protocol for dealing with Nissan on 30kwh battery replacement?

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Eddie16

Active member
Joined
Aug 21, 2020
Messages
29
I drive a 2016 Leaf with the 30kwh traction battery. It has become obvious
the battery is degrading rapidly, and that I may end up dealing with Nissan
to get a replacement under warranty. I have seen conflicting information
on the web saying that owners should contact Nissan even before the battery
drops to 8 bars. It's not clear to me why that is necessary, so I thought
I should ask questions here.

The condition of the car is: I bought the car in Sep 2019 at 29K miles. The
battery had 12 bars. By 35K miles, the battery had dropped to 10 bars.
Applying the software "fix" for the 30kwh battery restored the bars for a
short time, then they disappeared again. By 44K miles (March 2022), I noticed
the battery was down to 9 bars. It seems likely the battery will drop to 8
bars within the next year, at which point I will have to deal with Nissan.

I am aware of the article in insideevs.com which documents that the 30kwh
battery degrades three times faster than the 24kwh batteries. It is also
clear that the software "fix" is a smokescreen; these 2016-2017 30kwh
AESC packs just have poor battery chemistry. (I don't believe passive cooling
is the main problem. I don't live in a real hot climate, and the battery
temp gauge has never gone above 3 bars from the bottom, while I have owned
the car.)

https://insideevs.com/news/337372/nissan-leaf-30-kwh-battery-degrades-more-rapidly-than-24-kwh-pack/

If you have dealt with Nissan on this issue, I would like to know:

1) If there is any point in contacting Nissan before the battery drops to 8 bars.

2) If you had Nissan do warranty work on your 30kwh battery, did they attempt to
replace cells in your 30kwh battery, or did they install a replacement battery
pack of 30kwh or 40kwh?

3) If Nissan did not replace the 30kwh battery with the (more reliable) 40kwh
pack, did they offer you a 40kwh pack for an additional charge? Just for grins,
I had a Nissan dealer run a load/capacity test on the 30kwh battery. The dealer
declared the battery was below spec, and that a 40kwh replacement before
dropping to 8 bars, would cost $13500.

4) I was provided a statement by Nissan at the time I bought the vehicle,
stating that the warranty on this used vehicle was 7 years/100,000 miles
from date of sale, and that warranty expires on Oct 1, 2023. Has anyone
had problems with Nissan refusing to honor warranty on a used vehicle?
 
1) No.

NTB20-001 https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2020/MC-10171230-0001.pdf is about 40 kWh packs being used as replacements for 30 kWh packs.
 
I suggest that you find a Nissan dealership with actual experience replacing packs, and with happy customers, as they vary wildly in everything from expertise to honesty. The most important thing was to get the BMS update, which you have done. And as Cwerdna wrote, you will get the 40kwh pack. Congrats.
 
Warranty on 30kWh packs is 8 years or 100k miles so you should be in line to get a 40kWh pack. Congrats. The warranty period starts from the date the car was originally put into service so it could be late 2023 or sometime in 2024. Either way it sounds like you will hit 8 bars before then.
 
If OP can manage with his degraded LEAF until a new battery is put in the car, he is in fine shape. This is obviously a YMMV but I presume it is more likely for those that started off with 30 and 40 kWh packs instead of a 24 kWh pack.

Problems with Nissan, its dealerships, and CHAdeMO notwithstanding, if people buy a LEAF with 30% more pack capacity than they need then the car ownership experience will be a lot less annoying 5 years down the road.

Back in 2016, I chose a used 24 kWh LEAF that cost me $7k instead of a new 30 kWh LEAF that would have cost ~ $17k. It turned out that I made the right money choice but perhaps not the right car choice. The warranty increase from 5/60 to 8/100 is outstanding value, and at this juncture 30% more range would be most welcome.

My silver lining is that this week I've been offered $8,750 for the car by one of the online companies. I just have to hope the offer is still available when our Tesla arrives. This is obviously just good luck and timing rather than a smart move on my part.
 
In January 2020 the Memphis division was dragging their feet a little bit but one call to Nissan Leaf representative in the home office got things moving and everything worked out fine.

I was one of the early ones to get the 30 to 40 kWh up grade and I had only owned the 2016 Leaf SL for 5 weeks when it triggered the battery warranty at 25K miles. It was at 9 bars at the time of purchase.
 
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