No Battery Warranty Check Necessary?

Ok, I thought that battery checks had to be performed in order to get the capacity warranty. I purchased my car a month ago 2/28/2015 and it is a 2011 with a 9/3/2011 in service date. I am in Arizona and the car was shipped in from Sherman Oaks California. I went to a dealer here and got a printout of a service-comm record. The original dealer was Miller Nissan of Sherman Oaks. First entry was 2/18/12 @ 4,497 miles PNC: P1271 VCM and TCU REPROGRAM and Operations performed P12740 REPROGRAM VCM and TCU - WITH Parts replaced LEAF1P1272.

Second entry was 1/5/13 @ 12,836 miles PNC: PC054 EV BATTERY CHECK 9-15 MTHS and Operations performed PC0540 EV BATTERY USAGE REPORT 12 M

Third entry was 7/9/13 @ 17,374 miles PNC: P3227 LEAF REPROGRAM and Operations performed P32270 REOGRAM ECU - SOH and OBC

Dealer tells me that I do not have to bring the car in for a battery check and it will still qualify for capacity warranty. Is this true? I now have 29,000 miles and 10 bars. I thought the warranty schedule had to be followed. Huh? They said they could do one but it would be $60 bucks.. but it is not necessary. Can someone tell me what's up please?

I'm also assuming somewhere the second free battery check was done during these service checkups.

I am supposedly the second owner of the car and I wish I had more info on it. Golly, the manuals are a mile thick and the forum is four years long!

Also the same dealer (different service writer), three weeks ago when I got the report printout, told me I could bring the car in for a free battery checkup with 2 day advance notice. The guy I got on the phone this time didn't know anything about Leaf's and began yelling across the room to get information from someone who supposedly did. I do not feel comfortable that they know what they are talking about.

We already have a reported denial of a warranty claim due to not having annual battery checks done:

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=17045&p=371939#p371939" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

So I would view that notion with massive skepticism. If that's what they're claiming, get them to put it in writing. I bet any money they'll balk.

Also $60 for a paid warranty check is very average. If you shop around, the last one I paid for was $34:

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=16113&p=408440#p407819" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

You'll note that the book time is 3/10th of an hour of labor. That means the labor at your dealer is nearly $200 a hour? I should bloody think not!

mwalsh said:

We already have a reported denial of a warranty claim due to not having annual battery checks done:
http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=17045&p=371939#p371939" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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I must be missing it..
Looks like they were saying it was denied because they opted out and not missing the check???
(Haven't read the whole thread tho)

One thing I'd do,evoforce, is to get that check as soon as you can.
Looks like it reads that they are saying if there is damage as a result of not getting the checks, they can deny it.
Seems to me that if you get a check, and they find no damage, you should be back on schedule.

INAL tho, but just MHO..

desiv

Evoforce said:

...
Dealer tells me that I do not have to bring the car in for a battery check and it will still qualify for capacity warranty. Is this true? ...

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Dealer service technician is wrong.

Based on the service info you provided, the vehicle may have already failed to have the required annual battery "test".
Possible that Nissan might refuse to do a capacity warranty replacement.
Would take discussion with Nissan corporate to know for sure.

Wouldn't nissan have to prove the lack of check contributed to the failure in order to deny warranty coverage?

mynameisjim said:

Wouldn't nissan have to prove the lack of check contributed to the failure in order to deny warranty coverage?

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In theory. So far I don't think anyone has challenged Nissan on this...

mwalsh said:

We already have a reported denial of a warranty claim due to not having annual battery checks done

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Just to be clear that was a case of EV customer service making stuff up like they are good at. The real reason was because I opted out of the class action.

drees said:

mynameisjim said:

Wouldn't nissan have to prove the lack of check contributed to the failure in order to deny warranty coverage?

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In theory. So far I don't think anyone has challenged Nissan on this...

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Probably because no one had been denied warranty because of it.

I think getting the report done would confirm that everything was ok with the battery thus if it was missed previously it doesn't matter because there is nothing wrong with the battery.

I see that there seems to be confusion surrounding this issue. And I am still confused about what is required or necessary.

Evoforce said:

I see that there seems to be confusion surrounding this issue. And I am still confused about what is required or necessary.

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Read the warrsnty. It basically says if you did not get the battery report performed and having it performed would have found a problem that could have been repaired before causing additional damage then the warrsnty will not be honored.

Evoforce said:

I see that there seems to be confusion surrounding this issue. And I am still confused about what is required or necessary.

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Nissan warranty is clear that customer should have annual battery "test" done.
Only uncertainty is to what degree Nissan will provide warranty coverage if customer has not done that.
That is a very complicated area of contractual law.
It varies in different states and sometimes even municipalities or counties.
If you want to have warranty coverage, much more straightforward to have the annual "test" done, and if buying a used LEAF verify it has been done before you buy it.

Since I don't know if any shop other than the dealer has performed this service in it's past history, I can't really tell if it is up to date or not. And if it may not have had it's second battery checkup, my next dealer checkup should be free. So... if I was truly out of warranty service I would definitely plumb a/c to the traction battery.

Evoforce said:

Since I don't know if any shop other than the dealer has performed this service in it's past history, I can't really tell if it is up to date or not. ...

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To the best of my knowledge the annual "test" can only be done by a Nissan dealer.
And the dates it was done will show up in the Nissan maintenance records system.

Yes, a non dealer could have a Consult 3.
But I don't think they could do the "test" because they don't have the connection into the Nissan maintenance system.

TimLee said:

Yes, a non dealer could have a Consult 3.
But I don't think they could do the "test" because they don't have the connection into the Nissan maintenance system.

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I got my last two battery tests done at Art's Automotive in Berkeley, CA. The (useless) paperwork I get looks the same as what I got at the dealer, and I've always assumed they are submitting the data to Nissan.

Cheers, Wayne

I'd check with a Nissan dealer and see if it is actually in the system... You might be surprised...

wwhitney said:

The (useless) paperwork I get looks the same as what I got at the dealer, and I've always assumed they are submitting the data to Nissan.

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QueenBee said:

Read the warrsnty. It basically says if you did not get the battery report performed and having it performed would have found a problem that could have been repaired before causing additional damage then the warrsnty will not be honored.

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Which suggests that if you have it done and get an "OK", you should be good even if previous checks have been missed.

Well I did some deep digging and found the previous owner and he did do all the warranty requirements. So that takes a load off my mind. Now I just need to make sure that I stay on top of it. I need to try to figure out when they need to go in.

Evoforce said:

Well I did some deep digging and found the previous owner and he did do all the warranty requirements. So that takes a load off my mind. Now I just need to make sure that I stay on top of it. I need to try to figure out when they need to go in.

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Find out the in service date which is when the warranty originally started. The service department should be able to tell you this and it's often printed on the paperwork from a Nissan service department. Then get the battery report done within a month of that date every year.

Thanks for that tip!