Maintenance Vs Warranty

My Nissan Leaf Forum

Help Support My Nissan Leaf Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

SchneerLaterne

New member
Joined
Jul 5, 2018
Messages
3
Hi Leafers:
I am about 15 months in to the EV world and I love it. I love never putting gas in it and I love the low maintenance. Speaking of maintenance, I am now at 27,000 km, so I am overdue for my one year checkup, which by the way, the sales person told me is the only one I'd need. "Just bring it in once a year for a battery check, etc."
Obviously the 12000km service is a joke. Rotate the tires and "inspect" a bunch of stuff. The 24,000 includes a battery check, brake flush, cabin filter, and apparently key battery replacement, plus the usual "inspect" crap. For this, the good people at the dealership want $331 plus tax. My question is, if I tell them to kindly go screw a Saturn with their overpriced maintenance package, what does that mean for my warranty? The guide and everything are very clear that its needed for the warranty. But I will not be gouged. I will do the cabin filter myself, no problem. Does the brake fluid even need flushing? For a 2017 car with 27,000km on it?! I get inspecting things so that you can catch problems, but come on. What does the internet think? Thank you.
 
skip it. you don't need the dealer maintenance history for warranty purposes. I have not gone in for any work with my 2013, the cabin filter is reasonably easy to replace yourself and the brakes definitely don't need to be flushed any more than ICE cars, which in reasonable climate and use is every 5-10 years from my personal experience with no bad side effects.

the only thing that needs an eye kept on is the tires to keep them wearing evenly.. nothing else really wears from a preventative maintenance point of view.
 
Thanks. So does anyone know, what DO you need for warranty purposes? I'll also get the battery check anyway, since the 12 and 24 month are covered.
 
The battery could be on it's last breath and dealer report would say wonderful.
If you enjoy hanging out at a car dealership, go for it. Otherwise complete waste of your time.

If you are in the US, nothing is required to keep your warranty.

My advice: rotate your tyres, change filters as needed. Avoid the dealer like the plague.
 
Oh believe me, I stay away from the dealership if I can. My cousin and his late dad have run a garage for 60 or so years. I don't mess with dealerships. I just wonder why Nissan (and all car makers) insist that you need to do the recommended maintenance to keep your warranty if its not true. I mean, I get the obvious answer (money) but it doesn't make sense. I'm in Canada, so by law here you're allowed to get your car serviced by any licensed mechanic even if its under warranty. But seriously, I'll get the battery check and I guess have them change the battery in my key and be done.
 
SchneerLaterne said:
Oh believe me, I stay away from the dealership if I can. My cousin and his late dad have run a garage for 60 or so years. I don't mess with dealerships. I just wonder why Nissan (and all car makers) insist that you need to do the recommended maintenance to keep your warranty if its not true. I mean, I get the obvious answer (money) but it doesn't make sense. I'm in Canada, so by law here you're allowed to get your car serviced by any licensed mechanic even if its under warranty. But seriously, I'll get the battery check and I guess have them change the battery in my key and be done.


Other than, tires, wiper blades and cabin filters there is nothing that needs to be done. Other than those things I have not done anything to my 2011.
 
I bought a used 2012 LEAF in 2014. The only thing I ever did for it, maintenance wise, was to buy new tires. My tire dealer did a check of the brakes, etc., when putting on the new tires (at 30k miles), and he asked me if I had just had a brake job since the brakes looked brand new. I did replace the cabin filter (easy, but get a good filter, some of the knockoffs do not fit very well), at the same mileage, but it looked fairly clean.

When I sold the car in June 2018, the brake fluid still looked new and the brakes still showed no signs of wear. That was at 50k miles.

Now I have a 2017 LEAF and I am monitoring both the brake fluid and the tires. Both look fine after 3k miles. I firmly believe the suggestion to change out the brake fluid is purely to make money for the dealerships.
 
We have a 2018 SL Leaf and were told several times that as a condition of the 96 month/100,000 battery warranty, we would be required to have the battery inspected. Here's how it's stated in my 2018 Leaf Warranty Information Booklet, page 9. (I added the bolding)

"Maintenance, Data Access, and Records
As a condition of this warranty, you are responsible for properly using, maintaining and caring for your vehicle as outlines in you Owner's Manual and you Nissan Leaf Service & Maintenance Guide, and maintaining copies of all maintenance records & receipts for review by Nissan. You are required to perform annual EV Battery Usage Reports at intervals of 12 months, 24 months, 36 months, 48 months, 60 months, 72 montys, and 84 months. These EV Battery Usage Reports can be performed by a Nissan LEAF certified dealer or any qualified repair shop facility. The 12 and 24 month EV Battery Usage Report will be performed at no charge to the customer, provided the work is done at a Nissan Leaf certified dealer. " etc.
 
I rotated my 2015's tires at 7,500 then took it to dealer for battery check at about 15 months. They said all fine, no comment that it has lost 1 bar capacity. No pressure whatsoever to have anything else done.
 
The inspection isn't crap if they find something important. However, they also shouldn't charge much for it. The last time I took my Rav4EV in for service, the whole rotate and inspection thing was only about $80. A reasonable price to know that things are OK. You might have to shop around or look for coupons.
 
Nope. Under federal law, unless they can prove that your lack of maintenance led directly to a covered failure (never changing the oil in an ICE for example and the engine blows up), they can't disallow warranty coverage. The battery checks certainly fail that requirement.

wekebu said:
We have a 2018 SL Leaf and were told several times that as a condition of the 96 month/100,000 battery warranty, we would be required to have the battery inspected.
 
My question on this subject as far as keeping warranty in affect, how does this work for a lease as to owning?
With a lease I'm assuming since it's Nissan's car?, and since I don't technically "own' the car I assume I would need to follow the
maintenance schedule?
As far as brake fluid replacing, I looked that up and it's all over the ballpark, GM 150,000 miles or 10 years, also it explains even that it is in a sealed environment it can absorb moisture over time.

So If I do decied to drain and flush brake sys. I think I'd go with synthetic brake fluid. Thanks for any input.
 
Back
Top