Expensive first maintenance in 6 months

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sgksgk

New member
Joined
Sep 4, 2018
Messages
2
My Leaf is around 11000km. My dealership is getting me to do the first maintenance in 6 months. They will be charging me CDN $199 + $129 + tax to do tire rotation, brake fluid change, a bunch of (visual?) inspection. Nissan website suggests doing brake fluid change at the second year service. I can rotate the tires myself so is it really necessary to get the dealership to do these inspection? I felt it way overpriced.
 
It's way over-priced. Tell the dealer to take a hike and rotate the tires yourself. Brake fluid changes at 2 year intervals should be fine. Tire rotation every 8000 km or so, depending on your roads and driving habits. The only other maintenance you should need to do is keep the tires inflated to the correct pressure, make sure the wiper blades and wiper washer fluid are OK and change the cabin air filter as needed.
 
I wouldn't do any of that. Rotate the tires and you are good to go. It just Nissan BS. In the 7 years I have owned mine I have changed the cabin filter once and rotated the tires every 5000 mi. Brake fluid change is also stupid. I have not done this and my brakes work fine. Save your money.
 
sgksgk said:
My Leaf is around 11000km. My dealership is getting me to do the first maintenance in 6 months. They will be charging me CDN $199 + $129 + tax to do tire rotation, brake fluid change, a bunch of (visual?) inspection. Nissan website suggests doing brake fluid change at the second year service. I can rotate the tires myself so is it really necessary to get the dealership to do these inspection? I felt it way overpriced.
Over priced! I've rotated the tires, replaced the tires/windshield wipers, and added wiper fluid. Nothing else in 7+ years. No lead acid battery replacement, no annual battery check (except the 1st one since it was free and I found out it's worthless), no brake fluid flush or check, no air filter replacement. I live in a very dry climate and mostly drive at 25-45 mph, so I'm not too worried. Maybe in a few years I'll do those three maintenance items, but maybe not. I didn't do them on my 25 yo ICE either (until the battery failed).
 
Just to clarify on the brake fluid change: it is never needed before two years unless the car is driven off-road and in water. Three or four years is fine for most driving.
 
downeykp said:
I wouldn't do any of that. Rotate the tires and you are good to go. It just Nissan BS. In the 7 years I have owned mine I have changed the cabin filter once and rotated the tires every 5000 mi. Brake fluid change is also stupid. I have not done this and my brakes work fine. Save your money.

You are totally uninformed and incorrect in your statement that changing brake fluid is "stupid".

It is a good idea to change the brake fluid every four years or so. Otherwise, you can be paying for expensive repairs, and it is dangerous.

Please do not give negative ("don't do this") maintenance advice unless you are well educated in that field...

Brake fluid change? You don't really need to change it every 2 years. 4 years is good, OR when you see the fluid in the reservoir looking dark.... Good brake fluid is clear like water....
 
No it is stupid. I have been doing all of the maintenance on my vehicles since the 70s. If the color of the fluid is great and it is full, there is no reason to do anything. What "expensive repairs" would you be talking about?
If you want to over maintain be my guest. Otherwise bugger off!
 
downeykp said:
No it is stupid. I have been doing all of the maintenance on my vehicles since the 70s. If the color of the fluid is great and it is full, there is no reason to do anything. What "expensive repairs" would you be talking about?
If you want to over maintain be my guest. Otherwise bugger off!

Water in the brake fluid can eventually lead to rust in the braking components and possibly failures. How common that is depends on the climate and on driving conditions. There is no single answer for every driver on this, so telling people to "never" have the fluid changed isn't good advice. 3-4 years is a good safe interval. BTW, there were no ABS systems in wide automotive use in the Seventies.
 
LeftieBiker said:
downeykp said:
No it is stupid. I have been doing all of the maintenance on my vehicles since the 70s. If the color of the fluid is great and it is full, there is no reason to do anything. What "expensive repairs" would you be talking about?
If you want to over maintain be my guest. Otherwise bugger off!

Water in the brake fluid can eventually lead to rust in the braking components and possibly failures. How common that is depends on the climate and on driving conditions. There is no single answer for every driver on this, so telling people to "never" have the fluid changed isn't good advice. 3-4 years is a good safe interval. BTW, there were no ABS systems in wide automotive use in the Seventies.


But there was fluid and moisture in the 70s. I have never had to change brake fluid in any car because the fluid was bad. Never! I live in Hawaii where corrosion eats up everything. I have seen metal brake lines corrode to the point that brake fluid needed to be changed because it fell all over the ground.
 
Hi, just joined forum. I don't have Leaf yet, but am seriously considering leasing 2018 LEAF S as our strictly in town second car. I want this second car to be as economical as possible and for that end doing cost analysis. I know what the cost to lease, register, ans insure, but I don't have a good grasp on maintenance cost. According to official 2018 Nissan LEAF | Service and Maintenance Guide | Nissan USA, the scheduled maintenance suggest brake fluid change EVERY YEAR or 7500 miles for Schedule 1 (more severe). I have never heard of any car needing brake fluid changed this frequently. Are people really following this schedule? And if you do, what is usual cost of 6 month interval scheduled maintenance at dealer? Having had Toyota vehicles, I never had to pay for first 2.5 years of scheduled maintenance, and even after that period, most of maintenance were pretty cheap for Toyota, like less than $100 for doing only listed items on manual. For leased vehicle, I am responsible for maintenance, but does that mean I HAVE to take the car back to dealer for scheduled maintenance or can I DIY? Any input is greatly appreciated.
 
Unless you are actually driving under "severe" conditions, you don't have to have the brake fluid changed during the lease period. You also don't have to have the cabin filter changed, or the tires rotated except as needed to even out wear. My total maintenance cost during the first 3 years of my roughly 5 year lease was about $50, not counting tire changes for Winter. The total 5 year cost was about $300, tires excluded.
 
LeftieBiker said:
Unless you are actually driving under "severe" conditions, you don't have to have the brake fluid changed during the lease period. You also don't have to have the cabin filter changed, or the tires rotated except as needed to even out wear. My total maintenance cost during the first 3 years of my roughly 5 year lease was about $50, not counting tires changes for Winter. The total 5 year cost was about $300, tires excluded.
Thanks. That's good to hear. According to Nissan more severe conditions are listed as follows:
  • Repeated short trips of less than 5 miles in
    normal temperatures or less than 10 miles in
    freezing temperatures
    Stop-and-go traffi c in hot weather or low
    speed driving for long distances
    Driving in dusty conditions or on rough, muddy,
    or salt-spread roads
    Using a car-top carrier
I live in northern climate where winter temp can get down to sub zero, so any short trips we will be doing during winter would be considered "more severe" by Nissan's definition. One question I still have is the Nissan booklet state the scheduled maintenance interval as 7,500miles or 6 months, but fails to state anything like "whichever comes first". There are a few items on the scheduled maintenance list that is to be "Performed based on the number of service months only", but does that mean others can be serviced either 7,500miles or 6 months whichever comes later? If that is the case, I can reduce the number of services needed during my lease term.
 
First, short trips in Winter are little different from medium length trips for a Leaf, because the brakes on a Leaf don't heat up very quickly, due to the regenerative braking. So scratch that. These booklets were written for ICE vehicles that should be "warmed up" in Winter, and also to increase dealership profits. If you want to play it safe, just use the longest intervals. Even if you do zero scheduled maintenance you can only be denied warranty coverage for failures that are directly attributable to lack of maintenance on that system.
 
salkin said:
Thanks. That's good to hear. According to Nissan more severe conditions are listed as follows:

  • Repeated short trips of less than 5 miles in
    normal temperatures or less than 10 miles in
    freezing temperatures
    Stop-and-go traffi c in hot weather or low
    speed driving for long distances

Someone at Nissan just mindlessly copied and pasted from past lore. Neither of these apply to electric vehicles as they pertain to concerns about combustion engines being operated outside of their preferred regimes, resulting in accumulation of moisture, acids, and carbon deposits, or dimensional parts clearances of cold/hot engines.
 
I've never changed the brake fluid on my used '13 Leaf (built 5/2013). I have no idea if the previous driver did (was a 2 year lease return) and bought it when it was ~25 months old. I've owned this car for over 3 years now. A few weeks back, I finally used a brake fluid tester to measure moisture and some Phoenix brake fluid test strips to measure copper levels. They were both fine. No need to change what I have.

I suspect the stupid brake fluid change intervals along w/the "required" annual battery check (first two free) were just bones that Nissan threw to dealers to help make up for lost ICE service revenue (oil changes, brakes, belts, spark plugs, fuel injector cleaning, etc.)
 
My main concern with the friction brakes is to remember to use them periodically so that the rotors do not rust.
Brake fluid flushes are for ICE vehicles or for VERY unusual circumstances in an EV.

Like cwerdna, I bought a brake fluid strip test. I may never use it though since the test just introduces water while the fluid cap is off. Perhaps if the LEAF reaches 10 years old. Heck, if the car reaches 10 years old I'll bring it to the dealership so they can see what they have been missing ;-)
 
Glad to hear from current owners that frequent brake fluid changes required by Nissan is not really needed. I think the cost of maintenance should be minimal for the first 3 years for this car. With Nissan offering $139/mo lease now, I think the car is perfect as cheap secondary car. We have Prius Prime (PHEV) as our main car for long distance. Thank you for those chimed in.
 
For what it's worth, when I did take my 2012 Leaf in to have the brake fluid replaced, things had corroded so much that I needed a lot more work. The car was 5 years old, spent all 5 years in Massachusetts (salty, snowy winter roads).
 
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