First Year Scheduled Maintenance

I just had my first year scheduled maintenance. I'm following schedule 2 (less severe) maintenance procedures. I change my own cabin filters and have Discount Tire rotate my tires for free. So I only needed the dealership to run the annual EV Battery Usage Report which is required to maintain your battery warranty. Also I needed them to reprogram the VCM per the voluntary recall.

I have my tires rotated every 5000 miles free of charge at Discount Tire. If you wait too long to have you tires rotated the front tires could have >1/16 more wear than the rear tires. Should that occur, tire shops won't rotate your tires. This issue has been reported previously in other threads.

It doesn't matter what your batteries state of charge is for the dealership to run an EV Battery Usage Report. It took the tech about an hour to run the report, reprogram the VCM, and do a vehicle inspection. Below are the EV Battery Usage Report and Multi-Point Inspection documents the dealership gave me. There was no charge for either of these services. In total my first year of maintenance cost $6 for a cabin filter that I purchased from RockAuto and ½ hour of time to install it. I hope this clears up some questions others have had regarding your first year scheduled maintenance.

Thanks for posting so I know what to expect

Glad too see that they have an updated checklist. They don't have to
check the exhaust anymore.

Thanks for the post.

highcountryrider said:

Glad too see that they have an updated checklist. They don't have to
check the exhaust anymore.

Thanks for the post.

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Did you notice they didn't check my brakes. I suspect this was because I didn't have them rotate the tires. Also, it's good to know my tread depth is ok/32nds! :lol:

Who was the dealer--if I may ask?

derkraut said:

Who was the dealer--if I may ask?

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I had the service done at Escondido Nissan. I was planning to take it to Oceanside, but I was in Escondido and had some spare time. They got me right in. The dealership is being rebuilt so it's a mess right now. They are operating out of trailers.

Does that chart show no appreciable loss in battery capacity for the 1st year?

How many miles did you put on the car?

I had my 1-yr (~11k mi) LEAF check at Glendale Nissan. They're the closest dealer and I figured I'd give them a chance even though I didn't buy from them.
Overall a good experience. I mentioned the battery check and wanted as much info as possible. The service guy was a little puzzled and I had to remind him that this was an electric car and the battery was a big deal. To his credit, he didn't try to b.s. me and admitted they haven't done this checkout yet but he would ask the tech to give me all the info he could.
It took about 4 hours. The tech said he had to do the VCM update which he had never done before so he wanted to go slow and be sure about everything. I was ok with that and appreciated the honesty.

They also did not try to up-sell me on anything. The whole thing was free. Battery check was just the simple 12-level capacity and a few atta-boys for charge/discharge profile like others have posted. They checked the brake pads (90-95% remain) tire wear and all the other stuff on their 27 pt inspection. The tech came out and went over everything he checked and said it was pretty much everything he had on the LEAF CONSULT menu when there's no DTCs to examine. The service dept here passed my test. They're not EV experts but seem competent and open. I'd use these guys again I think. Anyone use LEAF Service Dept at Performance Nissan in Duarte? They're my other option.

Reprogram the VCM? So you are no longer on your original revision software or had you previously done the upgrade during the service program that was mailed out?

Skywagon said:

Reprogram the VCM? So you are no longer on your original revision software or had you previously done the upgrade during the service program that was mailed out?

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No longer on the original program. I debated skipping the update as the only issue I've had was Carwings quitting back in July and it's not something I find useful. But, decided to let them go ahead and do the update even though I prefer the old battery capacity settings.

Skywagon said:

Reprogram the VCM? So you are no longer on your original revision software or had you previously done the upgrade during the service program that was mailed out?

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I hadn't experienced the AC issue, so I decided not to have the VCM reprogramming done earlier in 2011. I wanted to make sure the new code was rock solid and proven before I had the update. The specific service is called LEAF VCM REPROGRAM #P1213.

Im dumb with acronyms.... Can you tell me what a VCM is/does explain ??

gkalexdc said:

Im dumb with acronyms.... Can you tell me what a VCM is/does explain ??

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VCM is the Vehicle Control Module. It's the LEAFs computer system that oversees the management of your electric drive train, anti-lock brakes, etc.

So the report is a big nothing. I would be inclined to skip it entirely except for the battery warranty.

smkettner said:

So the report is a big nothing. I would be inclined to skip it entirely except for the battery warranty.

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For most of us on MNL, ya it was basically a big nothing. However, if someone was unknowingly abusing their battery, perhaps it was beneficial.

The most interesting part, which was not clear from pother postings, is that the 12-box battery capacity report shows exactly the same thing as the battery capacity gauge (thin bars) in the dash, no more and no less.

As smkettner noted, this is a big nothing other than the warranty requirement.

The question I have is...how many charge/discharge cycles do people have at the time of the annual checkup? I had mine done at 7500 miles (about 5 months into ownership) and got the same high battery scores. Today, after 8 months, I'm up to 11,800 miles and over 200 cycles charging to 100% (and down to about 30% 5-6 times/week). My SOC meter tells me that I still charge to 281 gids (or 100%).

ENIAC said:

smkettner said:

So the report is a big nothing. I would be inclined to skip it entirely except for the battery warranty.

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For most of us on MNL, ya it was basically a big nothing. However, if someone was unknowingly abusing their battery, perhaps it was beneficial.

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OK what exactly does it mean when is says "frequent charging when battery state of charge is already high"?

Is this too much: 95%->100%, 100%->100%, 80%->100%, 75%->80%?????

The low score does not help one iota without a difinitive goal for improvement. How about give an actual specification :|
This is where the technition starts to give an opinion on what the expectations are without exactly knowing what triggers the low rating.

The report is an important educational tool for drivers that assume batteries are everlasting and multiple 100% charges will not wear out the battery "prematurely"..

Perhaps Nissan naively assumes this will prevent future suits and bad will.

ENIAC said:

Skywagon said:

Reprogram the VCM? So you are no longer on your original revision software or had you previously done the upgrade during the service program that was mailed out?

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I hadn't experienced the AC issue, so I decided not to have the VCM reprogramming done earlier in 2011. I wanted to make sure the new code was rock solid and proven before I had the update. The specific service is called LEAF VCM REPROGRAM #P1213.

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Also passed on the VCM reprogram. Was kind of pleased they allowed me to...figured I'd b forced into it.