2014 Leaf S with only 21K miles but with only 11 bars

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ByeFO

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 4, 2017
Messages
69
Location
Philadelphia area
Hi,

So I was all excited by a nice looking 2014 with only 21K miles for sale by Carvana.

I asked them to send me a photo of the driver display and I can see there are only 11 bars.

I thought with this few miles that there would still be 12 bars. Is this bad?

Should I pass on buying this Leaf?

Thanks!
 
It's not good. It must have either come from a very hot climate like AZ or TX or topped off frequently or stored at a high SOC% for quite some time.
That said it without LeafSpy it's hard to say if it's almost a 12 bar car or almost a 10. Lots of 12 bars cars for sale that are going to be a 11 bar in no time. If the range 60ish?? meets your need and the car looks good otherwise, it may be just fine :)
 
jjeff said:
It's not good. It must have either come from a very hot climate like AZ or TX or topped off frequently or stored at a high SOC% for quite some time.
That said it without LeafSpy it's hard to say if it's almost a 12 bar car or almost a 10. Lots of 12 bars cars for sale that are going to be a 11 bar in no time. If the range 60ish?? meets your need and the car looks good otherwise, it may be just fine :)

I looked at its Carfax and it was leased to someone in CA - I'm guessing a hot area of CA.

I bought a LELink BLE OBD-II and I am going to download LeafSpy Pro/Premium (he doesn't make the base app for iPhone evidently).

I could let them deliver it and during my hour of checking it out run the LeafSpy and see how much is left - SOC% (correct?)

I live in PA where we do have hot summers and it would be parked in the sun at work and garaged at home when not being used.

My roundtrip daily commute totals 45 miles (mostly highway).

Thanks!
 
Personally, I would spend the same amount on a 2013 with a healthier battery instead. The battery condition is by far the most important buying decision criteria.
 
Just noticed your question about LeafSpy. There are plenty of good threads on here about what metrics are useful for assessing battery health. In short, SOH, AHr, and Hx.

SOC is just the state of charge, not very useful for assessing battery health.

Check out these:

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=23775

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&p=491703#p491659
 
alozzy said:
Just noticed your question about LeafSpy. There are plenty of good threads on here about what metrics are useful for assessing battery health. In short, SOH, AHr, and Hx.

SOC is just the state of charge, not very useful for assessing battery health.

Check out these:

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=23775

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&p=491703#p491659
Thanks! I'll have to look those over.
 
You should not consider that in PA, you live in a hot climate....

A hot climate for the Leaf is like Texas, Arizona where they are baking in 100+ heat all summer long..

PA is like new York where I live, a temperate climate, so don't worry about heat when you get your car...
 
powersurge said:
You should not consider that in PA, you live in a hot climate....

A hot climate for the Leaf is like Texas, Arizona where they are baking in 100+ heat all summer long..

PA is like new York where I live, a temperate climate, so don't worry about heat when you get your car...

Not true. We get occasional stretches of 90+F weather here, with warm nights. It only takes a couple of those a year to degrade batteries. My car lost a bit more than 10% in the first two years. Pennsylvania is South of me.
 
Will its battery - having degraded this far after 21K miles for whatever reason - jeopardize the battery's remaining life?

I guess what I'm asking is if this damages the battery to the point that it might degrade faster than a 2014 11-bar Leaf that lost its first bar at higher mileage, let say from being in a cooler climate.

If there is no permanent effect, I would look at the value of the car the same way I might if it was a 2014 11-bar Leaf with higher mileage that has already lost its first bar. Or maybe it would be closer to value of a 2013 Leaf S.

Thanks for your help!
 
LeafSpy may give you more info on the shape the battery is in, but I don't think we have a way to measure "degree of damage" except by cell voltage variance. IOW you'll be able to see if the car has a bad cell (good for warranty replacement!) or if it's unbalanced, but no real data will be there to answer your question if there is no bad cell.
 
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