Battery Upgrades are very possible

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Reagle said:
They just posted a third part- basically they just ended up transplanting most of the guts and wiring from 2018 into 2014. Took some work but it ended up being a fully functional 2018 in a 2014 body :)

So that the car knows it has as 40kwh battery and displays as such on the dashboard.

Do you have a quick list of everything they swapped into the 2014 from the 2018?

I'm assuming it's the battery, VCM, BCM, dash unit? How about the motor and inverter/charger unit?
(I can't watch it till tomorrow)
 
They swapped literally everything, including powertrain, rear brakes (due to electronic parking brake), full dashboard, even headlights. though that gave them some hassle- ended up using LED bulbs in existing assemblies.
 
Wow.
I think I will stick with making a confused
24kwh battery that self identifies as a 40kwh battery.
I think that's really cool that they were able to do that but it's just too much man hours for me and most people to pull off.

It is tempting if I could get a new enough wrecked 2018 for cheap. It would have to be wrecked like beaten beyond recognition by a hail storm, not in a bad crash because I would need almost everything between the bumpers.
 
Reagle said:
They swapped literally everything, including powertrain, rear brakes (due to electronic parking brake), full dashboard, even headlights. though that gave them some hassle- ended up using LED bulbs in existing assemblies.

so for the cost of two cars, we can get one with a 40 kwh pack... yeah, nothing wrong with that.
 
I would be looking for a totalled one at an insurance auction.
The cost would be about 20% of what a new non wrecked one would be.
 
DaveinOlyWA said:
so for the cost of two cars, we can get one with a 40 kwh pack... yeah, nothing wrong with that.
That is what I was thinking as well. For the investment of either a mechanically and electrically complete '18 Leaf or a pile of parts costing 3 times the price of an '18 AND a '14 with a good body and interior - you end up with one Leaf which looks like a '14 but mostly drives like an '18. I'm not sure that is a win.
 
The 2018 nissan leaf right now is going for $22,000 to $25,000.
That's about $15,000 more than I ever want to spend on a vehicle.
I buy vehicles outright, I don't do payments.
 
Oilpan4 said:
The 2018 nissan leaf right now is going for $22,000 to $25,000.
That's about $15,000 more than I ever want to spend on a vehicle.
I buy vehicles outright, I don't do payments.

Not even zero interest payments (Which Nissan regularly offers on Leafs)?
 
The only payments I'll do are realestate.

Even then if the payment is zero intrest I will still have get to full coverage insurance which will at least double the cost of my liability only insurance.
I have been driving for 20 years and never had an at fault crash so I don't see the need for full coverage.
Plus me and my wife keep a spare car on hand. That's the best "car insurance" I have ever had.
 
Oilpan4 said:
The only payments I'll do are realestate.

Even then if the payment is zero intrest I will still have get to full coverage insurance which will at least double the cost of my liability only insurance.
I have been driving for 20 years and never had an at fault crash so I don't see the need for full coverage.
Plus me and my wife keep a spare car on hand. That's the best "car insurance" I have ever had.

Don't have to be at fault. If the car is stolen you need full coverage. If the car is broken into, you need full coverage. if the interest rate is less than 8%, take the money. At 0%, it is free money.
 
I don't think any one around here will steal an 8 year old electric car.
Plus I usually park it in my garage.
Making stealing it and breaking in that much more difficult.
Where I work is gated and there are a ton of cameras, don't really have much issue with people stealing anything.

In 20 years I have only had stuff stolen out of my car once and homeowners insurance covered it and at that house I didn't have a garage to put the car in.
 
Oilpan4 said:
The 2018 nissan leaf right now is going for $22,000 to $25,000.
That's about $15,000 more than I ever want to spend on a vehicle.
I buy vehicles outright, I don't do payments.

So your plan is get a wrecked 2018 with battery, BMS, etc etc etc intact for $7-10,000? But then again, you wouldn't know if they were "all" ok since it would appear you need all of it to work. That is quite the gamble.
 
Not for 7,000 to $10,000.
For one I don't need it right now and I can wait till I can find one in the condition I want at the price I like.
 
Oilpan4 said:
I would be looking for a totalled one at an insurance auction.
The cost would be about 20% of what a new non wrecked one would be.
Good advice, you can also use online car auction like this one https://abetter.bid/en/car-finder/type-automobiles/make-nissan/model-leaf and buy totalled leaf even cheaper. I have replaced my battery already and my friend replaced his tesla battery using this way too.
 
My car has 30kWh pack, with 40kWh pack modules. Those modules are from scrapyard, from a vehicle with very low mileage, and perfect SOH. Currently I can drive only 220km with the pack, and it can store approximately 27kWh according to LEAFSpy. This seems to mean, that the 30kWh BMS is limiting the capacity. The pack voltage is 332V around 0% SOC (turtle mode on), and it is 397V when the pack is fully charged. The strange thing is, that the SOH value according to LEAFSpy is 90%, and the Hx is 74%. This means, that the chemistry and the internal resistance is different in case of the 30 and the 40kWh modules.

Do you have any idea, how to get the full capacity of the 40kWh modules? The 40kWh BMS is not compatible with the VCM of the 30kWh car, so it cannot be mounted directly. With this setup, the real SOH (not the calculated one by 30kWh BMS) of the 40kWh should last quite "forever", but it would be nice, to have more range out of the pack.

As I saw, the 40kWh pack with the original BMS should be around 405V with 100% SOC, so there might be the "missing" capacity, but the 30kWh BMS is limiting the voltage around 397Volts, so charging further is not possible.

Any help, to find a solution is appreciated!
 
What happens when you fully charge it? Does it try to equalize the cells longer, or for the usual amount of time, at a lower voltage than they can safely accept? I'm not sure why the BMS isn't just trying for the usual top voltage, and more fully charging the 40kwh modules than it is...
 
bkvszomorito said:
My car has 30kWh pack, with 40kWh pack modules. Those modules are from scrapyard, from a vehicle with very low mileage, and perfect SOH. Currently I can drive only 220km with the pack, and it can store approximately 27kWh according to LEAFSpy. This seems to mean, that the 30kWh BMS is limiting the capacity. The pack voltage is 332V around 0% SOC (turtle mode on), and it is 397V when the pack is fully charged. The strange thing is, that the SOH value according to LEAFSpy is 90%, and the Hx is 74%. This means, that the chemistry and the internal resistance is different in case of the 30 and the 40kWh modules.

Do you have any idea, how to get the full capacity of the 40kWh modules? The 40kWh BMS is not compatible with the VCM of the 30kWh car, so it cannot be mounted directly. With this setup, the real SOH (not the calculated one by 30kWh BMS) of the 40kWh should last quite "forever", but it would be nice, to have more range out of the pack.

As I saw, the 40kWh pack with the original BMS should be around 405V with 100% SOC, so there might be the "missing" capacity, but the 30kWh BMS is limiting the voltage around 397Volts, so charging further is not possible.

Any help, to find a solution is appreciated!

Don't quote me but it seems with others, you simply need a wholesale switch over of the LBC, BMS to make it work. So getting more range will be spendy or you could simply use as is and have a 30 kwh pack that will take years, maybe decades before it starts showing any degradation.

What gets me is your 332 volts to turtle? That is far far far above any previous LEAF pack of any size?

Remember the LBC math error that was forcing the BMS to report false degradation which led it to restrict full usage of the pack? Sounds like you got the same thing going on there.
 
What gets me is your 332 volts to turtle? That is far far far above any previous LEAF pack of any size?

Remember the LBC math error that was forcing the BMS to report false degradation which led it to restrict full usage of the pack? Sounds like you got the same thing going on there.

The BMS upgrade has already been done on the 30kWh pack before the modification. Unfortunately the original 40kWh BMS does not work with the systems of the 30kWh LEAF.

For me, it seems, that the turtle mode is not only depending on the voltage of the pack, but some other factors, as the internal resistance or different calculations.

Yesterday, I measured the charging power, and I have consumed 24.5kWh, to charge from 22% to 100% (according to the 30kWh BMS / displayed percentage) by means of 32A wall box / 6.6kW onboard charger.
 
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