Battery concern

Hi,

I'm in the market to buy a used Nissan Leaf. My primary concern about buying one a used one is knowing what the state of the battery is like.

Should I be relying on the battery-meter that the HUD inside the leaf displays? I've seen some threads about SOC-meters which offer a more accurate representation of the life of the battery looks like, but if I were to be buying from a private owner, would this be something I could use?

Thanks for any help.

I would suggest Leaf Spy (link in my signature, no affiliation with creator). The State of Charge isn't helpful, and the battery capacity bars are way too coarse to give you accurate info.

Can you update your location info via User Control Panel (near top) > Profile (left side)? That way, we don't need to ask in future posts/threads or do sleuthing to deduce it.

What are your daily driving needs in terms of miles? How much city vs. highway? Will you have the ability to charge at your work/destinations?

http://www.electricvehiclewiki.com/?title=Battery_Capacity_Loss#Symptoms" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; shows you how to identify the capacity bars and capacity bar losers. Unfortunately, unscrupulous dealers can reset the BMS and make it look like all 12 bars are visible (e.g. http://daveinolywa.blogspot.com/2014/11/buyers-beware-this-is-must-read.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; and http://daveinolywa.blogspot.com/2014/12/update-saga-of-vin-222-resolved.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false but then the BMS gradually relearns and the CBs start disappearing again...

I believe (but am not certain) that someone w/a reset BMS on a degraded battery will start out with a fairly high # of gids and health, which will degrade, as the BMS relearns. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

It would be a good idea to know where the car has resided (e.g. Carfax and/or Autocheck report). If it's resided in hot/hotter climates, it'll have lost more capacity than one that hasn't, all else being equal.

Thanks for the information.

I'm from the Bay Area (updated my settings). My current work commute is approximately ~30 miles roundtrip, and I do have access to charge there and various other destinations. Most of the weekend driving is in the city while the weekday commute is spent in the highway.

If a seller could simply reset the BMS, then how could I ever know the true state of the battery? Carfax and lifetime mileage seem like the best bet to make some general conclusions, but I would prefer some concrete evidence with regards to the battery.

Unfortunately, I don't have access to an Android phone or tablet, so I can't use Leaf Spy.

ceejayc7 said:

Unfortunately, I don't have access to an Android phone or tablet, so I can't use Leaf Spy.

Click to expand...

You can pick up a used one cheaply. If it's a phone it does not have to be subscribed.

ceejayc7 said:

Thanks for the information.

I'm from the Bay Area (updated my settings). My current work commute is approximately ~30 miles roundtrip, and I do have access to charge there and various other destinations. Most of the weekend driving is in the city while the weekday commute is spent in the highway.

If a seller could simply reset the BMS, then how could I ever know the true state of the battery? Carfax and lifetime mileage seem like the best bet to make some general conclusions, but I would prefer some concrete evidence with regards to the battery.

Unfortunately, I don't have access to an Android phone or tablet, so I can't use Leaf Spy.

Click to expand...

Unfortunately, resetting the BMS will affect the information reported by Leaf Spy until the car is driven enough for the BMS system to relearn the battery characteristics (probably one or two discharge/charge cycles is enough to get good data from Leaf Spy, but it may take weeks for the capacity bars on the dash to drop to where they were before the reset). Therefore, a combination of car history and Leaf Spy readings is probably the best way to estimate battery condition.

Leaf Spy is also available for iOS, but you need a WiFi unit to plug in to the OBDII port (costs a little more than Bluetooth and may require setting changes on your phone or iPad). I got a prepaid phone to use with Leaf Spy and never activated it so my costs were about $35 for the phone, $15 for the OBDII Bluetooth adapter, and the price of the Android application.

I was able to make my 52-mile roundtrip (26 each way with freeway except for 2 or 3 miles at each end) with my 2011 down to 8 capacity bars (4 lost) with A/C use before Nissan replaced the battery so your 30-mile roundtrip should be no problem even with capacity loss.

Gerry