Replacement Lizard battery Drops a bar After 9,000 Miles

At 13,000 miles, 2015, I had to replace my original tires (Nissan). At 17,000 miles, 2017, down 3 bars, I replaced the traction battery ($6300 - Nissan). At 24,000 miles, 2019, I replaced the tires - again (Discount Tire).

Last week, at 26,000 miles, I just dropped the first bar on the new battery.

I spoke to the service manager at Nissan. Of course he immediately cited my 9 year old vehicle. I begged to differ, as I replaced the "engine" in this vehicle, and it was the "engine" that is failing.

He didn't agree, as you'd expect.

So here we are. I'm trying hard to hold on to this vehicle for 2 more years, as there are so many healthy EVs coming. Just really disappointed with the way my Leaf played out.

Bummer.

Can someone move this post into the the lizard pack thread?
https://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=24532

(FWIW, my 5/2013 built '13 Leaf is still on its original battery and at 11 bars. SOH is at at around 79.8 to 79.9% now. I guess I'll be losing a bar soon. I'm likely in a cooler climate than you although it's quite hot today (above 95 F) and will be thru Thursday. Due to lockdown and not being able to go to work, I guess I'm going to have my Leaf quite a bit longer than I intended. Had been sorta trying to sell it since last year.)

I'm going to leave the thread, as it's about an unusual situation: a replacement Lizard pack degrading fairly fast, and related interactions with the dealership. I may edit the title to make it more clear.

So exactly what warranty was given on the replacement battery?

I seem to recall something short, like one year, or the balance of the original warranty if any. I'm not certain of that, though.

LeftieBiker said:

I seem to recall something short, like one year, or the balance of the original warranty if any. I'm not certain of that, though.

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That would be true if it was a warranty replacement if the customer paid nothing.

For ones where it's fully customer paid, it should still have a 5 year/60K capacity warranty. Searching for warranty at https://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?t=17168 alluded to that. The grey area would be (in the past) where Nissan chipped in. Not sure what warranties they got.

LeafPowerIsIxE said:

At 13,000 miles, 2015, I had to replace my original tires (Nissan).

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My original tires lasted over 50,000 miles. Didn't have enough tread to last another winter, so replaced. If was summer, might have let them go longer.

Just how do you wear out tires that fast??


I'm not disappointed in my LEAF.

$6300 seems like full price. There should be the normal warranty on that traction battery since he paid to replace it.

True about the full warranty.

WetEV said:

LeafPowerIsIxE said:

At 13,000 miles, 2015, I had to replace my original tires (Nissan).

Click to expand...

My original tires lasted over 50,000 miles. Didn't have enough tread to last another winter, so replaced. If was summer, might have let them go longer.

Just how do you wear out tires that fast??


I'm not disappointed in my LEAF.

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I'm guessing?? his Leaf may need an alignment? My new '13 wore out a set of OEM Ecopia's in less than 20K driving it the same way I drive all my other cars where I get 60K+ on my good replacements. After the 15 or so months it was out of warranty for alignment so I paid for it out of pocket, along with a new set of Ecopia +'s and I'm still on those tires and they look good 30K later. I'd guess the alignment of the OPs car, not really anything they are doing. I'd also suggest using maximum sidewall tire pressure, or close to it. Running near max helps to limit sidewall wear, running it on the door sill pressure tends to wear the sides quite badly, for sure on the fronts.

cwerdna said:

For ones where it's fully customer paid, it should still have a 5 year/60K capacity warranty. Searching for warranty at https://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?t=17168 alluded to that. The grey area would be (in the past) where Nissan chipped in. Not sure what warranties they got.

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You need to find where it's explicitly stated that; "this new replacement part (battery) has a 5 year capacity (SOH) warranty".
It's highly likely that the replacement battery will have a typical part replacement warranty of just one year, the same as
if you bought a 12V battery from the Nissan dealer. It's possible, though, that the warranty may be prorated for SOH over 5 years,
reducing Nissan's liability somewhat.

^^^
BBrockman at https://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?t=17168 stated "Replacement packs will carry similar warranty coverage as a new LEAF: 8 years/100,000 miles against defects and 5 years/60,000 miles against capacity loss. "

Would be nice if customer paid HV batteries actually do receive such a warranty and that it's in writing.

As for 12 volt batteries from a Nissan dealer, they actually do have a longer than 12 month warranty. It's actually "84 months" but prorated. It's only fully covered (parts and labor) for 24 months. See "REPLACEMENT 12V BATTERY LIMITED WARRANTY" of your warranty booklet. It's that way in my '13 warranty booklet. See page 29 of the PDF at https://owners.nissanusa.com/content/techpub/ManualsAndGuides/LEAF/2013/2013-LEAF-warranty-booklet.pdf.

cwerdna said:

^^^
BBrockman at https://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?t=17168 stated "Replacement packs will carry similar warranty coverage as a new LEAF: 8 years/100,000 miles against defects and 5 years/60,000 miles against capacity loss. "

Would be nice if customer paid HV batteries actually do receive such a warranty and that it's in writing.

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Yes, that's the key point!

1. Where's it stated in a Nissan legal document?
2. That statement was from a Nissan employee (not Nissan legal) about 6 years ago. Who knows what the present policy is?

My paperwork states that the traction battery that I bought in September 2015 has the full warranty coverage. Then again, given my mileage, it is not likely to be used. :lol:

Warranty coverage is predicated on either "defect" and/or "capacity loss".

Nissan has their own perverted definition of what this means. To me, dropping a bar at less than 10,000 miles is clearly a defect, and absolutely a capacity loss. But Nissan carefully crafted their warranty language to require a 4 bar drop in the capacity to trigger warranty coverage. Defects would require a catastrophic failure of the battery pack.

My experience tells me that once you drop a bar, the failure sequence has begun.

Some background about the comments above:

---My tires did not exhibit uneven wear related to alignment. Both tire replacement recommendations came from Nissan during annual service inspections. The first set were by Nissan. There is absolutely no mileage warranty. I did not make this mistake the second time.

-- My Leaf is one of 5 vehicles I own. I'm retired now, but drove a company car while working. This explains the extremely low mileage. I had no choice but to move to a different vehicle, because I bought a car advertised with 109 mile range. My office is 30 freeway miles each way. Needless to say, the Leaf was not able to make that round trip unless I drove 50mph and didn't use the A/C. And didn't go to lunch. Or the dentist. Etc.

-- I think we all agree the batteries are equally, if not more, effected by age versus mileage.

-- This vehicle is pampered. It is garaged full time, stored in a moderate climate here in San Diego county, and charged only when I drop to 3-4 bars. I do, however, always charge to 100%.

I love driving the Leaf. I'm just very disappointed with the battery performance.

It will be interesting to see how long it is until I drop the next bar.

I do, however, always charge to 100%.

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That may be it. I also don't agree that once one bar is lost the loss will accelerate (aside from apparent rapidity because the first bar is "worth" 15% and subsequent ones about 6%). If you can reduce whatever factor is causing the faster degradation, the degradation will slow. If you charge it when the pack is hot, stop doing that. If you don't need 100% charge, charge to roughly 70%. If you do need a full charge, time it to end right before you use the car.

My 2014 replacement batt just lost its first bar 2 months ago.
So that's kind of scary.

Oil pan, when was your battery replaced.

I do remember feeling a sense of loss when that capacity bar went. For us, it was at the 5 year mark, so within my expectations for the car, especially after reading in 2013 (when we bought the car) about 2011 and 2012 Leafs already losing bars.

Any wagers when the first 2018 battery will be reported with a missing bar? My wager is early next year once the car is over 3 years old.

I'm going to go with September of this year, after an extraordinarily Hot Summer. It will be a few outliers in extra-Hot climates.

WetEV said:

LeafPowerIsIxE said:

At 13,000 miles, 2015, I had to replace my original tires (Nissan).

Click to expand...

My original tires lasted over 50,000 miles. Didn't have enough tread to last another winter, so replaced. If was summer, might have let them go longer.

Just how do you wear out tires that fast??


I'm not disappointed in my LEAF.

Click to expand...

"Just how do you wear out tires that fast??"
Answer: By underinflation...I ran the recommended tire pressures for about 1-1/2 years and the tires wore too much of the outer parts of the tire; I increased the pressure to 40 PSI all around and now the tires wear more in the center; the downside is the car rides rougher; the upside is I have 30,000 miles on them and they still look good.
BTW, I may need to replace them anyway because the rubber ages and hardens with time; but, they won't wear out prematurely.