How Old is YOUR 12 volt Battery?

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WAM

Active member
Joined
Jun 23, 2011
Messages
26
Location
San Jose
I have read with interest a number of posts on this site regarding 12 volt batteries either getting weak or dying.
Perhaps I'm just lucky or got an "exceptionally good" 12 volt battery, but I've never had any issues with mine and it will be 7 years old in May.
I don't do anything special - no charging the 12 volt battery, no checking the water, no measuring the voltage. It just works.
Anyone else out there have a 2011 Leaf that still has the original 12 volt battery and having no issues with it?
My 2011 has about 27k miles on it and 3 bars down on the battery capacity meter.

With ICE cars that I've owned, I always replace the battery when it's 6 years old no matter what to avoid "sudden battery death" leaving me stranded somewhere. Since the Leaf has a relatively cool environment under the hood, I surmise that helps add life to the battery.
 
WAM said:
Anyone else out there have a 2011 Leaf that still has the original 12 volt battery and having no issues with it?
Yes. Ours turns 7 years old in June. The car has a little over 52k miles on it.

But I have to say that I've pampered the battery since I discovered how low its normal voltage was after about 2 years of ownership. At that time, it typically lived at about 12.25V when resting and would drop down to about 12.0 V when a load was placed on it. After desulfation and lots of pampering, it works like new now. But I've never had to add water since it never gets overcharged.

I expect to get many more years from this battery.
WAM said:
With ICE cars that I've owned, I always replace the battery when it's 6 years old no matter what to avoid "sudden battery death" leaving me stranded somewhere. Since the Leaf has a relatively cool environment under the hood, I surmise that helps add life to the battery.
Yeah, seven years is about what I seem to get out of batteries in my ICEVs.
 
My 2013 is still on the original battery, despite having been drained near-dead in its first year. I use an external maintainer often, and whenever it will be plugged in but not charging.
 
My early '12(spent it's first 4 years in sunny so Cal, started out with 10 bars but now 9) had to have the battery replaced the first cold snap this past fall) my '13 still has the original 12v that I occasionally(every 4-5 wks since new) hook to a battery tender with desulphication. I now always carry a 12v lithium battery jump starter in the back of my '13 just in case it decides to die but so far haven't had to use it. I did use it once or twice on my '12 before I replaced the 12v battery with a 51R Optima yellow top and the little jump starter was able to let my start the '12 and worked very well for that.
 
WAM said:
... it will be 7 years old in May... I don't do anything special...no checking the water....

You haven't checked the electrolyte level in 7 years?? :eek:

Lol, that's not "something special", it's just mechanical empathy :lol:

Some LEAF owners do fine with their 12V, others not so much. It seems that it depends on use-habits and perhaps model years as to whether the charging algorithm is sufficient to get normal service life. I prefer to use an AGM if for no other reason than I hate battery-related corrosion and spent my early driving years with a variety of corrosion basket cases. My first AGM (Miata OEM) was a revelation.

That being said, the LEAF's tendency to undercharge the 12V makes for less off-gassing, which minimizes acid-mist corrosion issues. And also explains how someone might succeed 7 years without bothering to check the electrolyte.
 
Nubo said:
That being said, the LEAF's tendency to undercharge the 12V makes for less off-gassing, which minimizes acid-mist corrosion issues. And also explains how someone might succeed 7 years without bothering to check the electrolyte.
Exactly. With the OEM battery from Japan, it's easy to check the electrolyte level: just shine a stubby flashlight through the battery from behind.

I just did that with mine. The lowest cells are less than 1/5th of the way down from the top line to the bottom one. (And nearly all of that loss is certainly from my charger/maintainer due to the undercharge it gets from the LEAF.)

As such, I figure I'll get another 30 years or so out of this battery! ;)
 
My Leaf was built in January 2013. The date code on the original battery showed late 2012. It was a lease return from Georgia that I bought in March 2015. I had to use about a third of a gallon of distilled water to top off all the cells in the battery after I bought it. I replaced the 12v with an AGM battery in September of 2017. The main reason for replacing the 12v was the voltage level kept dropping below what was acceptable for the TCU and I had to pull the fuse about every ten days to reset it.
 
Regarding checking the electrolyte - I never have checked it personally but I ASSUME (!!) that it gets checked by the service tech at the Nissan dealer during my annual visits.

I have opened the hood only one time in 7 years and that was just to show someone the "workings" when I first brought the car home in 2011.

I DO know how to check battery electrolyte levels as I did it LONG ago before maintenance-free batteries became prevalent.
I believe that under charging and cool under hood temperatures most likely mitigate the need for frequent additions of distilled water to top up the electrolyte.

Odd that such a "high tech" car as the Leaf uses such an "old fashioned" 12 volt battery!
 
I was told several times over the years that my 12 volt battery had been topped off or "checked" as requested by me, but when I added water myself last year, it took about 1 1/2 cups of water. Don't trust dealerships for things like that.
 
I am still on my original 12 V battery. It's a 2012 with around 57,000 miles. It is on its second battery pack.
 
OEM battery from factory here. 43,000 miles and almost 4 years. 2014 SV. Haven't checked it but one time, 3 years ago, when i installed a battery pigtail to be able to plug into a battery tender, which I've not used yet.
 
'12 built 11/11, 89k miles... still on original 12v with no problems. Hardly gets driven anymore. I bought a B250e last month and kept the LEAF around for my son (who hates to drive). Frankly, other than tires, wiper blades, and cabin air filter, I've not replaced anything. The original traction pack was replaced under warranty a couple of years back. Car still drives great and has zero issues.
 
2011 SL with 106,500+ miles - still on original battery AND have had an ELM-327 Bluetooth OBD-II diagnostic dongle plugged in pretty much 24x7 for the past 5 years or so. Car will be 7 years old in early July.

Hopefully a useful data point.

For anybody who's replaced their 12 battery - can you let us know what you replaced it with (Brand and Model, and price if known)? I'm sure it will help those who will be needing to replace soon. Thanks!
 
I bought my '13 used in Spring 2017. It had what appeared to be the original OEM battery in it. Although it seemed to work okay, it measured a bit low. As a new owner and frequent forum reader, I replaced the battery as a precautionary measure within a few weeks of buying the car.

The replacement is a 51R from Costco -- I forget the price. Since replacing it, I have babied it by topping it off with a Battery Tender Jr every few days. (I ran the connector into the charge port area, so I can charge without opening the hood).
 
The 2018 LEAF owner's manual (IIRC) states that frequent cycling of the charger after charge is complete is what is most harmful to the 12 V battery.

I did this frequently with my 2011, by often leaving the car plugged in for many days after the "80%" charge level was reached, with the timer set, and my battery failed (replaced by Nissan under warranty) during its third winter.

I now try to (and usually do) unplug my LEAF the day after charging, and the battery has held a charge for over four years (with a code reader plugged in) and no other care.
 
edatoakrun said:
The 2018 LEAF owner's manual (IIRC) states that frequent cycling of the charger after charge is complete is what is most harmful to the 12 V battery.

I did this frequently with my 2011, by often leaving the car plugged in for many days after the "80%" charge level was reached, with the timer set, and my battery failed (replaced by Nissan under warranty) during its third winter.

I now try to (and usually do) unplug my LEAF the day after charging, and the battery has held a charge for over four years (with a code reader plugged in) and no other care.

I would unplug but when its 10 degrees in the garage, I like to prewarm the car before driving it using the charger power rather than battery range. My 12v battery is getting a charge externally at the moment since it dies on me yesterday. I'm hoping it will charge up and be good to go once again.
 
I've found that if you plug in a maintainer with the EVSE there is no issue at all, even over several days, with leaving the EVSE plugged in, beyond the minor inconvenience of plugging in and unplugging the maintainer. I have mine wired to a connector in the charge port, for minimum hassle.
 
Our 12v battery finally died yesterday with just over 62k miles on the car. It was new July 14 2011-- just over 7 years. And sadly, we didn't check the electrolyte level either! Car is in the San Diego area. Replaced with a battery from Costco for about $75 after $15 trade-in credit. :lol:
 
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