experiences Buying Salvage 2015 for the battery, how part out remains?

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Cor

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 30, 2013
Messages
162
Hi,
I am in Silicon Valley and was given a US Electricar S10 electric truck that I want to turn into "Leaf truck".
It has a battery box that can contain 2 full Leaf packs with some room to spare for the BMS unit
(including 97 wires to the 96 modules of 2 paralleled Leaf packs)
So, I am planning to buy first one Salvage Leaf, remove battery and sell the parts, then buy the second, rinse and repeat.
The first one that I am considering to buy this week, is a black 2015 with grey cloth seats, I believe it is a basic model, so that should be "S".
Extensive front end damage, but it appears the rest of the body is good, it is even claimed to move under its own power.
How can I best get rid of the remains - either as a whole (someone else parting out) or letting it sit in my garage
until it is picked clean?
Would someone be interested in the frame or is that good to sell to Pick-n-Pull for scrap metal price?
Experiences, recommendations?
Cor.
 
You can search here for a s-10 leaf conversion. I'm interested in some parts. The one I saw was a single leaf conversion. You should get great range with 2!
 
Since I am planning to install a double Leaf pack but rather not deal with two salvage vehicles to part out, I scouted around for a pack, but could only find a 2011 pack. Still, the price was good for a pack that was quoted to have done only 38k mi sounded good to me,
I still need to measure the capacity remaining and decide if it is good enough to use as one of the two parallel packs, or that it is better to
sell the cells and scout for a higher capacity pack.
The battery was well-charged when I picked it up, I measured 190V on each string half (with the service disconnect out) once I opened the shell.
That corresponds to a per-cell voltage of 3.96V
It was surprisingly easy to open the shell, just undo the approx 40 bolts around the edge, all 10mm except 4 that were 1/2" plus the 6 security Torx around the service disconnect, and you can lift the top shell off the solid rubber gasket.
I had seen reports of people cutting the gasket to be able to lift the shell off, but it was hardly stuck to the top shell, just a quick tug and it separated. It is clearly designed to maintain integrity, in fact I could lift the entire gasket off the bottom shell and keep in case I would ever want to re-use it.
I was planning to retain everything from the pack, but found out that even after complete disassembly, I could not fit the two half shells in my Prius and drive safely, so those stayed behind after I disassembled and loaded everything else.
I probably have no use for connectors and contactors or service disconnect so if anyone is interested in those then let me know.
What I do plan on using is the BMS and this may include the temp sensors but more importantly the sense wiring, but probably not the bus bars or the orange strips holding the bus bars, since I plan on doubling (buddy-pairing) two packs.
It was quite an experience to take a Leaf pack apart, but luckily no surprises other than the size of the shell.
Next step is to connect cells to the charger/cycler, run it a cycle and measure capacity.
If the capacity is not great or if I get a good offer, then I might sell the cells.
 
Great you found one. Did you run a leafspy on the battery? 2011's are not the best ones to get, unless that was a more recent pack that has been replaced. I have a 2011 with original pack at 4.98 years old and 36k miles. It only has about 60% capacity. I'm waiting for the new pack to get here.

Bummer for me, I was hoping to get some parts to upgrade my leaf :D
 
Tonyt said:
Great you found one. Did you run a leafspy on the battery? 2011's are not the best ones to get, unless that was a more recent pack that has been replaced. I have a 2011 with original pack at 4.98 years old and 36k miles. It only has about 60% capacity. I'm waiting for the new pack to get here.

Bummer for me, I was hoping to get some parts to upgrade my leaf :D
I do not (yet) have Leaf Spy and had no time to tinker before dis-assembling.
Still I am planning to buy a complete car and part out.
I will keep you in mind once I have bought a complete-ish car.
I don't know the capacity of this pack, it had 38k mi but depending on the temps, it may have lost more or less capacity.
It was sitting at 380V, that is all I know. I will need to run the cells on a charger/cycler to know capacity.
So, we'll soon know.
 
what price are you seeing for these salvage cars? Cause I have yet to see one that is decent with an intact traction battery system. Used LEAFs are selling for slightly more
 
Marktm said:
I'd be interested in the service disconnect - but not sure if it matches my 2012 Leaf. Appears there were two types used - a "blade" style and a "rod" style - but not really sure.
Hi Marktm,
I thought that 2011 and 2012 were identical.
Anyway, the disconnect that I have has two round pins (and two tiny pins to tell if the disconnect is present or not)
Do you just want the orange plug or the receptacle or both?
 
The Leaf's repair manuals show two types with no real method to tell which (without pulling - which I'm not sure I want to do). I'd only want the pull disconnect only. It would be shipped to the Houston, TX area - 77498.
 
Marktm said:
The Leaf's repair manuals show two types with no real method to tell which (without pulling - which I'm not sure I want to do). I'd only want the pull disconnect only. It would be shipped to the Houston, TX area - 77498.
Shipping should not be more than $10, unfortunately it does not fit in a small flat rate box, even after dis-assembling.
Which *did* reveal one surprise to me: a 2,000 Amp fuse!
Due to that, I'd like to get $25 for the disconnect plug
since DC rated high current fuses are costly.
I uploaded a few pics of the complete disconnect that normally sits in the middle of the pack
and the plug, so you can verify that this is what you have.
It has 4 snap-fingers to put the cover back on the fuse, I can ship it re-assembled to minimize risk of damage.
The link to the Flickr pages is the same as before - here is the direct link to the plug:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/33178064@N05/27311191341/
 
I have a "crashed" 2011 Leaf with a new battery that was installed last November under warranty (has 8k miles on it), that I would be interested in selling. Any thoughts on what it would be worth. Front/side damage is mostly to aluminum body, but sensors in the car don't allow it to drive since side airbag deployed.
 
DMHLeafer said:
I have a "crashed" 2011 Leaf with a new battery that was installed last November under warranty (has 8k miles on it), that I would be interested in selling. Any thoughts on what it would be worth. Front/side damage is mostly to aluminum body, but sensors in the car don't allow it to drive since side airbag deployed.

how much was the cost of the salvaged vehicle? you can pm the answer (i have no interest in buying anything)
 
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