Would you keep this car?

I purchased my 2017 SL as a used vehicle in 2018. It had full bars and only 8k miles. As of my most recent LeafSpy check, I was now at 23,359 miles but have lost 2 bars. The SOH is 69.93%. I’m very disappointed to have this kind of issue, and am very close to just throwing in the towel on this LEAF.

How long should I hang onto this car? Has anyone tried to trade in a car with a degraded battery? Would it be best to try to get a dealer to buy it?

The lack of battery cooling and battery issues have me a little hesitant to get another LEAF at this point. But I also have some FOMO for a car with lane assist and one pedal driving.

Read from about page 180 on in this topic. Your situation has a substantial up side...

https://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=23606&p=594345#p594345

Thanks Leftie - I did see that thread. My concern is that now that I’m not driving much (thanks to the pandemic), the rate of my battery degradation might not be quick enough for it to lose the 4th bar before the warranty runs out? Maybe I’m being hasty.

If you have lost two bars already, with a 100k mile, 8 year warranty, it's a fairly safe bet that you will lose enough bars (even after the update resets them) to get a new battery. The question becomes "Do I really want this hassle?"

The big question is: has your car had the firmware update, so that you know that this isn't "glitch" degradation. Your numbers seem like excessive degradation (where do you and the car live?), for the age and mileage of the car (unless you drive like a crazy person).

Driver8 said:

The big question is: has your car had the firmware update, so that you know that this isn't "glitch" degradation. Your numbers seem like excessive degradation (where do you and the car live?), for the age and mileage of the car (unless you drive like a crazy person).

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I live in Minnesota. I purchased the car in 8/2018 as a certified vehicle from a Nissan dealer. I can’t say for certain that it has the firmware update. I assume it does have it since I bought it after the firmware was released.

I don't know if the BMS software update will show up in the recall report for your VIN, but it's worth checking:

https://www.nissanusa.com/recalls-vin/#/#/Home

alozzy said:

I don't know if the BMS software update will show up in the recall report for your VIN, but it's worth checking:

https://www.nissanusa.com/recalls-vin/#/#/Home

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Well this is awkward. I put by VIN into that page, and it says that is not a Nissan VIN.

Bigbluejoe said:

alozzy said:

I don't know if the BMS software update will show up in the recall report for your VIN, but it's worth checking:

https://www.nissanusa.com/recalls-vin/#/#/Home

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Well this is awkward. I put by VIN into that page, and it says that is not a Nissan VIN.

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Well clearly you don't own a LEAF, what are you doing hanging around on a LEAF forum :lol:

I think LeafSpy (or maybe LeafSpyPro) can display the software revision and this will tell you whether the car has the updated BMS firmware.

I can't remember the details but if you search you should be able to find it. And if you don't have LeafSpy, I would strongly recommend it as it will be extremely useful in helping you make the decision to keep the car or not.

goldbrick said:

I think LeafSpy (or maybe LeafSpyPro) can display the software revision and this will tell you whether the car has the updated BMS firmware.

I can't remember the details but if you search you should be able to find it. And if you don't have LeafSpy, I would strongly recommend it as it will be extremely useful in helping you make the decision to keep the car or not.

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That was super helpful. I went to this video to figure out how to find the information: https://youtu.be/H-Eq93RniJ8.
Then I was able to find that my battery is running “4NP4A” which means it has not been updated. At least, according to the recall information on the NHTSA website. https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2018/MC-10143483-9999.pdf

I’m going to make an appointment with the services department at my local dealer. And hopefully this will change things for the better.

Keep in mind that it will likely take a few weeks after the update is done before the true state of the battery (SoH and Hx) is reported by LEAFSpy