Nissan Leaf 2018 Maintenance

[marceloaguileraarias]

Hi everyone. I bought a Nissan Leaf 2018 1 month ago. This is my first EV car. My question are:

1) How often do I have to bring my car to a Nissan dealership for a maintenance? Once/twice a year? Every 100.000 km?

2) Is it worth to bring my EV car to a Nissan Dealership? Or I can choose another generic EV maintenance centre near my home?


Thank you in advance for your help.

 

[Drew21]

What maintenance are you concerned about?

Where I am located every car must pass an annual safety inspection (lights, horn, brakes, wipers, seat belts, etc) but other than that our 2014 Leaf (76K miles, about 15K miles by us) hasn't been to a mechanic in our 2.5 years of ownership.

I have changed the windshield wipers and added washer fluid, changed the cabin air filter (2 or 3x), and changed the brake rotors and pads, followed by a brake fluid flush and bleed. Once it warms up this spring I plan to change the reduction gear (i.e., the "transmission") fluid and coolant. I rotate the tires and swap on a set of steel wheels with winter tires during the appropriate months. When I lift the car to rotate or change the tires I do a general check of the steering and suspension components and underbody.

All of these jobs are required for any vehicle (ICE or EV) and can be performed by any mechanic if you don't want to do them yourself. I would not pay dealership service prices for any of these jobs.

If you want to monitor your battery health you should look into the LeafSpy app. I haven't bothered but there are many posts here about it. If it makes you feel better, you can pay the dealership to run various tests and checks on your battery, but I don't think they'll tell you anything you can't figure out yourself (for much less money) using LeafSpy.

Below are the Nissan provided maintenance schedules for the 2014 Leaf. You should be able to find 2018-specific documentation online, although I doubt it has changed.

 

[marceloaguileraarias]

Thank you very much for your reply.

In my prevoius Gas cars, I had to bring my car to change the oil every X kilometers. And when I had to change the oil the Nissan service centre always suggested me to fixed something else (of course paying at overpriced costs).

My car is a used car, with 102.000 km of use, so I don't know if the nissan maintenance schedules are useful for cars with more than 100.000 km of use.

As I don't have the "oil change" parameter in an EV, I was asking if I have to bring my car once or twice a year for a routine check. Or every X kilometers. This is my main doubt about maintenance, basically the frequency that I have to consider to bring my car for a check.


Thank you for your help

 

[Drew21]

In the schedules I posted above, notice the bold line that says "After 60K miles (96K km) or 48 months, continue the periodic maintenance at the same mileage/time intervals." So, just like with any previous car you've had you should continue to base your maintenance on a mileage (or km) or time schedule, depending on which works for you. For example, I don't drive that much so I do my maintenance based on time (e.g., annual oil change on my ICE car).

If it works for you to have your service done at the dealership, they'll definitely look at your Leaf, give you an idea of things they think need to be dealt with, and tell you when they want you to come back.

 

[marceloaguileraarias]

Thank you very much for your reply.

In my prevoius Gas cars, I had to bring my car to change the oil every X kilometers. And when I had to change the oil the Nissan service centre always suggested me to fixed something else (of course paying at overpriced costs).

My car is a used car, with 102.000 km of use, so I don't know if the nissan maintenance schedules are useful for cars with more than 100.000 km of use.

As I don't have the "oil change" parameter in an EV, I was asking if I have to bring my car once or twice a year for a routine check. Or every X kilometers. This is my main doubt about maintenance, basically the frequency that I have to consider to bring my car for a check.


Thank you for your help

In the schedules I posted above, notice the bold line that says "After 60K miles (96K km) or 48 months, continue the periodic maintenance at the same mileage/time intervals." So, just like with any previous car you've had you should continue to base your maintenance on a mileage (or km) or time schedule, depending on which works for you. For example, I don't drive that much so I do my maintenance based on time (e.g., annual oil change on my ICE car).

If it works for you to have your service done at the dealership, they'll definitely look at your Leaf, give you an idea of things they think need to be dealt with, and tell you when they want you to come back.

Ok. Thank you for your replies. Now all my doubts are cleared.

 

[DunanyDon]

Hi everyone. I bought a Nissan Leaf 2018 1 month ago. This is my first EV car. My question are:

1) How often do I have to bring my car to a Nissan dealership for a maintenance? Once/twice a year? Every 100.000 km?

2) Is it worth to bring my EV car to a Nissan Dealership? Or I can choose another generic EV maintenance centre near my home?


Thank you in advance for your help.

I bought a used 2015 Leaf S nearly 4 years ago. In that time, I have changed two light bulbs and the rear shocks, and have not been back to the Nissan dealership I bought it from. The shocks still worked fine but one made a slight clicking noise over small bumps. Other than that, as with any car, tires and brakes, though EV brakes last much longer than ICE brakes due to regenerative braking. If you are at all handy, you should be able to do all your own maintenance, unless there is a major problem. If you like fiddling with your car, get Leaf Spy Pro and you can have fun adjusting parameters, checking for codes and getting rid of annoying bell and whistles.

 

[Steve52]

I also have 2018 Leaf and bring it in once per year for a routine battery check. In the USA it's required as stated in the Manual to keep the battery warranty in effect. In the five years I've owned it, they have never up-sold any other maintenance items as being needed although I have a lot fewer miles compared to your Leaf. Best of luck with your new Leaf!

 

[aqn]

There is a maintenance info booklet that lists service intervals and service items at each interval. You should have one for your LEAF. If not, you can prob search for one. Oh, here ya go: https://owners.nissanusa.com/conten.../2018/2018-LEAF-service-maintenance-guide.pdf

 

[dsevier]

When I got our 2014 last March, I replaced the gearbox oil, the brake fluid and cabin air filter. The wiper blades were OK. This month, I put Molykote M77 on the front axle splines to remedy the axle click. Following that, I cleaned and relubed the front and rear disk brakes and parking brakes to elimate some low speed groans when braking. In taking them apart, I found no lubrication left on the interfaces of the moving parts. I also fixed the intermittent connection for the backup camera. So while not trouble free up to this point, I expect to have done the work to make it. work well for the next year or two. And the work has been straightforward and low cost.

 

[BillAinCT]

I put Molykote M77 on the front axle splines to remedy the axle click

Did this resolve the axle click and is it still resolved? What did you torque the axle nut to?

 

[DerFlocker]

I also have 2018 Leaf and bring it in once per year for a routine battery check. In the USA it's required as stated in the Manual to keep the battery warranty in effect. In the five years I've owned it, they have never up-sold any other maintenance items as being needed although I have a lot fewer miles compared to your Leaf. Best of luck with your new Leaf!

Never heard of this requirement.... ouch may I ask how much you pay for that battery check?

We got a used 2018 Leaf last fall and now I'm naturally curious how Nissan would handle a warranty issue if the previous owner did not adhere to that requirement....

 

[Steve52]

Never heard of this requirement.... ouch may I ask how much you pay for that battery check?

We got a used 2018 Leaf last fall and now I'm naturally curious how Nissan would handle a warranty issue if the previous owner did not adhere to that requirement....

It's around $40 per year, don't know of anyone being denied battery warranty service due to not having it done but it says to do it in the manual so I get it done. Do you have any issues with your battery? How many bars on the dash?