Interest In A 12V Battery Upgrade Kit??

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powersurge said:
The answer to this age old question of Leaf 12v batteries has 2 solutions... First, you do not need a L-ion battery, or AGM deep cycle. The 12v does not require any cold cranking power to start a big engine, so the stock one is adequate. If you want an upgrade, get the biggest that fits in the battery tray, or even get a bigger tray, and you can have a good, powerful, Lead Acid batter that can last 10 years, like my car batteries do.

Second, it is not the size or type of battery that is important. Battery problems so not happen suddenly, buy over time when we are not looking. My 3 year old battery is in NEW condition. I know this because I have installed a digital volt meter that tells me the battery voltage at all times when I drive. You can get one reasonable, and install it in the cigarette lighter, or hard wire it. When you see the battery voltage start going down, then you can investigate what your car is doing....

No large starting current draw, but sustained small currents so deep cycle is ideal. Maintenance free AGM is my choice for my "install it and forget it" approach. A high quality conventional battery might last 10 years in your climate, but not mine. OEM batteries in gasoline engine cars typically last 18 months (24 months maximum) here. I once had an aftermarket replacement battery fail after 9 months and the warranty replacement fail 6 months later before I started using AGM replacement batteries. The OEM Nissan batteries in the LEAFs actually do a little better because temperatures under the hood are lower. I got 29 months on the 2011 and 32 months on the 2015.

Don't depend upon a voltmeter plugged in to the power socket to give reliable measurements because the port is only active when the car is on.

The battery store where I buy most of my batteries quit selling lithium ion motorcycle batteries because they had too many failures. I will buy one for one of my motorcycles as a test once they have enough confidence to start selling them again.
 
What is this fever that everyone seems to have of being in LOVE with LIPO batteries in the Leaf, and then putting a small puny motorcycle battery to boot???!!!! If those $$$$$ mucho dollars batteries are so good, then why doesn't everyone put one in their car?
 
powersurge said:
What is this fever that everyone seems to have of being in LOVE with LIPO batteries in the Leaf, and then putting a small puny motorcycle battery to boot???!!!! If those $$$$$ mucho dollars batteries are so good, then why doesn't everyone put one in their car?

Because an (ICE) car requires a much higher capacity (> 40 AHr) to "start" the car...which would be prohibitively expensive.
In addition, the Leaf (and any EV with similar telematics) has more parasitic current draw than most cars...which can result in discharging the 12v to a point that would "kill" a lead-acid (for good), but not a LiFePO.
 
brotherjethro said:
I'm surprised you describe the 51R as rare. Here in the Portland/Vancouver area, I've found it at every local store that carries car batteries. It's in millions of Hondas, and probably other makes as well.

OTOH, if you claim it is small and overpriced, I'll definitely agree with that!
While I can find them, they seem to be double the price of the 56 batteries for the same quality and brand.
 
cmwade77 said:
brotherjethro said:
I'm surprised you describe the 51R as rare. Here in the Portland/Vancouver area, I've found it at every local store that carries car batteries. It's in millions of Hondas, and probably other makes as well.

OTOH, if you claim it is small and overpriced, I'll definitely agree with that!
While I can find them, they seem to be double the price of the 56 batteries for the same quality and brand.

Agreed. I'm shocked at the price of lead acid car batteries in general lately, and the 51R is definitely on the bad end of the price/performance scale.
 
$85 at Costco for the Interstate 51R and for the record they had 10?? of them, several rows.
I also believe the 51R is a poor value ah/$$ and if the Leaf had more room I might think of installing the largest battery that would fit as the price is generally the same for all sizes but with the Leaf I didn't want to carry around more weight than needed and besides the Leaf doesn't need a huge Ah battery as it has no ICE to crank over. In the end I ended up with getting an Optima yellow top AGM(not from Costco as they no longer sell Optima) installation was easy and seems to work like a charm. Oh if you think the ah/$$ is poor for a 51R lead acid, AGMs are even worse, but I just wanted to be done with it and hopefully never have to replace the 12v battery again, or at least for 8 or more years, figured I'd be lucky to get 3-4 with a lead acid like the OEM.
 
I priced batteries, and initially intended to install an Optima Yellow Top when the time came to do so. The 51R was a little over $100 at Sam's Club, about $125 at Batteries plus Bulbs, and in a comparable range at all the auto parts places. The Optima was $147 at Amazon when I first decided on it, but is now over $200. I ended up buying a Bosch Platinum AGM 51R on sale at Pep Boys for $128 plus tax with free install and four year warranty. No issues in almost three months, and a greatly reduced number of fuse pulls to reset the TCU since replacing the original 12v battery.
 
I got a good deal on "46B24R 12V 46Ah 650A Lithium Iron Phosphate Battery LiFePO4 for Auto Car + BMS" from ebay. Took a bit to receive it, and it seems that seller is clueless about batteries and have wrong pictures of other 40B19L battery with correct terminal positions for the Leaf. The minus is my 46B24R has incorrect terminal positions, so it is causing some misalignment of terminals to get it installed, the plus was a bargain price of $300 delivered. You can buy correct 46B24L for > $365. 46B24[R/L] are perfect exact fit for Leaf. Both would fit, but 46B24L would be complete perfection. BTW, neither 46B24L nor 46B24R listing have a photo showing where is + or - terminals, this is the way seller took care of wrong pictures of the "right battery type" in the 46B24R listing, lol. All pictures in 46B24R listings are wrong - those are from "L" type

OPTIMA 51R: 238.76 x 129.54 x 223.52 mm
Li-po 46B24R/L: 237 x 127 x 221 mm

With original battery I was getting ~ 12.3 V in the morning, with LiFePO4 upgrade I am getting 13.35V in the morning.

Also, those batteries have 10 Ah emergency battery, so in case your main battery was completely discharged (< 8V), you can activate emergency battery with switch on the battery and "jump start" your car. I used to carry 12V Lithium emergency start kit, I wouldn't need to carry it in my Leaf with new battery.
 
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