain access to the pedals and center console/shifter. Taking it out now means not having to do it at the lockup.

To remove the panels the first part that needs to go is the center console with armrest. This is held in with two 10mm bolts in the armrest storage area, and two screws on the side. Under this was festy (this is a word you will hear a lot when I'm talking about the interior of this car...). Much crumbs.

Next, the center stack needs to come out. To do this remove the three climate knobs, and the recirc slider and then remove the two screws behind the far knobs.

The center stack will just pull out after that. Its held in with some clips at the top so might take some pulling. Be aware there is some wiring going to the cigarette lighter socket, and that will need disconnecting.

This leaves you with the bare climate control and whatever is in the center area (a useless CD player and single DIN pocket in my case)

Now remove the contents of the center stack, usually a double din bin. There are four screws securing it. This reveals the ECU (and lots of festy as all hell mould from leaking drinks).

Next the glovebox needs to be removed. This is done by removing the small trim at the bottom of the A pillar that tucks under the kick panel. Behind that panel is a bolt, remove that, along with the screw in the opposite bottom corner of the glovebox panel and then the three screws along the top edge of the glovebox when open. The glovebox will pull free.

The other part to remove is the trim above the drivers legs. This is once again held with a bolt behind the little trim panel at the base of the A pillar and a bolt in the opposite corner. The top edge is held in by tabs. Behind this, there may be a steel plate, which I guess is some sort of impact protection thing, and this is held with three bolts.

Now you can remove the rest of the center console. Its held with two screws on the far left and right top corners (would've been behind the glovebox and knee panel). It clips in at the top too. To gain more access to the shift cable retaining plate under the dash I also remove the footrest; this is done with a good hard yank toward the rear of the car.

Feels a bit weird driving around in a car with only half a dash and no center console.

With the interior ready to go the only other work I needed to get done was to replace the axle seals on the gearbox, and replace the shift linkage bushes.

The axle seals are easy enough if you know what you're doing. First note is to take photos or make a note of how recessed the existing seals are. In my case, they were at the base of the chamfer, but I didn't take note of this when fitting the seals, instead hoping they would bottom out (they don't) and I ended up pressing them in too far.

This was a cockup that resulted in my wasting new genuine seals and having to fit aftermarket seals instead as removing them damages them. Removing the seals with the correct tool is easy enough though

To drive the new seals in, place the old seal over top and use a hammer on the old seal to drive the new seal into place. Take care it goes in straight, and to the correct depth. It also helps to lube the outside of the new seal to help it go in. Once the seals are in place slather the inside lips in rubber grease to reduce any risk of the axle tearing the seal when refitting.

The shifter linkage bushes were easier. Under the rubber cap is this nut. Remove it.

The linkage will then slide off. Take care of the lower slider as that can fall off, and the orientation of the rubber boot. There is a bush in the arm, and one in the rubber cap above the arm

The old ones weren't too bad, but they were running dry with no lubricant at all.

If your slider is plastic you can replace it, but in my case mine is metal so I cleaned and lubricated it before refitting. The slider is the bit in the centre of the photo. The new bushes got lightly lubricated before fitting too.

Refit the washer, nut and then the rubber cap

Job done. The car was loaded up with all the tools I thought I'd need (Needed more), all the various parts, and the next day it was driven to the lockup to begin work.

Monday
I met up with Iain at the lockup, and backed the car in. After unloading, off came the bonnet and we looked at what we had to do. Iain had taken the time to write up a very comprehensive list, which we started ticking jobs off as we went.

Up on stands, and this is how it spent the majority of its time. Quickjack would have hindered us in this job as it would have restricted access to under the car, as I spent a lot of time with my legs sticking out the side.

With the car on stands, all the fluids got drained and the battery removed. Of course, the drain tap on the bottom of the cheap radiator isn't drilled through so doesn't act as a drain tap. We also cracked the hub nuts as this requires a lot of force and someone to stand on the brakes to do. They're torqued to 215NM, so quite tight.

It's interesting how dirty the auto trans fluid was too. I haven't checked it since I got the car, and the trans was shifting fine (for a late 90s 4 speed auto). The fluid was black and stank; well overdue for a service.

The wiring loom was disconnected from inside the car, and fed through the firewall. The body side of the fuse box was disconnected and the engine side was left to go with the engine. The radiator was removed, and all the coolant hoses disconnected from the engine and tucked aside. The heater side of the heater hoses can be hard to remove and risks deforming the pipes, thus we removed them from the engine instead.

This is the big lump we're aiming to scrap

Next the axles had to come out. These are a pain to remove as they have a spring clip inside the gearbox. One of the shafts is accessible from the top, with a long bar and a hammer to whack it free, the other is only accessible from underneath, which resulted in me under the car on my back beating the CV with a pry bar and hammer until it popped free. When hammering on the shaft there are notches in the CV cup that you can use without causing damage

Before we could hoist the engine out we had to sort one critical thing, the AC. I didn't want to degas the AC system, and since it worked really well we had to be careful to keep the system intact. We unbolted the compressor from the engine and lowered it down onto a jack. This moved it away from getting caught up but stopped it hanging on its own hoses.

The last thing to do before removing the engine was to disconnect the mounts. The Front and RH mounts are easy. The rear is a pain due to access but isn't impossible. Stack a bunch of long 1/2" extensions out through the RH wheel well and use a rattle gun on it to remove the through bolt; it has a captive nut.

It's a different story when it comes to the LH (transmission) mount. On the auto, Toyota has made it as hard as possible to reach all the fixings to get it free, because hey, why not eh? In the end it was a mixture of ratchet spanners and squeezing hands into spaces that are too small that got the bolts out.

With that done it was time to lift. A leveller is essential for this job, it's basically the only way you can get the engine in and out without smashing a whole bunch of other things in the engine bay. To get the engine in and out you need to tilt the trans hard down.

The poor engine crane was making some interesting noises lifting this lump. It's amazing how much heavier the auto and torque convertor is than the manual.

We finished the first day with the engine and auto out and on the ground ready to split.

Its a bit oily down here. Most of this is from the valve cover and distributor O-Ring that were leaking when I got the car. It must have been leaking for years.

Its also left a bit of a mess on the crossmember

So the plan for Tuesday was to do the things you don't want to do with the engine in the car, such as the master cylinder and shifter cables. We also needed to fit the pedals, and run the clutch hard lines on the firewall.

To be continued.

That pulsar exa in the background, i own that now. Do you have a thread on it? Some history would be nice

[kws]

3 hours ago, Pininfarina said:

That pulsar exa in the background, i own that now. Do you have a thread on it? Some history would be nice

Unfortunately can't help on that. Not my car (was a shared space) and I can't recall who owned it. It was a regular at the local autocrosses with the HVMC. 

You should definitely start a thread on it, exas are cool. 

[thegreatestben]

Is it this one?

https://www.instagram.com/p/BZp9HL8jLFJ/?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

https://www.instagram.com/p/BV3EF4mjOF_/?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

[Otodat]

5 hours ago, Pininfarina said:

That pulsar exa in the background, i own that now. Do you have a thread on it? Some history would be nice

+1 for exa thread, very cool and hard to come by car these days.

[Pininfarina]

On 09/05/2023 at 19:19, thegreatestben said:

Is it this one?

https://www.instagram.com/p/BZp9HL8jLFJ/?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

https://www.instagram.com/p/BV3EF4mjOF_/?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

I'll make a thread when I get round to it, it's a driveway ornament at the moment. Thanks for the info!

[kws]

Instead of making a new thread each time I buy a less interesting to most, but could be interesting to others, car, I'm going to revive this thread and throw them in here.

[kws]

So yeah, I sold the black GD3 Fit and decided to try my hand at a different flavour of car.

The Fit was a good little car and I'm glad I could save it from the neglect it had been suffering, but once it was fixed and on the road I actually found I hardly used it. I had the Alto as the fun manual car, and the GE8 Fit as the CVT daily, so the GD didn't really fit (heh) in anywhere. So I sold it.

With money burning a hole in my account, the next day I went to a "local" dealer and viewed a car that I had been interested in for a while, but wasn't really sure about. A Nissan Leaf.

I have never owned an EV, and the closest I have come to spending some decent time with one was when I got to borrow an evaluation EK X EV from work for a weekend, and utterly fell for the little thing.

Being a Japanese Kei car, it has the same dimensions externally as my Alto, but is a full Battery Electric Vehicle. It was nippy, drove well and was a laugh to drive. It also had oodles of interior space, and with 130-140km realistic range, it was the perfect city car. Sadly I couldn't buy one of those, so settled for the next best thing (that I could afford).

I've been considering a Leaf for a while. They make sense, an easy to drive, reliable and cheap to buy EV, but the cheap ones all tend to have trashed batteries with low maximum range. My commute is around 60KM round trip, so having a low range isn't a huge issue, but I also want to be able to use the car for more than just going to work and back.

Currently they are a bit of a bargain as people frantically try to get rid of them before they have to pay their way with Road User Charges and the end of the free ride EVs have had approaches.

When this one popped up at a dealer, advertised as having 9 bars battery (from a maximum of 12) and 110km range, I viewed it as soon as I could.

It certainly looked good in the photos

The pearl white is much nicer than the silver, or the typical blue they come in. Being an X trim, alloys were an option, so this is rolling on steelies and caps, with very good matching Bridgestone tyres all around. Better for ride comfort, no doubt.

Details on the listing were a bit vague, it mentioned the range, and that the media system had been converted to English, but no other spec/features.

My wife and I drove the 75km to the dealer and had a look. In person it also looked good, albeit damp. The dealer had recently steam cleaned the interior, and since it hadn't yet completely dried everything was a bit damp and the windscreen was dripping condensation.

The test drive revealed no real issues; it drove well, felt good on the road and everything worked as it should. I decided then and there that I'd be taking it home with me.

Money was exchanged, ownership was transferred and off I went.

I had a few things to learn about the car, which I know now, that would've helped on the drive home. One of them was that driving in B-ECO is not as efficient as D-ECO due to a mod done to the car that I wasn't aware of. I like regen, it's novel to me, so I burnt through more battery than I probably would've otherwise by having it in that mode most of the way home. To anyone that knows Leafs, no trees were grown on my drive back.

It does explain why I didn't make it home though...

The battery wasn't full when I picked it up, and by the time I got to this point I was down to 30km left on the gauge and it was flashing at me, so with about 30km left until I was actually home (including crossing a hill), I thought it best to do my first quick charge.

I had a Chargenet account from when I borrowed the EK X, so plugging in and chucking some juice into it was pretty painless. Going from 20-60% took 20 mins, cost less than $6, and gave me heaps of power to get home. People whinge about charging all the time, but it couldn't have been easier and the 20 mins was spent checking Facebook and laughing at cat memes.

Before heading home I snapped some quick photos. The Leaf is a slightly awkward-looking car; I'd never say it looked good or cool, it kinda just is what it is. It's inoffensive.

Under the bonnet is the powerhouse, or something

It's a bigger/longer car than you expect. Over half a meter longer than the GE8 Fit and slightly wider. It does mean the boot is a decent size, and there is plenty of leg room though. A decent family car.

Being a 2014 Series 1.5, it has the much nicer black interior (earlier cars had a tan interior that always seemed to look dirty).

So now that it's home, what have I ended up with?

A 2014 Nissan Leaf in X trim

It's pretty well optioned for an X;
Cruise Control
Climate and Charge timers
Automatic LED Low beam headlights
Touchscreen Navigation (in English with NZ maps)
Bluetooth audio
Bose 7 speaker audio
360 degree camera
Automatic climate control
Heated steering wheel, front and rear seats
Heatpump heater and AC
Side and curtain airbags

And a parcel tray.

The only options I believe its missing are alloys, fog lamps, the solar panel spoiler and leather. Fog lamps would be handy, but otherwise I'm happy without the rest.

Since getting the car home I have also discovered a couple of other things. First was this little sticker, which I thought was someone trolling me

But it turns out NISMO did actually offer a couple of tuning upgrades for the AZE0, https://www.nismo.co.jp/news_list/2013/news_flash/130001.html

Including a "remapped" VCM

I poked my head up under the dash and sure enough, the tamper label is present

I had an idea that if they fitted that, what else has been done? I also found these when looking under the car

NISMO shocks and springs all around. This drops the car about 30mm all around. Before anyone asks, the fronts aren't leaking, they're covered in car dealer special silicone tyre spray, along with everything else under there >_<

This explains why the car handles pretty well, I presumed it was just the low center of gravity from the battery weight, but now I know it's really a finely honed racecar.

The remapped VCM seems to make quite a difference in driving. When in B mode, it's now "NISMO" mode as that's when most of the changes have been done. The throttle is more responsive, to the point where when it's not in ECO mode the throttle is quite twitchy, but the pickup is impressive. B-ECO mode dials it down a bit, but still has more responses on tap than in D, at the expense of economy. Apparently the regen has been retuned too, increasing the maximum regen, I don't have anything to compare that to but it regens pretty hard.

Trust me to unintentionally buy something unusual.

So far I'm quite enjoying zipping around in it, and will be replacing the GE8 Fit as the daily for a while to see how it goes.

Don't expect a lot of updates from this car, I don't intend to be doing much to it. Unless you start messing with swapping motors, batteries and inverters, there isn't a lot of scope for modifications.

I will also make this clear; I did not buy this to save the planet, fix climate change or be some eco warrior. I bought this because I want to play with something different and see what an alternate power source is like to use.

[thegreatestben]

Spicy leaf! I reckon it will be hard to go back to a non ev for a daily appliance, suspect you'll agree.

I'm hoping I'll be rich soon enough so I can buy a new 5 series EV wagon <3

[kws]

22 minutes ago, thegreatestben said:

Spicy leaf! I reckon it will be hard to go back to a non ev for a daily appliance, suspect you'll agree.

I'm hoping I'll be rich soon enough so I can buy a new 5 series EV wagon <3

I have heard that. I love the GE8 Fit a lot, so will be interesting to see how this compares daily. Just waiting for a type 2-1 adaptor to show up and then I'll be able to leech some free power from work too  Tomorrow I'll run the gauntlet of getting to work (Porirua) and back (Upper Hutt) on a single charge (should be easy)

[tomble]

I loved my leaf, same year and specs, except mine had alloys and no hidden spice.  They all handle well though considering their weight, many a time have I had ABS kick in because its overly reassuring planted nature.

Strangely, prices have gone up slightly since I sold it late last year... possibly because the subsidy is gone.

[kws]

I do like that colour a lot. They look better in a darker colour (except black) than the lighter shades.

Pricing is all over the place at the moment, mostly because half the people selling are trying to dump them before the RUC comes into effect, and the other half just want to upgrade to something newer, so it's split in the middle. Leafs (leaves?) with real bad battery SOH are a dime a dozen too, it takes a bit of work to pick through them and find one that has a good battery.

Can confirm it can do Upper Hutt to Porirua and back on half a charge, even with the heater on. I can see why most Leaf owners avoid Transmission Gully though, that shit was brutal on the guess-o-meter, watching the ks drop away by the second.

So far enjoying the car. It's a nice appliance. I'm driving it like a normal car currently and not really trying to hypermile, so I'm surprising a few people on the road by not being the slowest thing around. Traffic light drags are a laugh too. I do find that without the reassuring buzz of the ICE at certain RPM to judge my speed by, i find my speed tends to creep up a bit.

[tomble]

I never pay attention to the guessometer. It's wrong no matter what the battery % is. It's best to look at the % readout if you have it on your leaf, you should.

My experience with 76%~ SOH 26kW leaf...

• 86km round-trip work commute, a heavy foot and a penchant for cruising in the fast lane at cheeky fractions of the speed limit: no problem in summer, but sometimes got home with 5-10% left in particularly cold rainy winter days. Girlface managed 20-30% though so totally fine for better drivers.
• Could get to Palmy and back with a stop in Otaki to get to 80% each way (and an 80% stop in Palmy).
• Upper Hutt to Wellington airport and back is fine in summer, probably want to stop at the pak n save on the way back in winter.
• Charging to 100% is fine, don't nickle and dime the battery, it'll drop regardless of what you do.

edit: oh and my leaf's speedo reads 10% under the real value, apparently it's pretty much all leafs that do this and is why you often see leafs crawling in the slow lane at 90.

edit 2: you're going to fucking love this coming winter when you find out you can set the climate control to have everything warmed up and the seat ready to heat your arse when you jump in for your morning commutes.

[Nominal]

Are @tomble and @kws brothers from a different mother?

[Bling]

How long before we need a Leaf thread and get banned from OS?

[shrike]

44 minutes ago, Bling said:

How long before we need a Leaf thread and get banned from OS?

I'm waiting on diy battery modules/Cell replacement or upgrading battery packs haha

 

Later model motors?