Hello from Emma

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EmmaK1

Member
Joined
Oct 30, 2022
Messages
14
Hello,

I live in the NW UK and have owned a Japan built 2011 ZEO for 5 years and have run a 11kW Muxsan battery extender for 2 years. The car has covered 68,000miles and just dropped to 9 bars on the battery indicator. I purchased my Leaf as soon as I could afford to having been a believer in electric cars since driving a 1935 Wilson back in 1980.

I have spent a lot of time on this forum, thank you chaps, both before purchasing the car and deciding to go for the Muxsan battery extender. Further to my research here I shall replace the reduction gear oil with Redline D6 ATF and plan to fit a 40kWh battery next summer. However like many owners I have been having problems with the car killing the 12v battery in short time.

I am now on the 5th battery in 5 years, the last one lasted 20 months with monthly conditioning charges using a pulse charger. The current 12v battery was not new and has completely discharged after standing for 48 hours :shock: The car is my daily driver and I need it to be reliable. I now intend to disconnect Carwings and install an Optima spiralwound gel battery. I am not an electronics enthusiast and am not interested in upgrading to OVMS... I just want a reliable car. (I do have Leafspy on my mobile and use the timer heater in the winter... Partly because I work part time... Partly to keep the cabin dry in an area where we have a warm wet climate and 100 inches of rain p.a.)

After much reading on this forum, I am saying "Hi" here but have asked a detailed question in "Range/Efficiency/Carwings".

Thank you all for the knowledge I have gained here.

Emma
 
Welcome. Two suggestions:

* Rather than a gel battery, I strongly suggest a quality AGM battery. It should both last longer and require less frequent external charging.

* Install an SAE type pigtail on the battery, and run it though the charge port compartment so that you can easily connect a battery maintainer (I suggest a two amp unit) when you plug in to charge, or any other time.

Until you get that vampire drain eliminated, triggering the windshield wipers for a swipe or two every few minutes should help to protect the 12 volt battery, as it activates a roughly one minute boost in 12 volt system voltage, to about 14.2 volts.
 
The Optima (spiral wound cells) is a true AGM and definitely not a gel cell type battery. I have been using a group size D51R yellow top (deep cycle) Optima battery (spiral wound cells) in each of my LEAFs. There is a lot of confusion between gel cell and AGM (absorbed glass mat) batteries. Gel cell batteries have conventional plate and spacer construction with electrolyte that is a gel instead of liquid. AGM batteries have fiberglass material in the space between the plates with liquid electrolyte that is absorbed into the fiberglass. Gel cell batteries tend to have higher internal resistance, require longer charging time, and need higher charging voltage than conventional flooded cell batteries. AGM batteries tend to have lower internal resistance and will charge faster (at the same charging voltage) than conventional flooded cell batteries. These differences make AGM a better choice and gel a worse choice than flooded cell batteries for normal vehicle use.
 
Thank you for the info guys.

Today I disconnected the TCU and fitted an Optima Yellow Top YTS 2.7 R Battery. I put a detailed write up on this thread:- https://mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?t=33691

Best regards, Emma
 
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