Question about a LEAF For Sale

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babbles

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 29, 2017
Messages
61
A Dealership is advertising a 2011 Leaf for $3900, has 126k miles, he showed me the carfax which indicated a rear end collision back 2012 or so
not much of a Service history since 2012 , has been owned in OR and washington state where I am, drove pretty good but the range is down to about 45miles maybe, 6 bars showing, my overall commute would be about 20 miles per day, mainly flat, one slight incline, we are mid 40's now weather wise

is there a power button for the radio?
how long will 6 bars last on this battery??

Navigation was showing these codes:

ET: QY7200NC NAV-1 127
I0: 00005701 NAV-2

Also says: insert a valid Map SD Card

shouldn't this guy have this? if not anyone have an idea of how much another card will cost??
if the radio will not power up, would these codes have any bearing??

tires needed replacing as well
my offer was $2900, he said $3500 so far

Also there was a red and an orange triangle light on and a low tire light, need to research and see what those are

thanks for any advice suggestions!! :)
 
Average Joe should NEVER buy an EV with trouble codes unresolved. Full stop.

As for the range, it is not enough unless you are sure you will NEVER use A/C for heating or cooling, don't mind pushing the car battery to empty on a routine basis, and expect to keep the car in a fridge when not in use to mitigate further battery degradation. The range conclusion changes if you have charging at work or en-route.

My 2013 ("24 kWh") LEAF has about 60 miles of everyday driving range, so it works very well as a city runabout. But even so, I occasionally run down the battery. It has happened from multiple errands, and from forgetting to charge. It has not been a problem because we have L2 charging scattered about the city, and I have the time to stop and charge if need be. You really need to build in some slack in at least one way (but preferably more), or your EV experience will be painful.
 
thanks for info, so the red triangle sounds like it is equivalent to an "engine light" can the code be read with a OBD 2 reader??
 
thanks much! would it be worth a $1000 purchase is what I would final offer but mostly like pass
 
babbles said:
thanks much! would it be worth a $1000 purchase is what I would final offer but mostly like pass

I can only answer that buying it for $1k would be worth it IF the malfunction is minor and easily fixed, and that you can get a new SD card programmed and installed for no more than $300. Also, IF you really need only half the range the car currently has, because those early "Canary" packs are bad news in anything but Cold climates. Consider that the car may well be up for sale because the people who looked at it last were unable to solve its problems. This seems to me like a "trap car" that becomes a nightmare after being purchased cheaply.
 
Isn't that SD card for navigation ?

Just how many unfamiliar locations is this LEAF going to ?
 
My 2011 was making my 52-mile round trip (26 each way with 20 of those on the highway) on a charge with A/C use when the battery was down to 8 capacity bars. The battery was deeply discharged each trip and there was almost no reserve by the time Nissan replaced the battery under warranty. It would not have made the trip with heater use. With 6 capacity bars, the range without heater use would realistically be not more than 35 or 40 miles in moderate temperatures at moderate speeds (less when colder). The A/C is very efficient so it does not have much impact on range.

The missing SD card is a concern because many of the functions of the display, navigation, entertainment unit will be disabled. Back when the cars were newer, there were reports of about $300 for special order replacement of missing SD cards. The card must be matched to the car--one from another car will not work.

If you can find out the diagnostic trouble codes and post them, we may be able to offer some insight into the severity of the red triangle.
 
I posted the codes up above in my first post if that's what your talking about?? so six bars will be good for a few months?? a few weeks??
 
babbles said:
I posted the codes up above in my first post if that's what your talking about?? so six bars will be good for a few months?? a few weeks??

Oh, longer than six weeks! If it's in a Hot climate, then six months would likely mean another bar drop if the car was left sitting fully charged, or the battery was quick-charged while hot regularly. I'm saying that it isn't a good idea to buy a six bar Leaf that will continue to lose at least a bar a year.
 
The only trouble codes posted are for the SD card being missing. I think that we were assuming more codes than were present then. Sorry about that. That leaves you with a 6 bar Leaf with a battery that is known to degrade too fast, and with a HVAC system that sucks power. The only 'cure' for the latter, if you can call it that, is the installation of a "Heater On/Off" switch.
 
babbles said:
I posted the codes up above in my first post if that's what your talking about?? so six bars will be good for a few months?? a few weeks??

As LeftieBiker noted, those two DTC's are related to the navigation system. They can likely be cleared after an appropriate SD card is installed so that the system can communicate correctly with the rest of the car. I should have noted that my description of the range on my 2011 and my estimates of range for the car you are considering are based upon the cells being well balanced and just general deterioration of all cells. My 2015 had a few weak cells so its range was actually lower when the capacity bars dropped to 8 than the range of my 2011.

The deterioration rate for the original battery in my 2011 in my hot climate was as follows:
1. First bar was lost after about 1 year with second bar very soon after.
2. Third bar was lost after about 2 years total with fourth bar very soon after.
3. I drove it from June to October of 2013 with 8 capacity bars.
4. The battery was replaced in October 2013 and it still had 11 capacity bars when the crash happened in January 2015.

The second and fourth bars dropped within two weeks or a month of the first and third bars. The replacement battery lost the first bar after about a year and stayed at 11 bars for at least 3 months.
 
If you need to buy a replacement SD car for the NAV, it costs several hundred dollars. It is keyed to the specific car, so you can't use just any SD card or clone an existing one.
 
I will never understand why people/dealers remove the SD cards from (old) Leafs? What are they worth--like $10?! Did they need a spare card for their digital camera? I just don't get it.
 
sorry question was answered! :)
JUST COST ME $441 @NISSAN, TOOK OVER AN HOUR TO ORDER, AND 3-4 WEEKS SHIPPING!!
 
There is just one app. It used to be named Carwings, then it was redone and it's now EV & Services. I don't think I've heard of a Gen 1.0 Leaf getting a newer modem transplanted in, other than the 3G unit - and definitely not a 4G modem...
 
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