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16vjohn

Member
Joined
Apr 23, 2017
Messages
5
Hi Friends! I'm from Salt Lake City and I just took the dive and bought a 13' Leaf S. It was too good of a deal and my commute agrees with the range. I've had dozens of VW diesels over the years and recently sold back my 13' Passat, so VW essentially bought this Leaf for me with their court settlement. The Leaf is interesting for environmental reasons, but I bought it for the tech aspect. I've always been attracted to unusual transportation methods, so this fit the bill quite well.

I've also contributed to VW/Diesel forums for 15 or 20 years, so I was very excited to see a healthy community here for Leaf owners.

Anyway, enough about me, let's talk about the car. I'll dispense with photos as you all already know what it looks like. Suffice it to stay, it's boringly stock and in great condition. 43,000 miles with some, perhaps, higher than usual degradation. This car came from Arizona, so I'm guessing that's why. Check out these leaf spy details. Sounds like I can expect the 9th bar to drop off real soon if I'm using the car every day. What do you think? Looks like a display bug on some of the LeafSpy reports... I'll look into that.

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I appreciate the feedback!
 
Check the door sill manufacturer's label for the build date. If this Leaf was built before April of 2013, then losing the 4th bar fairly soon is a good bet. If it was built later, then it may lose capacity much more slowly if your climate is cooler. (I don't really know how SLC is in Summer.)
 
LeftieBiker said:
Check the door sill manufacturer's label for the build date. If this Leaf was built before April of 2013, then losing the 4th bar fairly soon is a good bet. If it was built later, then it may lose capacity much more slowly if your climate is cooler. (I don't really know how SLC is in Summer.)

Thanks sir. I just checked and it's got a build date of 9/13... rats... lol. That's ok, the car is perfectly serving my expectations with its current range. The title was issued in October, so I still have about 18 months of use before the warranty expires.

Salt Lake has hot and dry summers. July, the average high will be in the 90's. There's always 2 or 3 weeks where the highs can get into the 100's but only barely. Nothing like Arizona though.
 
If the nights (or at least the battery pack, like in a warm garage) stay warm during Summer, you still have a good chance. Sustained daytime temps in the 80s or higher, and nighttime lows in the 70s or warmer, are what speed degradation in later builds.
 
Welcome!

I think you have a pretty good chance to lose the 4th bar in the next 18 months. When it gets hot in your area this year, start QCing from a low state of charge to when the car when the battery is hot. Get the battery HOT and keep it that way. Get the temp gauge up to or into the red area. You wanna be like this guy. :) https://web.archive.org/web/20160903061340/http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=22134

Go fast and do aggressive accelerations w/a hot battery.

Leave it outside in the sun and L2 charge it while hot. Leave it inside a garage if it's warmer in the garage than outside. Leave the battery at 100% charge or high state of charge for extended periods, esp. in the heat.

Even though you don't know when the 3rd bar was lost, if you could add your car to http://www.electricvehiclewiki.com/Real_World_Battery_Capacity_Loss#Loss_of_three_battery_capacity_bars_.2827.5.25.29, that'd be nice.

I feel you have plenty of time. Don't wait until you're a few months away from capacity warranty expiration before panicking and taking steps then.
 
I agree, this looks like a very good bet to receive a new battery soon.

To add to Cwerdna's list of things that accelerate battery degradation, perhaps one of the "best" of them is to run A/C cooling while the car is stationary. And not far behind, letting the car cook on hot black asphalt.

OP: just remember to change your habits after you get a replacement battery :mrgreen:
 
Did you buy the car with the idea that you would get a warranty replacement? Seems like a smart if a little bit risky. Will be interesting to see what happen to your car.
 
Ekendahl said:
Did you buy the car with the idea that you would get a warranty replacement? Seems like a smart if a little bit risky. Will be interesting to see what happen to your car.

The guy I bought it from called it "the gambler's car". I got a good enough deal that I'd be fine keeping the car with the battery as-is. It could degrade to 50 or 60% and it would still fit my needs. That said, I don't intend to abuse the battery to cause degradation to occur faster. What I will do is use it the way that I feel it should be used as the car lives to serve me. That will mean 2-3 quick charges a week and nightly charging to 100%. I would even consider purchasing a new battery if I like the car enough. Nissan has been very careful to say that "the end of the warranty isn't necessarily the end of us supporting you". To me this means that if I hit 8 bars a few months after the warranty expired, they'd probably still meet me half way. VW has done that for me numerous times and they do it for customer relations.

Anyway, point being... No, I didn't buy it expecting a new free battery and I'll be pleasantly satisfied as long as the car can deliver a minimum of 30 miles between charges.
 
16vjohn said:
Nissan has been very careful to say that "the end of the warranty isn't necessarily the end of us supporting you". To me this means that if I hit 8 bars a few months after the warranty expired, they'd probably still meet me half way. VW has done that for me numerous times and they do it for customer relations.
It's been all over the map. http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?t=20725 was 2 miles past and he had to fight. Others have fought. Responses have ranged from won to being met partway (sometimes as good as 80/20) to nothing, no help.

If I were in your shoes, I'd try pretty hard to get it down to 8 bars before the capacity warranty expires.

My 5/2013 built used '13 SV hasn't even lost 1 bar yet at ~43.5K miles and I know there's no way in my climate it'll lose 4 in time. I don't think even sending to bake in Phoenix will work in time, nor do I plan to.
 
Good advice. I'll definitely put it through its paces. I'll see where i'm at after this summer to determine if some coaxing is needed.
 
Congratulations on your new car, I am glad you are happy and it fits your needs well. There really are some screaming deals out there now as I don't think a lot of people are aware of how great EVs can be. I feel like a lot of the early adopters have already bought EVs but the mass market does not have the confidence to make the jump just yet. Add to that that a good number more buyers are waiting for the next generation of EVs that are just around the corner and I think we will find that EVs are probably around the their low right now and prices have been driven down to the point that these represent terrific value.

Intentionally trying to destroy the battery does not seem like the most ethical thing to me. I know legally you have the right, but... Think if you personally made a product and people intentionally destroyed it simply to get another new one for free. How long before you would stop supporting your customer base or stop producing the product? Let's be honest, you can't keep down that path unless maybe you can get people to pay for two up front and simply take advantage of the people that only use one. If a lot of people start doing this or Nissan feels that they are, I promise you that Nissan will stop supporting customers and nobody will get taken care of after the warranty is over. I suspect they would also change the warranty for future EVs if they continue to support them at all. I hope and think that most people will treat others as they would want to be treated and won't take advantage of other people just because they have the legal authority.
 
Intentionally trying to destroy the battery does not seem like the most ethical thing to me. I know legally you have the right, but... Think if you personally made a product and people intentionally destroyed it simply to get another new one for free. How long before you would stop supporting your customer base or stop producing the product?

Nissan has misrepresented both the range and longevity of the 24kwh Leaf pack. They had to be forced by a lawsuit to try to remedy this. Until recently, they followed the letter of the warranty instead of the spirit. Were it not for those things, I'd agree with you.
 
For what it's worth, I had a battery report done. Five stars across the board. The service writer at the dealer seemed convinced it'd be hitting 8 soon and said this car would be an open and shut case for warranty replacement. Like I say, I guess we'll see what happens this summer. I'm beyond range anxiety and really starting to just enjoy the car.

I will say, I've already met some really weird folk at the charging stations that want me in their Leaf cult clubs. :/ Lol, still leery of that.

Oh, and this car came from Mesa. I know it came from Arizona but I didn't know it was from the battery-baking Mecca. Fully explains the capacity loss.
 
4CloverLeaf said:
Intentionally trying to destroy the battery does not seem like the most ethical thing to me. I know legally you have the right, but... Think if you personally made a product and people intentionally destroyed it simply to get another new one for free.
LeftieBiker said:
Nissan has misrepresented both the range and longevity of the 24kwh Leaf pack. They had to be forced by a lawsuit to try to remedy this. Until recently, they followed the letter of the warranty instead of the spirit. Were it not for those things, I'd agree with you.
Yep.

4Clover: Since you're new here, please see claims Nissan made at http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=469608#p469608. And remember, there was NO battery capacity warranty any Leafs until http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?t=13192 was announced, which apparently came about due to the Klee class action suit.
16vjohn said:
For what it's worth, I had a battery report done. Five stars across the board.
Which is exactly why we've found the stupid battery report is totally useless to the customer.
 
4CloverLeaf said:
Congratulations on your new car, I am glad you are happy and it fits your needs well. There really are some screaming deals out there now ...

What would you consider a "screaming deal?" I'm still pretty new to the Leaf shopping process, and while some of the prices are what I would consider attractive, I'm not sure what's really good, or how well the KBB values incorporate the possibility of a $6000 battery replacement.
 
16vjohn said:
LeftieBiker said:
Check the door sill manufacturer's label for the build date. If this Leaf was built before April of 2013, then losing the 4th bar fairly soon is a good bet. If it was built later, then it may lose capacity much more slowly if your climate is cooler. (I don't really know how SLC is in Summer.)

Thanks sir. I just checked and it's got a build date of 9/13... rats... lol. That's ok, the car is perfectly serving my expectations with its current range. The title was issued in October, so I still have about 18 months of use before the warranty expires.

Salt Lake has hot and dry summers. July, the average high will be in the 90's. There's always 2 or 3 weeks where the highs can get into the 100's but only barely. Nothing like Arizona though.

you should be fine. This gives you 18+ months and several thousand miles to lose that bar. Should be no problem
 
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