2019 Battery Replacement at 12k

[LeafyMaple]

Hello!
We bought a 2019 Leaf SV (Cert. Pre-Owned) back in late September: 11,500 miles. The SOC functioned normally above 74%. Below that it was wildly erratic. It took me 2 months to get the (Fort Wayne, Indiana) dealership to acknowledge the problem and pursue a repair. I got Nissan Consumer Affairs involved. It has been a huge hassle.
Last week they finally diagnosed it and ordered a new battery. It arrived yesterday and today they've begun installation.

My query for you all: After hassling with this car for months in an unacceptable condition, I'm leery of taking the car back because I don't know if I can trust the repair. I had pursued a buy-back option, but consumer affairs is stringing us along until the repair is performed. What questions should I be asking them before I take the car back? What would give you confidence?
I'd especially like to hear from anyone who has had battery replacement experiences. Thanks in advance!

 

[Oostenrijker]

I think, you should just take it back and then sell it and advertise it just has gotten a new battery. Although personally, I would keep it. Despite all the stress you had to go through.

 

[akylore]

I had also owned a 2019 SV Leaf and had similar problems in the past (it was only charging on specific Chargepoint chargers, but not on Flo-branded chargers.) I had to upload YouTube videos of the two scenarios for my local Nissan dealership to finally believe and understand what I was reporting. In my case, they determined it was a problem with the Power Distribution Unit. Once that was replaced under warranty, the rest worked fine. I ended up trading it in a few months back for a 2023 SV Plus (more mileage and they gave a good trade-in value) but it had still worked ever since, it was a good car. Your post makes me believe that there must had been factory problems with the 2019 SV line, but honestly, once fixed, it can actually sort of a good thing, because like Oostenrijker posted, you technically now have a new battery. You may be able to trade it in for an upgrade down the line.

 

[Oostenrijker]

@akylore I really hate it, dealerships not taking customers seriously. Despite we provide them with so much information already....

 

[akylore]

@akylore I really hate it, dealerships not taking customers seriously. Despite we provide them with so much information already....

Truth!!!

 

[TronJockey]

Hello!
We bought a 2019 Leaf SV (Cert. Pre-Owned) back in late September: 11,500 miles. The SOC functioned normally above 74%. Below that it was wildly erratic. It took me 2 months to get the (Fort Wayne, Indiana) dealership to acknowledge the problem and pursue a repair. I got Nissan Consumer Affairs involved. It has been a huge hassle.
Last week they finally diagnosed it and ordered a new battery. It arrived yesterday and today they've begun installation.

My query for you all: After hassling with this car for months in an unacceptable condition, I'm leery of taking the car back because I don't know if I can trust the repair. I had pursued a buy-back option, but consumer affairs is stringing us along until the repair is performed. What questions should I be asking them before I take the car back? What would give you confidence?
I'd especially like to hear from anyone who has had battery replacement experiences. Thanks in advance!

Had the exact same issue with my new 2019 SV Plus. One of the 96 battery modules was bad. I had to use LeafSpy to determine the problem. Above 50% SOC the car exhibited no issues. Below 50% the car acted as if it only had the 40kWh battery. It would go only 140 miles before showing near zero SOC. It would act normally until the SOC gage on the dash indicated below 45% at which point it would suddenly start acting erratic for a mile or two before stabilizing at around 25%. I was somehow losing 20% within a few minutes. I got tired of trying to convince the dealer there was an issue (they claimed they could not reproduce this). So I drove this down to zero% SOC then continued on. It continued to drive well with full power. I expected it would enter some sort of turtle mode but it did not. I continued to drive it until it reached 175 miles where it finally went into turtle mode. I limped back home and charged it with my Level 2 charger back to 100% but it would not leave turtle mode. LeafSpy revealed that battery module number 40 had finally given up the ghost completely. This was good because the dealer's analyzer was finally able to see that the battery module was totally unresponsive. The other 95 battery modules had never gone below 10% so were not damaged by driving the car below an indicated 0% SOC. That was over 3 years ago and I got the battery module replaced with a new module. The car's drive train has performed flawlessly now for more than 40k miles.

 

[dwl]

…snip… I got tired of trying to convince the dealer there was an issue (they claimed they could not reproduce this). …snip…

You did well to invoke a more serious issue that became more obvious to the dealer. These cell faults may only be revealed under load conditions and dealers seem poorly placed relying on scan tools on the workshop floor. If they won’t accept LeafSpy logs, a video of the dash showing the SoC reading jumping around a lot should be enough but doesn’t seem to fit Nissan’s standard scripts.

 

[Stanton]

The 40 kWh packs (and even some 62 kWh packs) are notorious for having "bad" cells/modules (mine did). Unfortunately, it doesn't typically show up for several thousand miles. All you can do with a new pack is monitor the cell voltage delta with LeafSpy, and (hope) Nissan will address any problems under warranty. The cold hard truth: "weak" cells never get better, but if you make it past ~10k miles without any issues, you are probably in the clear.

 

[LeafyMaple]

Had the exact same issue with my new 2019 SV Plus. One of the 96 battery modules was bad. I had to use LeafSpy to determine the problem. Above 50% SOC the car exhibited no issues. Below 50% the car acted as if it only had the 40kWh battery. It would go only 140 miles before showing near zero SOC. It would act normally until the SOC gage on the dash indicated below 45% at which point it would suddenly start acting erratic for a mile or two before stabilizing at around 25%. I was somehow losing 20% within a few minutes. I got tired of trying to convince the dealer there was an issue (they claimed they could not reproduce this). So I drove this down to zero% SOC then continued on. It continued to drive well with full power. I expected it would enter some sort of turtle mode but it did not. I continued to drive it until it reached 175 miles where it finally went into turtle mode. I limped back home and charged it with my Level 2 charger back to 100% but it would not leave turtle mode. LeafSpy revealed that battery module number 40 had finally given up the ghost completely. This was good because the dealer's analyzer was finally able to see that the battery module was totally unresponsive. The other 95 battery modules had never gone below 10% so were not damaged by driving the car below an indicated 0% SOC. That was over 3 years ago and I got the battery module replaced with a new module. The car's drive train has performed flawlessly now for more than 40k miles.

Thanks for posting, TronJockey. Where are you located and what kind of driving is yielding 175+ miles? We are still struggling to get over 100 miles per charge. Flat terrain here in northern Indiana. I know our typical temperatures 20s/30s F play a role in this. And My commute (28 miles to work) is roughly half city driving and half interstate.

 

[Dooglas]

Where are you located and what kind of driving is yielding 175+ miles? We are still struggling to get over 100 miles per charge. Flat terrain here in northern Indiana.

I believe you are comparing your 40 kwh LEAf with TronJockey's 62 kwh LEAF Plus. Both are yielding less than I would expect but the results in the two cases are bound to be different. (That is one reason why it would be useful if all members indentified the year and model of their LEAF in the signature area which appears below their posts.)

 

[TronJockey]

Thanks for posting, TronJockey. Where are you located and what kind of driving is yielding 175+ miles? We are still struggling to get over 100 miles per charge. Flat terrain here in northern Indiana. I know our typical temperatures 20s/30s F play a role in this. And My commute (28 miles to work) is roughly half city driving and half interstate.

The 175 mile figure was with the bad cell (#40 battery module was failing). Being a brand-new Leaf with the 62kWh battery the mileage should have been well over 200 miles especially for the temperature and modest driving conditions it was exposed to at the time. Most of my driving is around the Capital Beltway in Washington DC. If you're achieving 100 miles in 20F weather than you're range is acceptable (for a 40kWh battery pack).

 

[dhyatt]

Hello!
We bought a 2019 Leaf SV (Cert. Pre-Owned) back in late September: 11,500 miles. The SOC functioned normally above 74%. Below that it was wildly erratic. It took me 2 months to get the (Fort Wayne, Indiana) dealership to acknowledge the problem and pursue a repair. I got Nissan Consumer Affairs involved. It has been a huge hassle.
Last week they finally diagnosed it and ordered a new battery. It arrived yesterday and today they've begun installation.

My query for you all: After hassling with this car for months in an unacceptable condition, I'm leery of taking the car back because I don't know if I can trust the repair. I had pursued a buy-back option, but consumer affairs is stringing us along until the repair is performed. What questions should I be asking them before I take the car back? What would give you confidence?
I'd especially like to hear from anyone who has had battery replacement experiences. Thanks in advance!

They are not giving you a new battery.. they are giving you a refurbished battery... there is no old new stock batteries.. on my factory warranty, Nissan reserves the right to only replace the bad cells..the others can be damaged and not showing

talke it back and lease a new one

 

[Paulo]

Hi, I found this site after my 2019 Leaf SV began having issues with the charge dropping by 50% and warning that the car battery was low and had less than 5 miles of range. The car has 40,000 miles. I took it to the dealer. They have assured me that the battery is under warranty and are now waiting for Nissan to give them the okay to order a battery. Here is where my problem comes in: the dealer told me it may take 9 months for a replacement battery. They would like me to take my Leaf and drive it until the replacement battery comes in to the shop. While the thought of being stranded is enough to bother me while I wait for a replacement battery, I wonder about charging my battery at home. Will this be safe? I fear that something may happen to short out the battery and my home electrical system, including my solar system. Does anybody have any insight on the wait and the safety of charging a faulty battery.

 

[Learjet]

I had a bad module replaced at @24,000 miles...no issues since...I'm at 36,000 miles now.