Hail Damage and cracked Solar Panel

When it rains, it hails.

So much for a dent less and scratchless LEAF any longer.

The hailstorm this week really "dinged" me.

On top of it all, The solar panel that runs the 12V battery needs to be replaced. The plexiglass is cracked. Nissan only sells the part in its entirety, of course. $670 for the part.

Not worth it unless the aesthetics bug you. It's only a 5W panel.

If you swap it out, see if you can keep the old one. Maybe you can use it to power an LED flashlight

Check for undamaged old stock recovered from scrapped vehicles. We recently met a stranger as he slowly turned left and stopped in front of us. The obvious damage was to our front bumper, but the left headlight assembly sustained a few cracked attachment/alignment tabs. The shop found a good-as-new assembly for half the new cost. I've retained the original assembly for replacement lights or a clear, scratch-free replacement transparency. Good luck!

The vehicle is leased and my comprehensive collision should cover all damage.

That storm sounds like it was a real bad one. Several people at work today were describing some heavy property damage. Sorry to hear your Leaf was among the casualties.

I still need to get mine in from the bad hail in May, two weeks after I got the car. Haven't felt like dealing with a shop regarding heat and the battery. I do plan to try to get it in soon though. Over $6.5k in damage.

Hi Mike,

What color is your LEAF?

How bad is the body damaged from hail?

GREENEV said:

Hi Mike,

What color is your LEAF?

How bad is the body damaged from hail?

Click to expand...

It is silver. It has over 1200 dents on the roof alone. The only panels without damage are the passenger side doors and the bumpers as they are urethane. Supposedly it is going to take 3-4 weeks to fix it all. If I recall from the estimate they are calling for both driver-side doors to just be replaced and the liftgate. The rest they want to paint less dent repair.

Thankfully I only have a $100 deductible so it doesn't cost me much, except for the month of no LEAF.