My13, 35K miles, battery "failing". Advice requested

Hey guys,

I have a '13 SL, bought new in April 2013. I've loved the car since I had it, and it was my wife's car for a long time. Perfect for getting about and super reliable.

We live in Los Angeles, so temperate climate, always charged to 100% due to range anxiety. Battery has degraded to about half, which was fine. Wife got a model 3, and I got to drive the leaf to work. It threw a light on the dash a few weeks go about "tpm failure" or some such, which the manual said was a shifter issue. Ok I thought, no worries.

Took it to the dealer and was told a day later that the battery is failing and needs to be replaced and it's almost 9K. Ouch. Car is 6 years old and only has 35K miles on it and it's a write off.

Is this normal?

I called Nissan and they told me to go pound sand. Pretty frustrating honestly. I went from a huge fan of the car and Nissan in general to wondering if I should just set fire to it for a laugh (kidding).

Any advice on how to proceed appreciated. I might end up just springing for the new battery but man, I'll be pissed off about it.

Read the threads on Fenix. Smells like a whole lot of vaporware unfortunately..

Thanks,

Dave

You were unfortunate enough to get one of the last "Canary packs" made. The chemistry was improved in April 2013 builds.

Please post the exact error message and code. If a cell has failed you might get help from Nissan. If it's "just" degradation, well you know the answer on that. My condolences.

^^
Yep.

It is unclear for now what the error code really is about.

thehelix112 said:

I have a '13 SL, bought new in April 2013. I've loved the car since I had it, and it was my wife's car for a long time. Perfect for getting about and super reliable.

We live in Los Angeles, so temperate climate, always charged to 100% due to range anxiety. Battery has degraded to about half, which was fine. Wife got a model 3, and I got to drive the leaf to work. It threw a light on the dash a few weeks go about "tpm failure" or some such, which the manual said was a shifter issue. Ok I thought, no worries.

Took it to the dealer and was told a day later that the battery is failing and needs to be replaced and it's almost 9K. Ouch. Car is 6 years old and only has 35K miles on it and it's a write off.

Is this normal?

I called Nissan and they told me to go pound sand. Pretty frustrating honestly. I went from a huge fan of the car and Nissan in general to wondering if I should just set fire to it for a laugh (kidding).

Click to expand...

If the HV (big battery) is actually failing (not gradual capacity loss), that is covered by the 8 year/100K battery defects warranty.

You said degraded to about half. How many capacity bars remaining? You are past the 5 year/60K capacity warranty though...

thehelix112 said:

Hey guys,

I have a '13 SL, bought new in April 2013. I've loved the car since I had it, and it was my wife's car for a long time. Perfect for getting about and super reliable.

We live in Los Angeles, so temperate climate, always charged to 100% due to range anxiety. Battery has degraded to about half, which was fine. Wife got a model 3, and I got to drive the leaf to work. It threw a light on the dash a few weeks go about "tpm failure" or some such, which the manual said was a shifter issue. Ok I thought, no worries.

Took it to the dealer and was told a day later that the battery is failing and needs to be replaced and it's almost 9K. Ouch. Car is 6 years old and only has 35K miles on it and it's a write off.

Is this normal?

I called Nissan and they told me to go pound sand. Pretty frustrating honestly. I went from a huge fan of the car and Nissan in general to wondering if I should just set fire to it for a laugh (kidding).

Any advice on how to proceed appreciated. I might end up just springing for the new battery but man, I'll be pissed off about it.

Read the threads on Fenix. Smells like a whole lot of vaporware unfortunately..

Thanks,

Dave

Click to expand...

As the previous poster said, you have two warranties on the main battery:
1) Capacity - 60k mi/5yr - This triggers when your car hits 8 capacity bars, and is expired.
2) Defects and failures - 60k mi/8yr - This covers you against any failures of the battery from defects or manufacturing.

If you are having issues with the range of the battery, then yes, it's a $8k-$9k replacement cost. As others have said, you got the poor battery chemistry used in the 2011/2012 years.

If your car is throwing codes or otherwise not operating correctly and the dealer says that the problem is a battery failure, you're covered by the second warranty. You may need to educate your dealership on your warranty, but Nissan can't legally tell you to pound sand if the battery is failing to operate the car properly.

Given you said the failure is actually related to codes and the operation of the vehicle, I would personally be having some nice but firm discussions with the dealership about when my new free battery will be getting installed under warranty. This, of course, assumes that the dealer diagnosed the codes properly and they are related to the battery. Do you have the actual codes from LeafSpy?

A TPMS code means that you have a problem with your Tire Pressure Monitoring System... If you have this problem, it means that the battery on one of the tire pressure monitors has died. Then you would need to have another one installed, which is not a big expense...

I don't understand that with this error code, you think you need a whole new big battery??

if you are getting a T/M Malfunction on the dash then that is more of a sign of the 12v battery dying.

Before you spend any more money on this, make sure your 12v battery is new, then reset any error codes with the LeafSpy app and an OBD2 dongle. 99% of problems the Leafs have go away with this trick.

your battery is worn but as others said if there are actual cell failures those are still covered by your extended warranty, leafspy will inform you of that also.

Marko

Thank you guys! I didnt realize the battery comes with the 8 year warranty. Went and looked it up. I'm now just furious that neither the dealer nor Nissan North America pointed that out to me. So scummy.

The car is at the dealer, got towed there straight from my work so I don't have any codes, just going by what the service associate relayed to me.

Powersurge you're quite right, the error is "t/m system malfunction. Visit dealer".

I am going to push for a new battery based on the 8 year warranty. Will report back here with more info when done.

Thank you all for the quick response!

Dave

Keep in mind that this is likely the 12 volt battery, not the 24kwh 400+ volt battery.

Lothsahn said:

As the previous poster said, you have two warranties on the main battery:
1) Capacity - 60k mi/5yr - This triggers when your car hits 8 capacity bars, and is expired.
2) Defects and failures - 60k mi/8yr - This covers you against any failures of the battery from defects or manufacturing.

If you are having issues with the range of the battery, then yes, it's a $8k-$9k replacement cost. As others have said, you got the poor battery chemistry used in the 2011/2012 years.

If your car is throwing codes or otherwise not operating correctly and the dealer says that the problem is a battery failure, you're covered by the second warranty. You may need to educate your dealership on your warranty, but Nissan can't legally tell you to pound sand if the battery is failing to operate the car properly.

Given you said the failure is actually related to codes and the operation of the vehicle, I would personally be having some nice but firm discussions with the dealership about when my new free battery will be getting installed under warranty. This, of course, assumes that the dealer diagnosed the codes properly and they are related to the battery. Do you have the actual codes from LeafSpy?

Click to expand...

Regarding number 2, No, it is 8 years/100K miles, for (big HV) battery defects. See page 2 of https://owners.nissanusa.com/content/techpub/ManualsAndGuides/LEAF/2013/2013-LEAF-warranty-booklet.pdf.

Agree with everything else.

LeftieBiker said:

Keep in mind that this is likely the 12 volt battery, not the 24kwh 400+ volt battery.

Click to expand...

Yep. And, if it's that, that's only maybe $150 to $300 for the dealer to replace. Weird stuff happens besides the car not reliably going into READY mode (green car w/arrows) when the 12 volt is failing. If it can be jump started and the 12 volt measured low voltage after resting 8+ hours or overnight, then the 12 volt is bad.

The 12 volt on my 5/2013 built '13 Leaf bit the dust in Oct 2015. Was replaced my dealer for free under warranty. If the car is on its original 12 volt, it's about the right time for it to fail.

Makes sense, but if that was the case they I hope wouldn't have quoted me 9K to fix it...

Dave

Failing accessory batteries, and the phantom major problems they can produce error codes for, are something that we at this forum know more about than most Nissan dealers. Dealership techs are trained to replace the parts indicated as being failing by error codes until the codes are gone. It doesn't matter if the parts are very expensive, or should be producing failure symptoms along with the error code(s) but aren't... I was once quoted $3k for a new transmission on a used Volvo 240, when all it needed was one new solenoid. That repair cost $150 at an independent garage.

As others have already said, a dying 12-volt battery could cause that error code and many others. I had that error message (T/M System Malfunction) about the shift control module pop up intermittently on the 2011 due to a little auxiliary relay periodically sticking in the ON position. I could never get it to the dealer with the relay stuck in the ON position so they would not do anything under warranty. I finally bought a replacement relay to avoid the possibility of having it stick and discharge the 12-volt battery (by keeping the shift control module energized) during long-term parking.