Under lease, what maintenance is required? 2012 Leaf

I'm considering taking over a lease from the original lessor. 3 year/36k miles lease. The mileage is sitting at 5k now after a year and a half. Is Nissan going to require I take it in for maintenance? I looked over the schedule and looks like most is just checking things, but then I see there are brake fluid changes required in this time period? At $300 a pop? I just want to make sure I take into account "extra" costs above the payments I'll be making. Thanks!

With only 5000k on it I would doubt it needs a brake fluid change. The manual states it is necessary but I wouldn't do it myself. You can test brake fluid to see if it needs to be replaced. My guess is that Nissan threw dealers a bone with the "requirement" because there is little to no maintenance to do on a Leaf. Other that that there will be the yearly battery check but that is covered for the first two which means you won't have to pay for one by the time it has to go back. Also they will probably try and get you to pay for a cabin filter replacement which you can do yourself.

I have a 3 year lease and plan to do only the battery checks and tire rotations. The filter I will do myself and will decline anything else that they want. I am in Canada and here they "require" a brake fluid change yearly under the severe schedule which is even more unnecessary then every two years IMO. If you want to have it done take it to a local mechanic as it probably be much cheaper. I just had my gas car done and it was 1/3 the cost of what the dealership charges.

Taking over a Nissan lease is really scary for the original owner. Nissan requires the original owner to make any missed payments from the second user. This means that there are not a lot of lease transfers. The original lease holder must really vet the transferee.

This is not like most leases. I know of several Volt transfers that have no original liability.

The scheduled maintenance calls for brake fluid changes every 15,000 miles, but consensus is that's there just so the dealerships can make some money on the car.

I have a leased 2012 with around 31,000 miles and I don't intend to do any maintenance on it outside of tires and free battery checks.

kubel said:

The scheduled maintenance calls for brake fluid changes every 15,000 miles, but consensus is that's there just so the dealerships can make some money on the car.

I have a leased 2012 with around 31,000 miles and I don't intend to do any maintenance on it outside of tires and free battery checks.

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Good for you :mrgreen: . Me too, just leased a 2014 two months ago, and already disliking Nissan's stinking customer service so they won't get anything else from me but the minimum.

The 1-year flush interval seems ridiculous but 2 years isn't that crazy in humid climates. The test strips sound like a decent idea but during the warranty/lease period I'd rather do the required maintenance than have to argue with Nissan. You can certainly get a brake flush done more cheaply than at Nissan, and its an inexpensive DIY if you're reasonably mechanically inclined. Save your receipt for the brake fluid. You're not required to get the service done at Nissan.

Thanks guys, appreciate the tips!

I was pretty sure it was 30K miles but 15K in extreme conditions.

How odd that dealers seem to feel that EVERYTHING is "extreme conditions"

Because of the differences between an ICE and and EV, there really is no such thing as "extreme conditions" on an EV...
I suspect that, to a certain extent, they simply copied and pasted the schedule from their ICE vehicles in to the Leaf schedule...

jlatl said:

I was pretty sure it was 30K miles but 15K in extreme conditions. How odd that dealers seem to feel that EVERYTHING is "extreme conditions"

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