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BBA

New member
Joined
Oct 6, 2021
Messages
4
As a (kinda newish) leaf owner I thought I'd pop my head around the door to say hello.
My 2014 Acenta (second hand with 100% SOH) has been a joy to drive and I'm loving the savings in fuel as well as zero road tax.
Even though I don't like the shape of the car and I'm not that keen on the colour, it's the best car I've ever bought!
 
BBA said:
2014 Acenta (second hand with 100% SOH)
I would be highly concerned that any 2014 year old LEAF that is showing 100% SOH has had the BMS reset to hide the actual degradation. I can believe that a 2014 might still show all 12 battery bars, but that it definitely wouldn't be at 100% SOH (the first bar drops at 85%).
 
I know what you're saying however the car was 20,000 miles lower than the national average for a car of that age. It's not even at the 30,000 miles mark yet. It's close but still not there yet. I'm expecting it to drop soon (in the next 6 months or so).
 
When you say "100% SOH", do you mean the reading you see with LeafSpyPro? If so, a 2014 with 30,000 miles will absolutely not have 100% SOH; that reading would only mean the BMS was reset. Hopefully when the BMS learns the actual battery capacity (it takes a few weeks of driving), you don't lose 2 or 3 bars.

Did you mean something else when you said "100% SOH"?
 
I should have said that the car still has a full 12 bars and a recent diagnostic test by a Nissan main dealer showed that the battery was still in perfect condition.
 
The annual battery check by Nissan gives them some (proprietary) information, but for the driver it's not worth much. You have a battery with more than 84% of its original capacity remaining. Anything else would require that you get LeafSpy Pro and a suitable dongle like the one in my signature.
 
That feeling when someone new posts about their 100% SOH Leaf and you just know, deep down in your heart, they don't yet know the truth. :?
 
BBA said:
I should have said that the car still has a full 12 bars and a recent diagnostic test by a Nissan main dealer showed that the battery was still in perfect condition.

OK, whew. You just meant 12 bars. SOH is a specific reading that LeafSpyPro can display; you really want to get that to know the state of your battery. Your car's SOH is above 85% at the moment (12 bars). IIRC, Nissan's diagnostic test really does not guarantee anything about the battery w.r.t. degradation (I think it will only catch bad cells).

FWIW, it could still be that your car's BMS was reset, and it only shows 12 bars currently, until the car is driven enough for the BMS to relearn the state of the battery. That said, it's quite possible a 2014 really still has 12 bars.
 
I realize that a BMS reset is a possibility for any LEAF, but have we actually had a confirmed case on MNL of someone buying a used LEAF and getting burned because the SOH of the pack was far lower than what LS reported when it was first purchased?

Everything that I've read suggests that a Nisan Consult laptop and software is needed to accomplish the BMS reset. AFAIK, only Nissan dealerships have access to those, although I'm sure some kind of black market exists.

Has anyone actually heard/seen of a confirmed BMS reset on a LEAF that was performed by a nefarious private seller or non-Nissan dealer?
 
If by "confirmed" you mean the description by the poster indicates a reset, then yes, we have seen cases of BMS resets here. Any time that more than one bar is lost after purchase, and in the same 6-12 months, that's a reset. But no, I don't have these referenced. I imagine that most of them happen at car auctions, where shadier wholesalers acquire a Consult, or just have access to one. I also seem to recall it being possible to just interrupt the power to a BMS from a pack, to accomplish the same thing, but I'm not certain of that.
 
If by "confirmed" then yes, we have seen cases of BMS resets here

Good to know, I couldn't recall any. They are definitely rare, which is a relief to anyone contemplating buying a used LEAF. Personally, I would never buy a used LEAF without doing a range test and if the seller had a problem with that I'm walk away. Definitely not worth the risk...
 
Somehow, half of my first sentence in that post got 'et. It now makes sense:

"If by "confirmed" you mean the description by the poster indicates a reset, then yes, we have seen cases of BMS resets here."
 
FWIW I've owned the car since December last year and it's behaved (almost) flawlessly. I have looked into buying LeafSpy Pro but I've held off for two reasons. The first being it looks way too techie for me and secondly it doesn't rank more than a couple of stars on the play store.
 
BBA said:
FWIW I've owned the car since December last year and it's behaved (almost) flawlessly. I have looked into buying LeafSpy Pro but I've held off for two reasons. The first being it looks way too techie for me and secondly it doesn't rank more than a couple of stars on the play store.

If there are no issues with range or with sudden loss of estimated range (beyond what's normal for the "Guess O Meter") then you have no real need for LeafSpy. The app is definitely worthwhile for most people, though.
 
The first being it looks way too techie for me

The thing I like best about LeafSpy is that it shows the ACTUAL amount of energy left in the battery as opposed to Nissan's (safer but less useful) dashboard amount. We can often get home with the warnings flashing on the dashboard because we know that there is power left in the battery to do so. The difference is something like 10% which in our case is around 15 to 20 miles.... and the alternative is to find a DC charger within 20 miles of home which feels foolish. If you end up using LeafSpy just start with the Summary page, and ignore most of the stuff on that page, that way it is not too techie.
 
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