Dealer called me about bad battery module in my Leaf?

[Spies]

Has this happend to anyone else? Out of the blue I received a voicemail last night from my local Nissan dealer, Boardwalk Nissan, saying that Nissan Engineering contacted them and they want me to bring my Leaf in so they can take it apart and look for and possibly replace a bad battery module.

So I find it kind of strange that Nissan did not contact me directly about this instead having the dealer do it. I just pasted 19,000 miles and I have not noticed any particular range degradation and of course the car passed with flying colors when it was checked a couple of months ago.

I plan to contact Nissan directly and see if I can get more information before I agree to have the car taken apart as I am reluctant to having it done.

 

[supra410]

I have heard of another case like this. I guess carwings tattled on you? You may search the forums.

 

[ebill3]

If it was Boardwalk Nissan that did last required battery check, then it seems to me appropriate that Nissan would work through them. I think it is neat that Nissan wants to correct a possible problem with your battery. Perhaps if you contact the dealer they can give you the more detailed information you seek.

 

[FairwoodRed]

I too have heard of this before. My memory of the prior event was that Nissan did in fact find a bad cell and replaced it totally under warranty. I also remember that Nissan had the dealer contact thier customer that time too.

Regarding the reluctance to having it taken apart, I feel that way about machines with moving parts, mostly because the clearances and seals need a high degree of precision on reassembly to maintain a long life like what comes from the factory. The battery pack is not like that.

There is a lot more room for error on the physical side, by comparison to an engine. The only real challange on working on the pack is the danger of high voltage. Because of that, I have no concerns about letting a Nissan Tech (or even a no-name tech) work on my pack as long as the price is reasonable. I hope you end up letting them work on it and then report back here with how it went and what they found.

 

[davewill]

I plan to contact Nissan directly and see if I can get more information before I agree to have the car taken apart as I am reluctant to having it done.

I would be reluctant to NOT have it done. Nissan wouldn't take this action if they weren't pretty sure there was a potential problem...car manufacturers don't incur warranty repair expenses for fun. It may never fail. Or it may fail, but in a subtle manner that costs you 20% more degradation over the next 5-6 years than you would have had and you wouldn't realize it. Or it may fail catastrophically, but the failure would then be your fault because you didn't let them make this repair now. Who wants to take the chance?

 

[Spies]

Thanks for the replies and I am glad that this is not the first time this has happend. I did do a forum search but I am not surprised that I did not find the similar topic.

If I do end up bringing it in for service, and I suspect I will be based on the replies, perhaps I will have all the updates done including the onboard charger replacement and break software update. Right now it is still completely original as I have never had any of the updates done.

 

[adric22]

So I'm guessing the battery ECU must be seeing a particular module that is under-voltage when the battery is under load, or something to that effect? Then carwings sends that data to Nissan? Pity we can't just get that information on the center console screen.

 

[91040]

Yes, this did occur to someone in Orange County (CA). You can search GaryGs posts from about a year ago if you want more details. The question was whether it was the battery report or Carwings that alerted Nissan. His assumption was, as adric22 said, a module was far out of spec with the rest of the pack.

Found it: http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=8669&hilit=stanley#p193055" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[Nubo]

I plan to contact Nissan directly and see if I can get more information before I agree to have the car taken apart as I am reluctant to having it done.

I would be reluctant to NOT have it done. Nissan wouldn't take this action if they weren't pretty sure there was a potential problem...car manufacturers don't incur warranty repair expenses for fun. It may never fail. Or it may fail, but in a subtle manner that costs you 20% more degradation over the next 5-6 years than you would have had and you wouldn't realize it. Or it may fail catastrophically, but the failure would then be your fault because you didn't let them make this repair now. Who wants to take the chance?

I don't think there is any question of getting it done if indicated. But I would have been suspicious also if I got that kind of notification direct from a dealership and would likewise have looked to verify with Nissan directly. I would have expected something like this to come from Nissan directly, like a recall notice.

 

[DTB]

The last instance also happened shortly after the car was in for the annual battery inspection. I believe when the annual inspection is done detailed information is transmitted to Nissan and an engineer reviews it at a later time. If something is found the dealer is notified to follow-up with the customer.

 

[ebill3]

The last instance also happened shortly after the car was in for the annual battery inspection. I believe when the annual inspection is done detailed information is transmitted to Nissan and an engineer reviews it at a later time. If something is found the dealer is notified to follow-up with the customer.

I think that is probably correct. We get the 5 stars, Nissan gets the nitty gritty.

 

[vegastar]

Here in Portugal we have two public cases, reported in our local nissan leaf forum, where Nissan, not the dealer, called the owners of the cars. Both were feeling very reduced range (one mesured 14kW.h from VLBW to 100%), but no loss of capacity bars.

Unfortunately the quality of the Nissan service in Portugal is very poor, at least for the EV part. In one case the owner waited 1.5 months and the other 2.5 months to receive the car back from Nissan.

In one case the complete battery was exchanged, and in the other only one module and the LBC were replaced.

 

[Nubo]

The last instance also happened shortly after the car was in for the annual battery inspection. I believe when the annual inspection is done detailed information is transmitted to Nissan and an engineer reviews it at a later time. If something is found the dealer is notified to follow-up with the customer.

Sounds like that's what they're doing. At least now if it ever happens to me I'll know that it's the way they handle it. It just runs against my way of thinking is all. I don't consider myself as "belonging" to any particular dealership.

 

[davewill]

... If something is found the dealer is notified to follow-up with the customer.

Sounds like that's what they're doing. At least now if it ever happens to me I'll know that it's the way they handle it. It just runs against my way of thinking is all. I don't consider myself as "belonging" to any particular dealership.

I'm sure the owner would be free to take their car to a different dealer to get the work done if they wished.

 

[Nubo]

... If something is found the dealer is notified to follow-up with the customer.

Sounds like that's what they're doing. At least now if it ever happens to me I'll know that it's the way they handle it. It just runs against my way of thinking is all. I don't consider myself as "belonging" to any particular dealership.

I'm sure the owner would be free to take their car to a different dealer to get the work done if they wished.

I'm sure you're right. It's just the path of the communication that I was commenting on.

 

[cwerdna]

Rob Greenlee had this happen too (http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1082848_nissan-leaf-electric-car-reports-own-battery-cell-failure-via-carwings" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false. I believe I learned of it 1st from the Seattle Leaf Facebook group. I've met him in person long ago but don't know if he's on MNL.

 

[Spies]

Well if it was the annual battery check that brought this to Nissan's attention they took a while getting back to the dealer about as it was over three months ago that I had it done. Hopefully I will have more information to report soon.

 

[derkraut]

Here in Portugal we have two public cases, reported in our local nissan leaf forum, where Nissan, not the dealer, called the owners of the cars. Both were feeling very reduced range (one mesured 14kW.h from VLBW to 100%), but no loss of capacity bars.

Unfortunately the quality of the Nissan service in Portugal is very poor, at least for the EV part. In one case the owner waited 1.5 months and the other 2.5 months to receive the car back from Nissan.

In one case the complete battery was exchanged, and in the other only one module and the LBC were replaced.

Wow! that is slow service. I admire your patience, vegastar.

 

[JeremyW]

Before you take it in can you please please get someone with an ELM and an android phone to take a look at your individual cell pair voltages (and the rest of the battery info like capacity)? Enquiring minds want to know!

 

[Spies]

Before you take it in can you please please get someone with an ELM and an android phone to take a look at your individual cell pair voltages (and the rest of the battery info like capacity)? Enquiring minds want to know!

I'm happy to do that Jeremy. Anyone in the SF Bay Area with the right equipment and know how willing to meet me and take the appropriate measurements?

Joe at Boardwalk Nissan called this morning and told my SO that Nissan Engineering should be calling soon to discuss the situation and provide more information about our Leaf. Should be interesting.