Just bought a 2012 - hit 8 bars today -wait out the warranty?

I just bought a used 2012 SL for a great price. The CPO car had 26,600 miles on it and 10 battery bars. Within 2 days of ownership, it dropped to 9 bars (I'm guessing Nissan probably knew the capacity, thus the low price.) The car was originally purchased in January of 2013 so I knew I had a pretty big window to lose the 9th bar. It was owned and operated in Arizona and now lives with me in more moderate Southern California.

Today, a mere 3 weeks after I bought the car, the 9th bar dropped! Now, I've read lots of posts here about waiting to get that new battery until closer towards the end of the 5 years to stretch out your usable time with the car. But does that make sense to do for two years? Or is that logic just reserved for when you're already close to the end of the warranty term?

As of this posting, the car gets maybe 44 miles before LBW. Wouldn't I be better to make the car "whole" now, or are there other reasons to wait? If I wait and take it at 7 bars or less (which, at this rate, could be next month) are there other considerations to worry about - i.e. the sooner I show them I hit 8, the less likely they'll try to claim that it's somehow my fault and therefore not covered under warranty?

I don't even have my license plates much less my coveted carpool stickers - maybe now is the best time to act? But I don't want to be hasty if there are reasons to wait.

The car's BMS was almost certainly reset, and it had 8 or 9 bars when the dealer had it. The reason for waiting is simple: the new battery pack will also degrade, from day One. So the question becomes "Does the car currently have enough range for you?" If yes, then wait. If no, then start the ball rolling now.

I would verify with the dealer the day when warranty ends (and is it valid today).
But like LeftieBiker mentioned: if range is good enough just continue with old battery.
One day you will sell your vehicle and if it has 12 bars that will raise the price.

The small risk you run by waiting is that Nissan may change their policy. You are not a class member in Klee v. Nissan lawsuit. While Nissan has been replacing almost all degraded batteries with new instead of repairing to a minimum of 9 bars, they are not required by law to do so for non class members. This leaves open the possibility that they could change that business practice. With many batteries degrading, they may seek relief by only repairing batteries in the future for non class members. This is only the tip of the iceberg of many years to come with Leafs operating in hot climates. I was in your shoes and chose not to take the future risk, because I am not a class member either. Plus the lack of range was a pain...

If the range is workable I would wait until after the summer heat drops off in the fall.

I appreciate the feedback. Today the car barely made it 30 miles (up a hill and back) before LBW and I was in a panic because I had only one bar left when the charger I drove to was out of order. I just made it to a Toyota dealer whose chargers were occupied; finally the rep unplugged one of the finished vehicles and let me park adjacent to charge. What a stressful experience.

It seems like such a no-brainer to ditch this dud battery asap but I do understand the perspective about the next battery being its own ticking time bomb and that it would be optimal to use the vehicle for as long as possible before starting the clock on a new one.

I didn't realize I am not part of the class action; the car is certified pre owned which according to CA vehicle code means the warranty must be valid and in force. I do have a huge fear that when I take it in I'll end up with a nine-bar pack which seems utterly pointless. I can't find any feedback in these forums indicating anyone has received other than a new lizard battery but I'd be pretty upset if I got one barely better than what I have now.

Lots to chew on but if I can't get 30 miles to work and back (I'll find out Monday) I suppose the question will answer itself. I just don't want to be foolish to wait (above risks mentioned) nor foolish to be hasty.

If you plan to ride around near the bottom, you must get something like Leaf Spy so that you get monitor battery gids, pack balance and have it guide you as to how many miles/kWh you need to achieve to make it n miles.

The GOM sucks and the instrumentation on pre-'13 Leaf sucks (no % state of charge display).

ceshell said:

I appreciate the feedback. Today the car barely made it 30 miles (up a hill and back) before LBW and I was in a panic because I had only one bar left when the charger I drove to was out of order. I just made it to a Toyota dealer whose chargers were occupied; finally the rep unplugged one of the finished vehicles and let me park adjacent to charge. What a stressful experience.

It seems like such a no-brainer to ditch this dud battery asap but I do understand the perspective about the next battery being its own ticking time bomb and that it would be optimal to use the vehicle for as long as possible before starting the clock on a new one.

I didn't realize I am not part of the class action; the car is certified pre owned which according to CA vehicle code means the warranty must be valid and in force. I do have a huge fear that when I take it in I'll end up with a nine-bar pack which seems utterly pointless. I can't find any feedback in these forums indicating anyone has received other than a new lizard battery but I'd be pretty upset if I got one barely better than what I have now.

Lots to chew on but if I can't get 30 miles to work and back (I'll find out Monday) I suppose the question will answer itself. I just don't want to be foolish to wait (above risks mentioned) nor foolish to be hasty.

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If your battery is top 8 bar battery (we don't know yet because of an apparent reset) and if your commute is by surface streets and not freeway, you should be able to go over 40 miles without hill climbing.

The warranty for you IS repair the battery to (at least) 9 bars after a drop to 8 . They have (so far) been replacing them even if you are not a class member as long as the vehicle was not opted out by a class member or over 5 years/60,000 miles.

You will most likely have less stress and enjoy your car more with a new battery capacity. On a very positive note, you appear to have won the battery lottery at this point. Now you have to decide what strategy you can live with. At least you are not rushed...

If that 30 mile range isn't at freeway speeds, or up big hills, you may actually have a 7 bar car. How often do crooked used car people (not necessarily the ones who sold you the car, but maybe wholesalers) help people out like this? ;-)

I agree with others that said use it as long as it's useful before replacing the battery. If it's not working for you then replace it now, if it handles your needs then I'd wait until it didn't. Everyone's situation is different but 30 miles before lbw is about as low as I could handle personally. You basically have a volt without the gas generator at that point.

Does finding out if you qualify mean you have to replace it immediately? If not there is no harm in starting the process and finding out what your options really are then going from there. That way you could pursue some kind of lemon law protection if you don't qualify for a new battery for some reason.

1The odometer tampering laws need to be undated to include such shenanigans

LeftieBiker said:

If that 30 mile range isn't at freeway speeds, or up big hills, you may actually have a 7 bar car. How often do crooked used car people (not necessarily the ones who sold you the car, but maybe wholesalers) help people out like this? ;-)

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I would double verify the length of the capacity warranty and get it in writing. the rest is simply what you can live with. if your driving needs allows you to make 7 or 8 bars work, why not wait? the warranty states you will receive "up to date" battery tech as a replacement. now not likely to be significantly greater capacity but could be one more heat tolerant than a pack you might get today

I read the class action settlement last night and learned that the "new battery" isn't just luck; the plaintiffs had the settlement amended in 2015 to state that Nissan would replace the batteries of 2011-2012s with a 2015 (or more current) 24 kWh battery. It does say "replace" and not "replace with a refurbished 9 bar or more."

https://classaction.kccllc.net/Documents/NNK0001/2015%2003-06%20Amendment%20to%20Settlement%20Agreement%20-%20Fully%20Executed.pdf

It also says they revised the warranty for the 2011-12 vehicles; not that they revised the warranty for class action settlement members.

The clear thing left is to verify that my previous owner (who leased) didn't opt out. If that happened then I need to look into a lemon law claim against the dealer, who stated (but not in writing) that the battery warranty applied to me. As I mentioned, they violated state vehicle code for dealer licensing if they sold me a CPO without an intact warranty.

This has all been quite a learning experience. Obviously I'm hoping for the best since this car is on its way to becoming a very expensive doorstop after only 3 weeks of ownership.

I totally agree that with EV vehicles on the market they need to add legislation about battery capacity disclosure to go along with odometer laws, since the odometer reading doesn't really give you the story with these vehicles.

Make sure to verify that the P3227 software update has been done.

ceshell said:

...
It also says they revised the warranty for the 2011-12 vehicles; not that they revised the warranty for class action settlement members.
...

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The initial settlement added the same capacity warranty that Nissan provided on 2013 forward LEAFs, which is repair to nine bars or more.

The revised settlement gave the class members replacement with latest technology new battery.

But the way they wrote it up it only applies to the class.

TimLee wrote:
The initial settlement added the same capacity warranty that Nissan provided on 2013 forward LEAFs, which is repair to nine bars or more.

The revised settlement gave the class members replacement with latest technology new battery.

But the way they wrote it up it only applies to the class.

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In that case the risk issue is a strong motivator. I'm going to call tomorrow to find out.

Forget about waiting.. You just bought the car and only get 30 miles range. Also, you are probable using a lot of electricity that is wasted on the bad battery.

If you got a good price on the car, just get to new battery, and you will have a "good as new" car...

powersurge said:

Also, you are probable using a lot of electricity that is wasted on the bad battery.

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This is simply not true. The only slightly significant hit to efficiency due to a degraded battery is due to the reduced regen you get. Aside from that, you would have a hard time measuring any change in efficiency, and depending on driving style, even the reduced regen may not be significant (less than 10%).

If this car has been sitting at 100% SOC for months on end its quite possible that the battery capacity would fall off a cliff when you start driving it again. Who knows when it was last driven. I doubt the computer has been reset or it wouldn't have been a 2 car loser when you bought it.

The driving experience is way better with a new battery than an 8 bar. Regen actually works!

I doubt the computer has been reset or it wouldn't have been a 2 car loser when you bought it.

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As I understand it, it takes a few weeks for all the lost bars to get re-lost after a BMS reset. Thus, if a wholesaler reset it and it was then at the dealership for a couple of weeks, two bars could have been lost, with two more not real but not yet dropped...