My 2011 Lead is down to 28 miles charging capacity (on a good day...)

[leaflifer]

Hi, Fellow Leafers,

The charging capacity on my otherwise solid 2011 Leaf is down to around 28 miles stated range on a full charge (which, of course, translates to an even more reduced range in my mildly hilly southern California neighborhood.) The heartbreaker is that other than the range issue, the car is in excellent condition with only about 45k original miles.

The car's swiftly declining range is not a new issue--it was down to around 60 miles per charge by the time it was five years old. I've read that there was a battery replacement program that I would have been eligible for, but I can't imagine I'd be able to take advantage of it at this point in my old car's life.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what options I might have to restore the car to some semblance of usefulness? Considering the low original miles, I thought of trying to sell it while it still has some limited range left. But I suspect the offers I got would be so low I might just as well hold on to it as a a kind of well appointed golf cart for neighborhood errands. Seems a waste, though.

Thanks for any insights you might be able to share.

 

[jjeff]

I was in a similar spot with my '12 but not quite as bad as yours. It still had 8 bars(you didn't say how far down yours was) and mine had to be charged again around 35-40 miles. Like yours mine was low miles and very good condition, no rust. I tried for months to sell it on CL and FB with little interest, everyone wanted a 100+ mile range or Tesla, even though I front and center in my ads stated it's range and limitations. I finally dropped it to $5k and in a couple of weeks someone ended up getting it for $4k, IMO a heck of a deal for car basically like new that sold for almost $40k but of course very limited range now. I didn't buy it new, I purchased it with 10-bars used for $8k in '16 and put probably 15k miles on it and it had 60k when sold.
I had also thought of keeping it just for local trips but in the end decided against that for a couple of reasons. One, the range would probably continue to decline, even if not driven. Two, I'd have to periodically charge the 12v battery even if not driven. Three, the insurance and tab costs would be well over a dollar a day, every day and even days I'd not drive it, it would be basically like throwing a dollar a day out the window. Four, it would probably continue to depreciate and five, and this was probably the nail in the coffin, keeping the rodents from destroying it and having to keep it shoveled off in the winter and in general, finding a place to park it. The Leaf seems somewhat vulnerable to rodent infestation. They like to chew through the thin plastic parts under the windshield to gain access to the area around the fresh air intake where they make nests and pack full of black walnuts!!! I've spent hours and hours cleaning all the crap out and once was even forced to take the dash half apart to gain access to the fan and squirrel cage(aptly named in this case!) to remove jammed nuts and debris from the fan.

If I'd had a garage to store it and a real need for a 35-mile car I'd have loved to keep it, I liked how it drove and parked but in the end while $4k was kind of a joke IMO, it was better than nothing

 

[leaflifer]

I was in a similar spot with my '12 but not quite as bad as yours. It still had 8 bars(you didn't say how far down yours was) and mine had to be charged again around 35-40 miles. Like yours mine was low miles and very good condition, no rust. I tried for months to sell it on CL and FB with little interest, everyone wanted a 100+ mile range or Tesla, even though I front and center in my ads stated it's range and limitations. I finally dropped it to $5k and in a couple of weeks someone ended up getting it for $4k, IMO a heck of a deal for car basically like new that sold for almost $40k but of course very limited range now. I didn't buy it new, I purchased it with 10-bars used for $8k in '16 and put probably 15k miles on it and it had 60k when sold.
I had also thought of keeping it just for local trips but in the end decided against that for a couple of reasons. One, the range would probably continue to decline, even if not driven. Two, I'd have to periodically charge the 12v battery even if not driven. Three, the insurance and tab costs would be well over a dollar a day, every day and even days I'd not drive it, it would be basically like throwing a dollar a day out the window. Four, it would probably continue to depreciate and five, and this was probably the nail in the coffin, keeping the rodents from destroying it and having to keep it shoveled off in the winter and in general, finding a place to park it. The Leaf seems somewhat vulnerable to rodent infestation. They like to chew through the thin plastic parts under the windshield to gain access to the area around the fresh air intake where they make nests and pack full of black walnuts!!! I've spent hours and hours cleaning all the crap out and once was even forced to take the dash half apart to gain access to the fan and squirrel cage(aptly named in this case!) to remove jammed nuts and debris from the fan.

If I'd had a garage to store it and a real need for a 35-mile car I'd have loved to keep it, I liked how it drove and parked but in the end while $4k was kind of a joke IMO, it was better than nothing

Thanks for sharing your experience, Jeff, which does seem to match my own. I think I'm coming around to your decision. $4k may not seem like much, but compared to what it'll be worth once the mileage drops much lower... In fact, I may be past the point of even being able to get that much, given my sub-30 range!

 

[SageBrush]

The Leaf seems somewhat vulnerable to rodent infestation. They like to chew through the thin plastic parts under the windshield to gain access to the area around the fresh air intake where they make nests and pack full of black walnuts!!!

Mine was similar. I had to replace windshield wiper tubing twice. That was cheap and easy to fix. The rodent damage to my Tesla required service center repairs.

 

[TobyHolland]

Hi, Fellow Leafers,

The charging capacity on my otherwise solid 2011 Leaf is down to around 28 miles stated range on a full charge (which, of course, translates to an even more reduced range in my mildly hilly southern California neighborhood.) The heartbreaker is that other than the range issue, the car is in excellent condition with only about 45k original miles.

The car's swiftly declining range is not a new issue--it was down to around 60 miles per charge by the time it was five years old. I've read that there was a battery replacement program that I would have been eligible for, but I can't imagine I'd be able to take advantage of it at this point in my old car's life.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what options I might have to restore the car to some semblance of usefulness? Considering the low original miles, I thought of trying to sell it while it still has some limited range left. But I suspect the offers I got would be so low I might just as well hold on to it as a a kind of well appointed golf cart for neighborhood errands. Seems a waste, though.

Thanks for any insights you might be able to share.

Try this page for a local #LeafBatteryUpgrade installer :

https://m.facebook.com/groups/LEAFs/?ref=share

there’s a Global Map linked in the Header

 

[w7gz]

Hi, Fellow Leafers,

The charging capacity on my otherwise solid 2011 Leaf is down to around 28 miles stated range on a full charge (which, of course, translates to an even more reduced range in my mildly hilly southern California neighborhood.) The heartbreaker is that other than the range issue, the car is in excellent condition with only about 45k original miles.

The car's swiftly declining range is not a new issue--it was down to around 60 miles per charge by the time it was five years old. I've read that there was a battery replacement program that I would have been eligible for, but I can't imagine I'd be able to take advantage of it at this point in my old car's life.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what options I might have to restore the car to some semblance of usefulness? Considering the low original miles, I thought of trying to sell it while it still has some limited range left. But I suspect the offers I got would be so low I might just as well hold on to it as a a kind of well appointed golf cart for neighborhood errands. Seems a waste, though.

Thanks for any insights you might be able to share.

Leaflifer, the way to save your ride is to install another battery. See the post above about the people who do this commercially.

You can also do it yourself if you can do car work - takes an afternoon to perform. This is what I've done to keep my 2011s on the road after the batteries got cooked by the extreme summer heat. You need to carefully shop the insurance auctions nearby to find cars with decent 24 or 40 KWHr batteries. Once you find one and get it home, you will need some floor jacks and furniture dollies to swap the batteries. Then use the Leaf Battery Pairing tool to "bless" the new battery so the car will accept it.

I did this procedure to two cars around 2016-2017, installing 2 lizard batteries, and both cars still show 10 bars in 2023, even with the extreme heat. This is what the commercial outfits will do for you if you don't want to do it yourself. However, they are likely to charge over $10K, and I was able to do each of mine myself for around $4-5K. Plus you then have the bonus of a parts car to pull what-not off of if you have a place to store it. My parts-Leafs have been very handy over the years.

 

[jjeff]

Mine was similar. I had to replace windshield wiper tubing twice. That was cheap and easy to fix. The rodent damage to my Tesla required service center repairs.

Yes I forgot about that, hose totally chewed through at two spots and they even chewed through a plastic Y piece! it was really hard to access but I finally got it.
I also forgot to mention all the black walnuts packed under the hood, ontop of the inverter/charger? luckily they didn't chew through any high voltage or even 12v wiring!

 

[SalisburySam]

Similar to OP, my 2012 SL (purchased new) delivered about 30 miles at a 100% charge on flat in-town roads. Loved the car as our gateway drug to EVs and it was still the most comfortable of our three. Even with low maintenance costs but given the silly range, registration, EV tax, and insurance costs it was just not worth keeping any longer and we sold it after almost 12 years for just under $3k. No rodent damage, thankfully. Biggest expense was replacing the original 12v battery after 8 years. And oh yeah, the car had about 17,000 miles on it. Pretty pristine condition.

Still have an extra wheel for it; I bought this as a spare wheel/tire. Back in early 2012 I was not ready to go completely without a spare.

 

[EVPowers]

The fact of the matter is, in the US, battery packs are expensive. In most cases folks cut their losses, and move on to a different vehicle.

I, and others in the Leaf Repair Network, install the LRN 40 kWh battery for the Nissan Leaf.
- 150 mile range
- All New cells
- 3 year/36,000 mile part warranty.

But the cost is what most people would consider ..."financially unpalatable".

It can be ~$14,000 + tax. Since LRN shops are independent, prices vary regionally.

Even with special pricing, at my shop in Wisconsin it is still $13,000.

That said I can order it today and get a pack delivered to the shop in 5-10 business days and get it installed the same day the customer delivers the car.

Way better pricing than Nissan. They want $10,000 for a 24 kWh, 85 mile pack. That's just the part!

Way better timeline than Nissan. They have people waiting months, sometimes a year, for 40 kWh packs.

And the reality is, Nissan won't do a 24 kWh --> 40 kWh upgrade in the first place.

As much as I wish I could find a $5,000 or even $8,000 solution that would get people 200+ miles range, unfortunately that isn't the world we live in.

It's a challenge to decide what's best for you. But certainly it you want to chat more about an upgrade, feel free to contact me any time.

I'm always up for some good battery discussion.

 

[SalisburySam]

@EVPowers I do hope this goes well for you. Just sold my 2012 SL because of its 30-mile in-city range. I’ve been casually looking for a battery replacement after knowing first that I didn’t qualify for Nissan’s 5-year warranty, and didn’t again for the 8-year one despite how degraded my range had become. In both cases, the capacity bars were too high. A replacement, even at 5 figures was not out of the realm of consideration, though I think more would have been involved.

I applied the $200 3G TCU upgrade when initially offered and that gave me telematics for a few more years. Then 3G went away, at least in my area, and the TCU died anyway. So to regain telematics, I’d have to upgrade the TCU, about $1400 at the local dealer. With only 17,000 total miles on a 12-year-old car, everything else, including the tire treads and brakes, were in good shape, but we were just tired of the on-going expenses (insurance, taxes, state EV fees, etc.) for such a restricted vehicle.

Again, here’s hoping your business thrives.