Replacement battery from JC Whitney?

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Auntrattie

New member
Joined
Apr 12, 2018
Messages
2
I'm new to this forum and, like many others here, need replacement batteries for my 2011 Leaf. To say I'm disgusted with Nissan is, I guess, under stated and redundant ... I will certainly never buy one of their cars again after the misleading info they put out when I purchased this car, most especially about their battery "warranty". Nevertheless facts are facts... and the fact is I need to replace my batteries. I see JC Whitney offers a refurbished battery pack for $2100 and I wonder if anyone here has tried that route? Spending $5000 for Nissans replacement battery doesn't appeal to me, especially since I really hate their business practices. Anyone tried that J C Whitney replacement?
 
https://www.carparts.com/details/Dorman/Battery_Pack/RB587004.html?TID=gglpla&origin=pla&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIo8-cq7e22gIVUJ7ACh3Cbw86EAsYASABEgLWZPD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Wow, that's a long link...I hope it works?
 
Auntrattie said:
https://www.carparts.com/details/Dorman/Battery_Pack/RB587004.html?TID=gglpla&origin=pla&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIo8-cq7e22gIVUJ7ACh3Cbw86EAsYASABEgLWZPD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Wow, that's a long link...I hope it works?
No idea what's that's for but I highly doubt it'll work given that it looks nothing like a Leaf battery pack.

Have never heard of JC Whitney nor Dorman, let alone having anything to do w/Leafs. Are there any actual specs on that thing? I doubt it's the right voltage and capacity.

https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1064332_nissan-leafs-battery-pack-should-last-as-long-as-the-car and https://www.autoblog.com/2010/05/27/details-on-nissan-leaf-battery-pack-including-how-recharging-sp/#slide-105931 show what the pack looks like.
 
Searching the site for Leaf parts doesn't get me that pack, and as noted it doesn't mention a car in the listing.

J.C. Whitney was the king of mail order auto parts, back in the day of mail and phone orders. The quality of the parts was all over the map, but they did have a large selection, and prices were often very low.
 
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=508708#p508708 has a timelapse video of a pack swap.... well, rather worn modules from a guy's pack being swapped with newer ones in much better condition. It's very labor intensive vs. swapping the entire pack, but there are reasons. See posts by Cor in that thread.
 
People like Isaac Zachary who are looking to mod their pack systems might want to look further into that unit. It looks like it's maybe half the capacity, and maybe half the size, of a Leaf pack.
 
A quick Google search for dorman 587-004 points to https://www.dormanproducts.com/p-66718-587-004.aspx. Apparently, it's a pack for an '06 to '11 Civic Hybrid.

So, it probably has a tiny fraction of the capacity of a Leaf battery (like under 4 kWh) and probably NiMH w/D-cells inside. Honda didn't go li-ion on HCH until I believe model year 2012.

edit: Found https://web.archive.org/web/20120516133206/https://avt.inl.gov/pdf/hev/batterycivic8725.pdf. NiMH, totally wrong voltage and capacity not even 1 kWh. Hahaha.
 
cwerdna said:
Have never heard of JC Whitney nor Dorman, let alone having anything to do w/Leafs. Are there any actual specs on that thing? I doubt it's the right voltage and capacity.
As LB said, JC Whitney used to be the king of mail-order auto parts, I used to order from them all the time, everything from Rings or crankshaft bearings to cheap Chinese made plastic auto flashlights and auto accessories.
Dorman is probably the largest current supplier of aftermarket auto parts. Cheaper than OEM in both price and quality, overall I've had pretty good luck with their parts. My most recent purchase, a rubber hatch release button for our Prius. The old one turned into a sticky goo, making your fingers sticky or black everytime you'd open the hatch. The new Dorman installed like a Breeze, lets see how long it lasts.......the OEM lasted a little shy of 10 years.
Not sure I'd trust ordering a replacement battery from JC Whitney or Dorman, probably best to stick with OEM or a junkyard for something like that :)
 
Auntrattie said:
I'm new to this forum and, like many others here, need replacement batteries for my 2011 Leaf. To say I'm disgusted with Nissan is, I guess, under stated and redundant ... I will certainly never buy one of their cars again after the misleading info they put out when I purchased this car, most especially about their battery "warranty". Nevertheless facts are facts... and the fact is I need to replace my batteries. I see JC Whitney offers a refurbished battery pack for $2100 and I wonder if anyone here has tried that route? Spending $5000 for Nissans replacement battery doesn't appeal to me, especially since I really hate their business practices. Anyone tried that J C Whitney replacement?
What is misleading about the warranty? They have a 5 Year/50,000 mile capacity warranty (newer leafs have longer capacity warranties) and a 100,000 mile (number of years may vary by state) total failure warranty.

I just want to know what is misleading on this one.
 
Capacity warranty is 5 years/60K miles on 24 kWh Leaf batteries and 8 years/100K on 30 and 40 kWh. Defects warranty on them all is 8 years/100K miles.
 
Yea, J C Whitney was like the Sears and Roebuck of auto parts. I remember ordering some split pushrod tubes that let me replace the leaky ones on my VW bug without having to remove the cylinder heads. They actually worked. I also remember a lot of whacky stuff like pills you dropped into the sparkplug holes to fix worn engines, and an oil-filter contraption that let you use toilet-paper rolls for filter media. :lol:

This will give you a feel for the glory days: https://www.cartalk.com/blogs/craig-fitzgerald/10-bad-ideas-jc-whitney-catalog
 
Nubo said:
Yea, J C Whitney was like the Sears and Roebuck of auto parts. I remember ordering some split pushrod tubes that let me replace the leaky ones on my VW bug without having to remove the cylinder heads. They actually worked. I also remember a lot of whacky stuff like pills you dropped into the sparkplug holes to fix worn engines, and an oil-filter contraption that let you use toilet-paper rolls for filter media. :lol:

This will give you a feel for the glory days: https://www.cartalk.com/blogs/craig-fitzgerald/10-bad-ideas-jc-whitney-catalog
Hey! I actually have one of those bare foot pedals! Maybe I'll put it on my Leaf and see if I get better range with it.

cwerdna said:
Capacity warranty is 5 years/60K miles on 24 kWh Leaf batteries and 8 years/100K on 30 and 40 kWh. Defects warranty on them all is 8 years/100K miles.
Darn it! I'm just about at 60,000 miles and 5 years in my 2013 and only lost the first bar last summer! Do you think I'll lose the other three bars within the next couple months?
 
IssacZachary said:
Darn it! I'm just about at 60,000 miles and 5 years in my 2013 and only lost the first bar last summer! Do you think I'll lose the other three bars within the next couple months?
If you're not in a hot climate and your car was built 4/2013 or later, it's unlikely. If yours was built before 4/2013, you should've sent your car for heat treatment in Phoenix before last summer started, to be on the safe side.

I lost my 1st bar in Nov 2017 (http://mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=511915#p511915) on my 5/2013 built '13 and still am that way at almost 54K miles. I'm 99% certain that I won't lose 3 more bars by the time I hit the 5 year mark in late June 2018.
 
cwerdna said:
If you're not in a hot climate and your car was built 4/2013 or later, it's unlikely. If yours was built before 4/2013, you should've sent your car for heat treatment in Phoenix before last summer started, to be on the safe side.

I lost my 1st bar in Nov 2017 (http://mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?p=511915#p511915) on my 5/2013 built '13 and still am that way at almost 54K miles. I'm 99% certain that I won't lose 3 more bars by the time I hit the 5 year mark in late June 2018.
Does coldest place in Colorado sound like a hot climate? And it was built after April.

Any how, I guess I don't really know if the previous owner may have changed the battery. Apparently the car was in Utah before I bought it in 2016. But I highly doubt I have a second battery in this car.
 
Nubo said:
Yea, J C Whitney was like the Sears and Roebuck of auto parts. I remember ordering some split pushrod tubes that let me replace the leaky ones on my VW bug without having to remove the cylinder heads. They actually worked. I also remember a lot of whacky stuff like pills you dropped into the sparkplug holes to fix worn engines, and an oil-filter contraption that let you use toilet-paper rolls for filter media. :lol:

This will give you a feel for the glory days: https://www.cartalk.com/blogs/craig-fitzgerald/10-bad-ideas-jc-whitney-catalog
Thats right, I forgot about their snake oil products :roll:
I remember the toilet paper oil filter adapter :shock: and I believe I may have ordered a squeeze bottle of something you put in your old worn out 12v(or 6v for that matter) lead acid battery and it was supposed to make it like new......needless to say it was a farce and money wasted :(
Oh I think I also ordered one of those loud as a train horns, while not loud as a train it was kind of cool, the only one like it on my block for sure :lol:
Oh I also ordered a very portable 12v(or again 6v or however many volt up to 120v I suppose) battery charger......it was basically a resistive cloth cord with a diode in the plug. You'd plug it in and the 120v AC would be rectified to DC and the resistive cloth cord would be inline with your battery..... Worked OK and charged a 12v battery at about 1/2 amp. Oh and to make it even more dangerous, it didn't have a polarized plug :shock: meaning if you plugged it in backward you'd have 120v directly tied to the frame of your car! It's only safety feature was a built-in neon light probe that you'd touch to the batteries negative terminal, if you had your 120v plugged in backward it would light the neon bulb! Of course even plugged in correctly you'd have a potential 120v from your cars positive terminal to ground :shock: It wasn't really a snake oil device and I still have it, although dangerous as hell! and I don't really use it. Ah the good old days, makes you wonder how we made it ;)
Oh another warning on the charger, make sure the 10' cloth cord was never coiled up during use as it could get hot :oops:
 
jjeff said:
it was basically a resistive cloth cord with a diode in the plug. You'd plug it in and the 120v AC would be rectified to DC and the resistive cloth cord would be inline with your battery....

If you put a light bulb in-series (I'd suggest using the AC side), it would trickle-charge :) .
 
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