Post Your Battery Degradation Results

[BradFoxUS]

Next weekend I will be leaving my Leaf parked in covered parking for about 3 weeks plugged in at 100% charge, then for about 3 weeks in September I will be away again and parked again. Still hoping sitting at 100% and hot will drag me down some. I'm going to see if a friend of mine in Raleigh will hold onto the Leaf for me. He has a Smart Electric Cabriolet and a home charger. His Smart ED is going in for service so timing would be perfect on his part. He told me he would quick charge me as much as he could and try to keep the pack hot.

I thought letting it sit at 100% charge would be "detrimental" to battery capacity as well, but in reality each time I have left it at 100% (or actually as close as I can get to 100% without actually being 100%) I have gained AHr. I think what is happening is that the battery rebalances whenever it is left parked (even when not plugged in). When at a higher SOC, the more effective the rebalancing is.

I was gone for the past week and left my car OUTSIDE, unplugged, at 2 bars. I lost 0.1AHr during that week (adding 0 miles to the car). I expect some of that will come back next time it sits at high SOC and rebalances.

At any rate, I would recommend you leave your car UNcovered if possible. And consider leaving it at low SOC, not high.

Thank you. I will try. Most likely, it will be in use by my friend who will be QCing it as much as possible while I am gone. It only takes 3 QC sessions to spike the battery high enough to cap it at 30kW of power output. I barely manage to get on i40 and i440 at those temperatures and it will cut the QCsession speed in half.

 

[cwerdna]

Thank you. I will try. Most likely, it will be in use by my friend who will be QCing it as much as possible while I am gone. It only takes 3 QC sessions to spike the battery high enough to cap it at 30kW of power output. I barely manage to get on i40 and i440 at those temperatures and it will cut the QCsession speed in half.

Out of curiosity, what type of battery temps (on Leaf Spy) are you seeing when you hit power output caps like that?

 

[BradFoxUS]

Thank you. I will try. Most likely, it will be in use by my friend who will be QCing it as much as possible while I am gone. It only takes 3 QC sessions to spike the battery high enough to cap it at 30kW of power output. I barely manage to get on i40 and i440 at those temperatures and it will cut the QCsession speed in half.

Out of curiosity, what type of battery temps (on Leaf Spy) are you seeing when you hit power output caps like that?

I start seeing a gentle cap on acceleration around 130F. By 145F it will not accelerate beyond 30kW at all and the QC Sessions are capped at 45 Amps max. It's rare that I reach 145F but it does happen about once a month here in North Carolina.

 

[leafitbe]

I only have 13 miles left on the battery warranty (I have until 6/17 otherwise).
I've been watching my LeafSpy numbers like a hawk.
With AHr at 41.77, shouldn't I have dropped the 9th bar by now?
I'm getting nervous.

(If I've missed any previous insight on this, apologies. I did a few searches and didn't see anybody quite this low with proof)

http://imgur.com/a/vlG9z

 

[Santabarbara808]

Stop driving your leaf. Charge and discharge (AC) your battery in your garage if you have or while parked. You're almost there, I lost my fourth bar @ 41.895 AHr 2 months ago.

 

[cwerdna]

Stop driving your leaf. Charge and discharge (AC) your battery in your garage if you have or while parked.

Yes. You do NOT want to go past 60K miles, unless you want a fight on your hands or possibly a many kilobuck mistake. Let the car bake out in the sun at full charge. Keep it in a warm garage at night and Nissan powerwall it. Run the heater or AC at full blast until the battery's totally dead, charge to full, rinse and repeat.

If possible, charge it while the battery's hot too.

Presumably, once you lose the 4th CB, get the car TOWED. Do NOT drive it to the dealer.

If you have until 6/2017 the 5 year portion of the 5 year/60K capacity warranty runs out, you should have plenty of time.

Good luck!

 

[Phatcat73]

Does the mileage warranty start from zero or the odometer reading at time of purchase?

 

[arnis]

In EU technically you get the warranty for exactly 60 000 miles (or 100 000km) of usage (except used vehicles).
That means that my car has warranty until 100 010km (starting mileage marked in warranty booklet).
Also warranty period is extended by the amount of time car was repaired (or waiting for the parts).
For example if you buy a washing machine it has 2 year warranty.
It breaks down a week before warranty ends and you bring it to service.
They wait for the replacement part for 2 months. Then you get your machine back.
It breaks again after just two washing cycles on the first day. But it is older than 2 years for now.
Warranty stops if device is being repaired. Therefore washing machine can be brought back for warranty repair.

Same with vehicles.

 

[QueenBee]

Stop driving your leaf. Charge and discharge (AC) your battery in your garage if you have or while parked.

Yes. You do NOT want to go past 60K miles, unless you want a fight on your hands or possibly a many kilobuck mistake. Let the car bake out in the sun at full charge. Keep it in a warm garage at night and Nissan powerwall it. Run the heater or AC at full blast until the battery's totally dead, charge to full, rinse and repeat.

If possible, charge it while the battery's hot too.

Presumably, once you lose the 4th CB, get the car TOWED. Do NOT drive it to the dealer.

If you have until 6/2017 the 5 year portion of the 5 year/60K capacity warranty runs out, you should have plenty of time.

Good luck!

Unfortunately this advice is not likely to work as the battery SOH stats seem to completely stop updating when you stop driving. The advice I would have given you is to stop driving a 1,000+ miles ago and then let the car rest out the warranty period.

I think you will be stuck asking nicely for a discounted battery or going to arbitration.

 

[QueenBee]

Does the mileage warranty start from zero or the odometer reading at time of purchase?

AFAIK it starts at the mileage on the odometer when the first purchaser buys it so I think you will have a very small additional set of miles.

 

[cwerdna]

Does the mileage warranty start from zero or the odometer reading at time of purchase?

AFAIK it starts at the mileage on the odometer when the first purchaser buys it so I think you will have a very small additional set of miles.

The guy at http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?t=20725 was initially denied and had to fight for just being at 60,002 miles when arrived at the dealer by driving.

 

[vrwl]

I would not chance it. 59,999.99 miles or less when it arrives at the dealership with 4 bars gone. Take a picture of the lit up dash showing both readings with your phone when it arrives. That's it. Don't even think they'll let you get away with anything more than that.

 

[rich311]

I'm extremely excited to report I just lost my fourth bar this morning after working on it quite a bit this year! I've got a 2011 SL that I bought on 1/26/2012, so time was getting short to lost the fourth bar.


Here are the stats. If there's a better place to post this please let me know. I really benefited from the data at http://www.electricvehiclewiki.com/Real_World_Battery_Capacity_Loss and wanted to give my data point back.

AHr: 42.79
SOH: 65%
Hx: 44.08%
Odometer: 36,589
GIDs: 184 (65.5%)

QCs: 8 (ALL 8 done the last week of August 2016)
L1/L2s: 2934
Location: Austin, TX

I spent the first 3 years driving extremely conservatively to preserve the battery but did a 180 when I realized I could actually loss the 4th bar after 3rd dropped.

I was away during almost all of the hot Texas summer and left the car outside but not charging. After two months of mostly 100F+ temps, the battery didn't drop too much. In retrospect, leaving it charging all summer probably would have done it.

What really worked when I got back was parking my car on the black street in front of my house and running the L1 cord across my lawn to keep the car at 100%. I drove it pretty hard (only in D and shifting to N when not accelerating to avoid regen braking) daily and most days got it to 1-2 bars (and often turtle).

 

[cwerdna]

Unfortunately this advice is not likely to work as the battery SOH stats seem to completely stop updating when you stop driving. The advice I would have given you is to stop driving a 1,000+ miles ago and then let the car rest out the warranty period.

I think you will be stuck asking nicely for a discounted battery or going to arbitration.

Bummer then. I wonder how much movement is actually needed for those numbers and more importantly, the capacity bars to update. If it only requires movement of a few feet or around the block...

leafitbe has a lot of time though...

 

[arnis]

What the Amendment to Settlement Agreement actually states (Page 1):
"for a period of 60 months from the original in-service date, or until the vehicle reaches 60,000 miles, whichever comes first."

So what they meant by that is:

"for a period of 60 months from the original in-service date or until the vehicle reaches 60,000 miles from the date of manufacturing, whichever comes first."

Not possible. They can twist however they want but either it is:

a) 60 months from original manufacturing date and 60 000 miles from original manufacturing date
or
b) 60 months from original in-service date and 60 000 miles from original in-service date

As we know a) is wrong. Therefore b) is correct. No more twisting I suppose :lol:

If it can be proven that odometer reading is incorrect that technically means 60 000 miles in real life.
If Nissan meant 60 000 miles on that digital display they HAD to say: "or until vehicle reaches 60,000 miles according to odometer from original in-service date".
I checked my reading with 16" and it is less than 1% off. I'll check again for more precision but it is not really possible to know as
diameter changes as tires wear down to smaller diameter.

 

[TimLee]

...
If Nissan meant 60 000 miles on that digital display they HAD to say: "or until vehicle reaches 60,000 miles according to odometer from original in-service date".
...

It would have been more clear.

But the reality is that Nissan's interpretation of 60,000 miles is the digital display.

That is the interpretation that all vehicle manufacturers use in the USA.

So no matter how much we debate tire wear and display accuracy LEAF customers are stick with the display reading.

 

[futureleaf]

My 2012 Leaf SL has 29,388 miles on it with 10 bars. I lost bar 11 around 28,000 miles. I have been driving it hard and QC at least twice a day. Not by choice but necessity. Even when the range says 72, I actually only get about 50 miles out of it and my daily commute is 100+ roundtrip so I have to QC every 40 miles or so. My day consists of driving from QC to another sometimes 4+ times a day.

Today, Leafspy said I had 54% battery and the range left was only 27 miles which doubled brings it up to 54 miles total. How can that be with 10 bars or is that normal? How accurate is the battery bar meter? Has there been any reports of inaccuracies?

My Leafspy readings are as follows:

AHr= 51.65
Hx=60.57
QCs=60
L1/L2=1754

I am trying very hard to lose bars 10 and 9 so that I can get a new battery but my Nissan dealer gave me a printout that my in-service date is 1/27/12 so I have until 1/27/17 to do it. I don't think I'm going to make it!

 

[Joe6pack]

I just started tracking in June, but as of today:

2012 Leaf SL leased October 4th, 2012
3 bars gone
AHr: 44.746
SOH: 68%
Hx: 47.32
L1/L2: 3887
QC: 14

Quick charging seems to improve things somewhat and I just quick charged yesterday. I had slightly lower scores just prior to that.

 

[jkline]

2012 sv 26,210 miles.

Bought in April '16-- 82%soh and 11 bars with 22,800 miles. Dropped a bar yesterday.

ahr-- 51.61
soh--78%
hx-- 60.7
2029 L1/L2

 

[leafitbe]

Thanks for the advice on this guys.
I've been quick charging like crazy (376 in total).

The thing that's infuriating is the Ahr seems to only drop if I drive a bit. And fast.
So I try driving it up this steep hill every now and then.
But every time I do it burns a mile.

Nervewracking.

I hope this works.

Here's the latest, I'm at 41.60

http://imgur.com/xyWTFa8