First Year Scheduled Maintenance

[planet4ever]

You guys can argue until you are blue in the face about what should be required, but here are the facts about what is required.

Warranty Information Booklet, page 8:

MAINTENANCE , DATA ACCESS, AND RECORDS
As a condition of this warranty, you are responsible for properly using, maintaining and caring for your vehicle as outlined in your OWNER’S MANUAL and your NISSAN LEAF SERVICE & MAINTENANCE GUIDE, and maintaining copies of all maintenance records & receipts for review by Nissan. ... Any damage or failure resulting from a failure to have these required services performed, or that could have been avoided had these services been performed, is not covered under warranty.

Service and Maintenance Guide, page 7:

SCHEDULE 1 (more severe operating conditions)
Use Schedule 1 if you primarily operate your electric vehicle under any of these conditions:

• Repeated short trips of less than 5 miles in normal temperatures or less than 10 miles in freezing temperatures
• Stop-and-go traffic in hot weather or low speed driving for long distances
• Driving in dusty conditions or on rough, muddy, or salt-spread roads
• Using a car-top carrier

Service and Maintenance Guide, page 15:

15,000 MILES OR 12 MONTHS
SCHEDULE 1 (MORE SEVERE)

• Replace brake fluid
• Replace in-cabin microfilter
• Rotate tires
• Inspect the following:
  ...

[Note the OR. That means whichever comes first, except for the battery check which is specially marked as based on months only.]

Many of my trips are under 5 miles, so I had the brake fluid replaced at 12 months.

Ray

 

[Stoaty]

You guys can argue until you are blue in the face about what should be required, but here are the facts about what is required.

Warranty Information Booklet, page 8:

MAINTENANCE , DATA ACCESS, AND RECORDS
As a condition of this warranty, you are responsible for properly using, maintaining and caring for your vehicle as outlined in your OWNER’S MANUAL and your NISSAN LEAF SERVICE & MAINTENANCE GUIDE, and maintaining copies of all maintenance records & receipts for review by Nissan. ... Any damage or failure resulting from a failure to have these required services performed, or that could have been avoided had these services been performed, is not covered under warranty.

OK, so if my brakes fail due to not having the required warranty service performed (I am probably schedule 2 anyway) they won't cover it under warranty. That's a bet I will take. The money I save on not getting the brake fluid changed more often than really needed can be used to help pay for the work in the very rare case that has an effect. In other words, I am going to self-insure for the brakes, which I rarely use anyway for my style of driving (use coasting or regen for 95% or more of the slowing needed). The expected value of this course of action is certainly going to be a positive number, and one which will rise with time.

 

[TomT]

Virtually no one actually operates their Leaf under severe conditions so the severe schedule 1 does not apply to 99.9% of owners... Schedule 2 is what those 99.9% should be following... Schedule 1 is an artifact left over from the ICE days and is predicated on those ICE considerations, which mostly do not apply to the Leaf... But it is your money so spend it as you like if it makes you feel better.

You guys can argue until you are blue in the face about what should be required, but here are the facts about what is required.

 

[smkettner]

Virtually no one actually operates their Leaf under severe conditions so the severe schedule 1 does not apply to 99.9% of owners... Schedule 2 is what those 99.9% should be following... Schedule 1 is an artifact left over from the ICE days and is predicated on those ICE considerations, which mostly do not apply to the Leaf... But it is your money so spend it as you like if it makes you feel better.

You guys can argue until you are blue in the face about what should be required, but here are the facts about what is required.

+1, schedule 1 just does not apply. Besides what warranty would be canceled for delaying rotating tires, cabin air filter or brake fluid replacement :roll:

 

[pchilds]

My 2005 Murrano has all the original fluids (except the oil), it has 45k miles, I figure I will change all the fluids at 50k. The Nissan dealer, just fixed an antifreeze leak for free, because, I had the car in twice for the problem in 2006. If the antifreeze had been bad, I am sure they wouldn't have fixed the leak. They would have to prove, that not changing the flluid, caused the problem. Most people never change brake fluid and you don't see cars running into each other, because the brakes failed.

 

[gasmiser1]

+2, re: schedule one maintenance.

Don't waste your money on an unnecessary brake fluid change.

 

[ztanos]

I'm at 12 years on my Saturn with the original brake fluid. My test strips just keep telling me it isn't needed.

 

[Herm]

At least do a brake fluid test before replacing it.. but changing the fluid at home is not hard to do either.

 

[derkraut]

I've been looking for some brake modifications of my leaf! I'm hoping that I can find one that would last for quite some time. Any recommendations you can give me, I really don't care if it will cost me a bit coz I'm getting tired of brake degradations, and tired of cleaning up my wheel hub from brake dust.

Well.....It's a new "troll". Get lost/

 

[ztanos]

I've been looking for some brake modifications of my leaf! I'm hoping that I can find one that would last for quite some time. Any recommendations you can give me, I really don't care if it will cost me a bit coz I'm getting tired of brake degradations, and tired of cleaning up my wheel hub from brake dust.

Well.....It's a new "troll". Get lost/

I think I missed something.

 

[JPWhite]

Siting at the dealer waiting on the annual battery check.

Service advisor asked me why I had brought it in with just 13000 miles. I explained the EV Bettery report was strictly calendar only. I said I'd be back later to do the 15,000 mile service. He said they'd call to be sure to do the right thing.

Apparently I'm the first to bring it to Newton Nissan for the battery check. Be interesting to see if they do indeed run the right procedure and give me my report or not.

I was told it would take an hour. Looks like it'll take longer, they haven't done too much to it after 30 minutes of being parked in the service bay. Tech just went from the phone to my car, maybe he'll figure it out.

it's a learning experience for us all owning new technology

 

[EdmondLeaf]

I think you are waiting because they will provide you with new and improved battery check, and give you detailed information how to use and charge car in elevated temps. I hope you share that info with us. Sure is not as hot in your area as is here, but every piece of info helps. My friend is not happy going from 274 GID to 250 GID in 1 mo here in OK.

 

[DesertDenizen]

Siting at the dealer waiting on the annual battery check.

Service advisor asked me why I had brought it in with just 13000 miles. I explained the EV Bettery report was strictly calendar only. I said I'd be back later to do the 15,000 mile service. He said they'd call to be sure to do the right thing.

Apparently I'm the first to bring it to Newton Nissan for the battery check. Be interesting to see if they do indeed run the right procedure and give me my report or not.

I was told it would take an hour. Looks like it'll take longer, they haven't done too much to it after 30 minutes of being parked in the service bay. Tech just went from the phone to my car, maybe he'll figure it out.

it's a learning experience for us all owning new technology

I go in tomorrow. It is exactly the one year mark. I only have 6k miles on it but they said bring it in anyway. Hopefully I won't be hanging out there all day.

 

[garygid]

Showing 12 bars of Capacity on the battery report appears to be the same
as showing 12 bars of Capacity on the dashboard, meaning that your LEAF
is reporting less than 15% capacity loss.

After one year, the too-coarse report of "less than 15%" is not very
helpful for almost all owners.

We should all be asking for the actual capacity value, and not just
accept Nissan's "we've decided to hide that important information".

 

[JPWhite]

Siting at the dealer waiting on the annual battery check.

Service advisor asked me why I had brought it in with just 13000 miles. I explained the EV Bettery report was strictly calendar only. I said I'd be back later to do the 15,000 mile service. He said they'd call to be sure to do the right thing.

Apparently I'm the first to bring it to Newton Nissan for the battery check. Be interesting to see if they do indeed run the right procedure and give me my report or not.

I was told it would take an hour. Looks like it'll take longer, they haven't done too much to it after 30 minutes of being parked in the service bay. Tech just went from the phone to my car, maybe he'll figure it out.

it's a learning experience for us all owning new technology

I go in tomorrow. It is exactly the one year mark. I only have 6k miles on it but they said bring it in anyway. Hopefully I won't be hanging out there all day.

I'm driving an Altima loaner from the dealer. Their toughbook won't talk to the LEAF. Dealers tech support remoted into the toughbook but couldn't make it talk either. They may have to borrow a laptop from another dealer to complete the check. The tech confirmed that this is the first time they have done an annual battery check.

I pointed out that at least a dozen bought before I did and was surprised no one else had it done yet. He said that folks typically don't follow the maintenance schedules or written instructions very well. Given the delay I'm glad I took mine in 6 days early

 

[DesertDenizen]

Had my one year maintenance today. Battery checked out fine, they rotated the tires and I was out the door in one hour. No charge.

 

[mwalsh]

After one year, the too-coarse report of "less than 15%" is not very
helpful for almost all owners.

We should all be asking for the actual capacity value, and not just
accept Nissan's "we've decided to hide that important information".

I agree. Which would also be very helpful in determining if there are erroneous values being sent to the various aftermarket SOC meters currently available or not.

 

[JPWhite]

Had my one year maintenance today. Battery checked out fine, they rotated the tires and I was out the door in one hour. No charge.

Glad it was that quick for you.

I get to pick mine up this evening. They ended up having to take the car to another dealer to complete the check. 2 days in the shop. It's their first one Their Consult II software isn't playing ball for some reason.

Due to the time it took to do what should have been a routine (less than one hour) procedure, the dealer has offered to replace a damaged weather seal in the rear hatch. I admitted I damaged the seal hauling furniture, they are replacing anyway as a courtesy for the inconvenience factor. That's jolly nice of them. I'll get it done at 15,000 miles.

Interestingly the tech drove the car to the other dealer himself, and said he was really impressed how the car handled on the interstate. Previously he had only driven the car in a parking lot. Good to see a 'petrol head' convinced that EV's are awesome.

 

[scubasandy]

Had my one year checku-up. Ended up going to ABC Nissan in Phoenix AZ since Larry Miller quoted a price of $169 to also include having the tires rotated, air filter and brake fluid replaced. Followed the post recommendations and skipped the brake fluid and interior air filter this first year. Had my tires rotated for free at Discount Tire and the battery check was free.

I too have lost one bar of charge even though all my driving and charging habits showed up as 'very good' on their battery check printout. AZ summer heat? The ABC Nissan service guy initially said, "it's a battery, of course it's going to lose some capacity in the heat and you'll never get that back" (I am a female if that matters) Then I showed him the article about AZ Leaf owners losing more than expected battery capacity after one year and that Nissan wants to be notified (can't recall the name of the Nissan Rep) since I gave him the paper to keep. He said he would notify the Rep so they'd have the info on file.

I really hope it will stop with one bar loss and if not, Nissan will take care of us early adopters. I am getting 84 miles/charge with my driving habits- mostly surface streets, avg speed was 17.9mph.

Still, I love my Leaf!

 

[DesertDenizen]

I appreciate that at my one year service Jim Click Nissan did not even mention changing the filter or brake fluid. They did the battery check and tire rotation with no charge and I was out in an hour. I did not mention my early signs of losing capacity as I have a case number already with Leaf CS and knew my dealer couldn't offer anything of substance. My first car was a 1968 VW bug - think I love my Leaf?