Capacity Loss on 2011-2012 LEAFs

[smkettner]

Nissan adds a blind reserve then people add their own reserve and the usable range gets short in a hurry.
I believe people are smarter than Nissan thinks.

State of charge meter was a step in the right direction. The bars and GOM are as bad as an idiot light.
JMHO

 

[mwalsh]

Nissan adds a blind reserve then people add their own reserve and the usable range gets short in a hurry. I believe people are smarter than Nissan thinks.

I pretty much knew how much credit Nissan was giving us for smarts when they started hiding bars just on account of a couple of Darwin Award recipients.

 

[gbarry42]

That all makes sense, except I'm at a loss to explain seeing 106 miles on the GOM when it was new if they're trying to protect us.

 

[mkjayakumar]

My Leaf even today shows 105 miles on a full charge with just 228 Gids !!. How idiotic is that ?

 

[smkettner]

My Leaf even today shows 105 miles on a full charge with just 228 Gids !!. How idiotic is that ?

Both the low end and the high end are so bogus it is not even funny.
And that is the only time accuracy might help a bit. :roll:

A 5th grader could do a better job on predicting range.
Just sad engineering by Nissan.

 

[dgpcolorado]

My Leaf even today shows 105 miles on a full charge with just 228 Gids !!. How idiotic is that ?

I suppose it depends on how you last drove the car. But, yes, it isn't helpful to have that sort of GOM reading.

My personal best:

Picture taken at mile 14.5 of the day's driving. Where I live the GOM has amusement value.

 

[TonyWilliams]

 

[hill]

At couple weeks ago, at 30K miles, Nissan sent (what I believe to be a) notice - service bulletin that they want to reprogram. I'm guessing they want to either make the GOM worse, or program in such a way that I loose my 1st bar. Bad enough they've never figured out why the yellow triangle comes on from time to time, for no reason, then mysteriously goes away upon restart. Yet I'm supposed to trust a reprogram?
No thanks. I'll take my chances with option B ... avoid nutty monkeying around with something that needs a complete redo.
.

 

[TomT]

No, it allegedly reprograms the BMS to more accurately determine degradation and also updates the charger software to improve compatibility. It doesn't affect the GOM and none of us who have had it done have noticed any permanent changes to capacity, Gids or range (though many, myself included, saw a temporary increase in Gids and range that soon disappeared)...

At couple weeks ago, at 30K miles, Nissan sent (what I believe to be a) notice - service bulletin that they want to reprogram. I'm guessing they want to either make the GOM worse, or program in such a way that I loose my 1st bar.

 

[atlleaf]

just lost one bar last night, at 19,500 miles.

 

[aleph5]

I lost my first on Sunday at something over 26k miles. Interesting it coincided with charging the car much farther than I normally do. iPad app reported 20 minutes shy of full charge and all 12 charge bars on the left came up. But the top bar on the right was gone. I no longer feel comfortable driving more than about 40 miles on an 80% charge. That's barely enough for now. I may have to start charging to 100% with cold weather, sometime toward the end of this year.

 

[ewodraska]

Lost my second bar today. Can someone update the wiki?
26 months
21397 miles
Vin: 01742
Case # 11687186

I was #98 of the 1st bar losers, @ 13,146 miles & 16 months

Looks like I'm losing capacity a little quicker than battery aging model suggests.
I'm in the sub 80% club during the summer (try to charge only to ~70%) unless I need more miles on a particular day.
Average 35-40 miles a day.
Charge to 100% less than 4 times per month.
Parked/charged in my carport
Parked under a tree at work all day.
Never QC
5 stars on all my battery reports. Like they mean anything.
Baby my battery as much as I can.
I've seen 7 temp bars about three times this year, but have been on 6 bars since May/early April.

So much for 80% at five years. First and last Nissan I ever buy. I stopped telling people what an awesome car it was last year, and tell everyone I know to never buy this car unless they live in a cool climate.
Top it off the car has lost over 50% of the resale value in less than 2 years. I was never in it for the resale value, I was in it for 80 miles of range at 5 years like we were all lead to believe in 2010. It will be tough to make my daily commute this winter at 80% charge, as I was only getting 50 miles last winter. With 3 more months of hot weather here, I will most likely be down another bar by the end of September. I really regret purchasing and I wish Nissan would have only leased in this environment. I guess it was my mistake for believing Nissan about capacity and mileage at 5 years.

Battery warranty may help me, depending on how much capacity the replacement battery has. If it's only 9 or 10 bars it won't last too long.

I'm taking it in next week for the update. I'll see if that bar comes back. Doubt it though.

 

[jhm614]

Had the software upgrade today. Looks like I am eligible for the 4 bar losers ("4BL") repair / placement. I am the second 4BL at Don Davis but they don't have a procedure worked out yet. They faxed my battery report off to Nissan (faxed?) and will keep me updated on my status.

 

[shrink]

Had the software upgrade today. Looks like I am eligible for the 4 bar losers ("4BL") repair / placement. I am the second 4BL at Don Davis but they don't have a procedure worked out yet. They faxed my battery report off to Nissan (faxed?) and will keep me updated on my status.

Well, I'm glad you are getting a replacement. 2 in Texas + at least 8 in Phoenix makes 10 known scheduled battery replacements so far. There are likely more that are not reported on these boards.

Have those receiving replacements thought about what you are going to do in 2 years when the capacity drops again? Will you be eligible for another battery replacement, will you try to sell, or will you enter the great unknown of the approximately $100/month battery lease? Just curious.

 

[CayenneSJLEAFy]

I'm curious to know if any '13s are already showing significant degradation from the summer heat. Wondering if any battery "tweaks" for '13 would make any difference.

I guess we really won't know the answer until end of summer, or even summer, 2014.

Seems like the temp gauge was also recalibrated for 2013--where the 7, 8, or even 9 bars would show up at lower temperatures. I could see this as another retro-software upgrade for '11s and '12s.

I could see a temp gauge update making a difference for some folks (whether to FC, park the car in the garage overnight and trickle charge, or leave the car in a shade, etc). The one and only time I saw 7 temp bars was when I did a FC at 74 ambient degrees.

 

[surfingslovak]

I'm curious to know if any '13s are already showing significant degradation from the summer heat. Wondering if any battery "tweaks" for '13 would make any difference.

I guess we really won't know the answer until end of summer, or even summer, 2014.

Seems like the temp gauge was also recalibrated for 2013--where the 7, 8, or even 9 bars would show up at lower temperatures. I could see this as another retro-software upgrade for '11s and '12s.

I could see a temp gauge update making a difference for some folks (whether to FC, park the car in the garage overnight and trickle charge, or leave the car in a shade, etc). The one and only time I saw 7 temp bars was when I did a FC at 74 ambient degrees.

That's a good question. There were several reports of 2013 LEAFs with 60 Ah on the battery app. That's a significant decline, even though some of that could recover in fall and winter. If I had to guess, I would say that there is no indication of an improved chemistry, but we might have to wait a bit longer to confirm that based on a larger sample of cars.

 

[jspearman]

Hey Nissan, let me "test" a couple of those degraded packs with my solar system Would fit nicely in the back of my garage.

 

[JPWhite]

Lost my first bar this morning, 29,206 miles 2 years old. I have updated the Wiki (check I did it right). Dag nab it, almost made 30,000 miles with all bars intact

I think that makes me the 2nd in Tennessee, hardly an accolade to boast about.

I go in for my 30,000 mile checkup at the end of this month and will get the software update dome then. Be interesting to see if I get the bar back after that or not.

LEAF Battery app shows health rating of 80.94% and 55.75Ah

Coincidence or not, overnight low was 79, the highest low this year. Battery hasn't been below 90 degrees for sometime now, just doesn't get cool enough at this time of year.

Still able to commute 60 miles on an 80% charge. Hit LBW 1 or 2 times per week at this charge level.

 

[RegGuheert]

I'm sorry to hear about the many losses being reported here!

Still able to commute 60 miles on an 80% charge. Hit LBW 1 or 2 times per week at this charge level.

LBW is in the range where I think you might be doing more harm to your battery than you would by charging to 100% just before you leave. Have you considered moving to 100% charging at this point? (Of course, having a 90% option might be best in this case!)

 

[ralphmc]

Lost my first bar this morning, 29,206 miles 2 years old. I have updated the Wiki (check I did it right). Dag nab it, almost made 30,000 miles with all bars intact

I think that makes me the 2nd in Tennessee, hardly an accolade to boast about.

I go in for my 30,000 mile checkup at the end of this month and will get the software update dome then. Be interesting to see if I get the bar back after that or not.

LEAF Battery app shows health rating of 80.94% and 55.75Ah

Coincidence or not, overnight low was 79, the highest low this year. Battery hasn't been below 90 degrees for sometime now, just doesn't get cool enough at this time of year.

Still able to commute 60 miles on an 80% charge. Hit LBW 1 or 2 times per week at this charge level.

JP, u-all...

Having never respected the 80% charge rule - for the simple reason that LI-on batteries don't care about that, I have only tried to charge closer to 90% so I can have some room at the beginning of my commuted to capture regeneration energy, and not wear out the "FRICTION" brakes in my now gone 2011 LEAF...

I would 'HIGHLY" suggest to curb the 80% charging - and go to 90% using the timer or watch the LEAF battery app by Turbo3 - so that the BMS (Nissan's battery management System) can re-calibrate the batteries "saturation" level it thinks it has.

... and you will see that all of the sudden you can go 10 - 30 miles more than before - the lost bar will not come back but your batteries will not suffer from the LBW high stress symptom...

As a reference point once a week do at least 1x 100% charge like on the weekend, and the rest 90% -

...or of course trade the "bad boy" in for a 2013 LEAF the improvements on this version of the leaf are incredible to say the least.

Ralph