Hi guys I am new to the leaf forum. I have been part of Bmw, Honda, Mercedes forums but electric forum is all new to me.
I recently purchased a 2011 leaf, first ev automobile ever owned so far I love it, just don't like the range.
I purchased my leaf with 9 bars, had no idea about battery life, warranty etc until I did some research, when finished reading blogs online and battery issues I was about to put the car up for sale when I just purchased it.
But as I thought about it even though my range is not as good as a new leaf and I'm saving money on gas may as well keep it and drive it.
As time went on I realized I am not that far out for receiving a battery replacement well from what the forum a/hr ranges to drop the 9th bar.
Purchased the car with 42,000 miles and finally the 9th bar dropped with almost 48,000 miles. My 9th dropped at:
A/hr was 43.42
Hx: 45.12%
Soc: 64%
Gids: 179
I tried whatever to bring the 9th bar down, I tried the qc at first but realized I was just wasting money. I bought a turbo cord from Amazon which is a level 2 charger and worked fine to bring it down I'm assuming.
I always made a point to run this car on the freeway at 80-85mph a few exits to really drain and warm up the battery. I always pushed the accelerator hard just like the rest of the forum said In the forum "like u stole it. " The front tires were pretty much new when I bought the car I put on almost 6k miles and the tires on the front are almost bald, shows you how hard I pushed it everywhere I went. I made a point to align the car when I first purchased it so I know the alignment was not out of whack to wear out the tires. The leaf has so much torque u can just hear the rubber ripping off the tire as u stomp on the accelerator pedal. Another annoying thing I would do was push on and off repeatedly on the gas pedal prob up to 8 times during the driving session.
Couple drives involving the qc was leave your house fully charged drive the car to about half full of range then Find a qc station and charge it up to 100% take it off when it's fully charged drive 2 minutes and go back to the same qc machine and charge it up again. This will bring the temperature up pretty fast. Do some more driving but the time you get home throw the car on level 2 charger at home and slowly heat up the battery at home some more. I noticed I come out the next morning the battery temp was still high. It takes some time for the battery to really cool down to bring it down back to 5 bars, when warm I only got up to 6 bars highest for me but it would stay there a while. I think that's when the battery life depletes the most, sitting at the high temp and time. every couple of days I would check leaf spy and noticed it was dropping pretty quick, it would drop anywhere from .2 to .8 in a matter of a couple of days.
Long story short my 9th bar just dropped 2 days ago and I'm bringing it to the dealer on Monday to confirm it really did. I was curious from other cars going in for replacement batteries did they ever deny batteries even if it dropped the 9th? Worried I bring it in Monday and they say no I'm sorry we can't honor the warranty.
Please let me know how the appt is gonna go, when I was on the phone with him he said it'll take two seconds I just drive it back their show the tech and come back out. Is it that quick to verify? Do they scan anything or just look at the 9th bar missing?
Thanks guys hope my experience can help anyone else with their battery replacement. Any questions with anything feel free to message me.
Thanks!!