ALeafHaver
New member
- Joined
- Jul 18, 2019
- Messages
- 2
Hi everyone (first post here, and a cross-post from the /leaf subreddit, so apologies if you're seeing it twice),
I have a 2011 Leaf that I purchased last year (I initially at least liked it so much overall that I bought a second one). It's approaching the 8-year in-service date, which as I understand it includes a warranty that covers battery defects and/or bad cells, as well as the on-board charging machinery in the car.
The battery has lost a good amount of its charge (down to 5 bars of the original 12), and I know that capacity loss on its own is covered by a different warranty. However, I am thinking something might possibly be wrong with the battery and/or the on-board charging system beyond normal degradation - at various points in the last few months, there's been the car icon on the dashboard with an exclamation mark, and for a short time there was a "see dealer"-type notification on the dash as well. Although I think neither of these lights are regularly showing up now, which I figure might make any problem harder to diagnose.
Additionally, the battery's driving range itself has gone down substantially in just the year that I've had the car, and CHAdeMO charging appears to be substantially slower than with the other 2011 Leaf I have (which I understand to have had a battery replacement under warranty before I purchased the car due to capacity loss), despite having what I would presume to be fewer cells to charge overall. Haven't directly compared J-1772 charging rates, but at least the dashboard "amount of charging time to 100%" suggest that this Leaf (with the original battery) gets to 100% much quicker on Level 2 than the other.
I certainly want to get this Leaf's battery inspected before this warranty passes, and hadn't given a ton of thought to where I got the inspection done, but it's occurred to me that some dealerships might be either less than fully knowledgeable about the Leaf battery, and/or resistant to diagnose anything wrong that might possibly necessitate a battery replacement. I'm not looking to have the battery replacement if the apparent deterioration is due to things truly not covered by the warranty, but I also don't want to potentially be jerked around by a service center that either doesn't know much more than I do about battery problems, and/or one is likely to go out of its way to avoid any kind of diagnosis that might mean a battery replacement or some other substantial repair covered under warranty.
I'm in Tennessee; has anyone had particularly good experiences with any dealership's service center that they feel has treated them fairly and has been particularly knowledgeable? And has anyone had experiences with battery issues other than capacity loss that were determined to either be covered or not be covered by the 8 year/100000 mile warranty on a 2011/2012 Leaf?
Thank you for any insight fellow Leaf-havers or former Leaf-havers might be able to offer.
I have a 2011 Leaf that I purchased last year (I initially at least liked it so much overall that I bought a second one). It's approaching the 8-year in-service date, which as I understand it includes a warranty that covers battery defects and/or bad cells, as well as the on-board charging machinery in the car.
The battery has lost a good amount of its charge (down to 5 bars of the original 12), and I know that capacity loss on its own is covered by a different warranty. However, I am thinking something might possibly be wrong with the battery and/or the on-board charging system beyond normal degradation - at various points in the last few months, there's been the car icon on the dashboard with an exclamation mark, and for a short time there was a "see dealer"-type notification on the dash as well. Although I think neither of these lights are regularly showing up now, which I figure might make any problem harder to diagnose.
Additionally, the battery's driving range itself has gone down substantially in just the year that I've had the car, and CHAdeMO charging appears to be substantially slower than with the other 2011 Leaf I have (which I understand to have had a battery replacement under warranty before I purchased the car due to capacity loss), despite having what I would presume to be fewer cells to charge overall. Haven't directly compared J-1772 charging rates, but at least the dashboard "amount of charging time to 100%" suggest that this Leaf (with the original battery) gets to 100% much quicker on Level 2 than the other.
I certainly want to get this Leaf's battery inspected before this warranty passes, and hadn't given a ton of thought to where I got the inspection done, but it's occurred to me that some dealerships might be either less than fully knowledgeable about the Leaf battery, and/or resistant to diagnose anything wrong that might possibly necessitate a battery replacement. I'm not looking to have the battery replacement if the apparent deterioration is due to things truly not covered by the warranty, but I also don't want to potentially be jerked around by a service center that either doesn't know much more than I do about battery problems, and/or one is likely to go out of its way to avoid any kind of diagnosis that might mean a battery replacement or some other substantial repair covered under warranty.
I'm in Tennessee; has anyone had particularly good experiences with any dealership's service center that they feel has treated them fairly and has been particularly knowledgeable? And has anyone had experiences with battery issues other than capacity loss that were determined to either be covered or not be covered by the 8 year/100000 mile warranty on a 2011/2012 Leaf?
Thank you for any insight fellow Leaf-havers or former Leaf-havers might be able to offer.