Dealer couldn't perform battery test

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adric22

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 23, 2010
Messages
2,488
Location
Fort Worth, TX
I took my leaf to my local dealer today to have the battery test performed.. I've had the car nearly a year so I figured it was time. They said they were busy and it would take a while so I got somebody to pick me up and drive me home. Well, about the time I got home, they called from the dealership and said they couldn't do the test. Apparently the battery must be nearly discharged before they can run the test. He said the battery meter shouldn't show more than 2 bars. So I have to go pick it up and bring it back some other day.

Odd huh?
 
adric22 said:
I took my leaf to my local dealer today to have the battery test performed.. I've had the car nearly a year so I figured it was time. They said they were busy and it would take a while so I got somebody to pick me up and drive me home. Well, about the time I got home, they called from the dealership and said they couldn't do the test. Apparently the battery must be nearly discharged before they can run the test. He said the battery meter shouldn't show more than 2 bars. So I have to go pick it up and bring it back some other day.

Odd huh?

interesting. a Seattle Leafer just had his done yesterday. he did not mention any requirements
 
thank you for the information.
I suppose that those are among the perils of being a beta tester and early adopter.
now, the rest of us know more.
 
I believe your dealer is mistaken.

adric22 said:
I took my leaf to my local dealer today to have the battery test performed.. I've had the car nearly a year so I figured it was time. They said they were busy and it would take a while so I got somebody to pick me up and drive me home. Well, about the time I got home, they called from the dealership and said they couldn't do the test. Apparently the battery must be nearly discharged before they can run the test. He said the battery meter shouldn't show more than 2 bars. So I have to go pick it up and bring it back some other day.
 
TomT said:
I believe your dealer is mistaken.

adric22 said:
I took my leaf to my local dealer today to have the battery test performed.. I've had the car nearly a year so I figured it was time. They said they were busy and it would take a while so I got somebody to pick me up and drive me home. Well, about the time I got home, they called from the dealership and said they couldn't do the test. Apparently the battery must be nearly discharged before they can run the test. He said the battery meter shouldn't show more than 2 bars. So I have to go pick it up and bring it back some other day.

Or didn't have enough time (test required more time than you allowed, or didn't have the manpower), were unequipped/unable to do the test, or just avoiding the job.

I'm expecting they didn't have the manpower given how many other cars were before you. The battery SOC (State Of Charge) would be a convenient excuse to keep from looking bad (for the moment).

I once took my truck in to the dealer (not Nissan) for a laundry list of small tasks (100k mile check-ups). Most were done, but they didn't have the overhead interior dome lamp fixture (lens and lamp holder) in stock, and "couldn't find any in town" (there were 8-10 dealers in town). That was the trigger that made me take the truck in for service in the first place.

I picked up my truck, drove directly to another dealer 15 miles away, bought the fixture and installed it myself in about 5 minutes at home. For that reason (and a few others, more serious), I no longer trust that dealer any further than I can throw my truck.

Call around if you have any doubts.
 
There might be two types of Battery Pack test:

1. A readout of your usage patterns to see if you appear to be stressing (abusing) your battery.

2. A real Battery Pack Diagnostic where all 96 of the cell-pair voltages are read, and can be compared, perhaps even printed.

How many have had Type #2?
 
garygid said:
There might be two types of Battery Pack test:

1. A readout of your usage patterns to see if you appear to be stressing (abusing) your battery.

2. A real Battery Pack Diagnostic where all 96 of the cell-pair voltages are read, and can be compared, perhaps even printed.

How many have had Type #2?

And in the service manual it says that the battery must be discharged to 2 bars for the "CELL VOLTAGE LOSS INSPECTION". They even have a procedure to discharge the battery where a fully charged battery takes 230 minutes to discharge.
 
vegastar said:
They even have a procedure to discharge the battery where a fully charged battery takes 230 minutes to discharge.

I have a simpler procedure. Take it out on the freeway at 70mph and it will only take 60 minutes at most to get down to 2 bars or less.
 
Two new Bars, or two Old-Bars?

There is about a 1.4 bar difference. Two full New-Bars (possibly in the April 2011 Service Manual) is about 1.7 bars over LBW, whereas two full Old-Bars (would be used in the original Fall 2010 Service Manual) is only about 0.3 bars above LBW.

------
Discharging (at roughly L2 rates) before the test, and using L2 after the test to get the customer's car recharged (enough to get home safely), can make this Cell-Diagnostics test take 6 or more hours.

If one lives close to the dealer, arriving with the "required" low readings, and being able to get back home on the remaining 2 bars ... would be optimal for timing.

------
Doing the test at low battery would usually make a "bad" cell-pair more obvious, but more-or-less assumes that the Pack is well Balanced.

Doing the test near FULL would check how effectively the Pack balancing was being accomplished.

------
We need to log (low profile, or with a sympathetic dealer) the EV CAN bus during this Diagnostic so that we can attempt to find out how one (we) could "request" the cell-pair voltages.
 
vegastar said:
And in the service manual it says that the battery must be discharged to 2 bars for the "CELL VOLTAGE LOSS INSPECTION". They even have a procedure to discharge the battery where a fully charged battery takes 230 minutes to discharge.


Yes. My recommendation is to charge the night before to only 80%, if you're going to be going to the dealership directly in the morning. Unless, of course, you can't make it there on only 80% charge!
 
mwalsh said:
Yes. My recommendation is to charge the night before to only 80%, if you're going to be going to the dealership directly in the morning. Unless, of course, you can't make it there on only 80% charge!

Just FYI, as the original poster of this thread, my dealership is only about 7 miles from my house and since I took city streets instead of the highway to get there my Leaf was actually reading 100% charge and 105 miles of range when I arrived.

Whenever I get another chance to go, I'll run the car down to three bars and then head towards the dealer, hoping to make it to 2 bars when I arrive. As long as they charge it for 30 minutes or so, it should be a very worry-free ride home. The only disadvantage is that my car will be drained and won't be able to plan any longer trips for that day until a full recharge.
 
I'm expecting this kind of confusion when I take my car in a week from now for its annual test. I asked if the car needed to be at a particular SOC, and they said no. Then they told me that there was no battery test needed, but if I insisted, they would hook up the Consult diagnostic unit. What'll you bet that they try and charge me for the service?

I told them that the owner's manual and warranty manual clearly state that annual battery tests are required in order to keep the battery warranty in effect. To be fair, my LEAF will probably be the first one that has come in for the battery test; it was only the second LEAF that they sold.

Looks like I'll have to rent a car dolly. I could drive the LEAF down to Palmdale, but then I'd be stranded without a car until the next day. Too bad; the 85 mile drive down would guarantee that I'd arrive with a low SOC.

-Karl
 
The OP's dealer probably doesn't understand the procedures. Given a requirement that a customer arrive at the dealer with only two bars of charge is absurdly onerous, it's very hard to believe that Nissan doesn't have a procedure for testing batteries at all SOCs. My guess is we don't hear about this again.
 
Gary,

The SM I have says 2 bars wich I suppose are old bars. What is more important is that it mentions to discharge the battery until the lowest cell pair reads 3,712V. For a perfectly balanced pack this is 356,4V wich is the voltage that my car has when it reaches LBW. This is were the knee of the voltage starts and makes it a lot easier to see unbalanced/damaged cells.
 
SanDust said:
The OP's dealer probably doesn't understand the procedures. Given a requirement that a customer arrive at the dealer with only two bars of charge is absurdly onerous, it's very hard to believe that Nissan doesn't have a procedure for testing batteries at all SOCs. My guess is we don't hear about this again.
This has been an illuminating discussion, but I think the obvious conclusion is that the required annual battery report is not the same as the CELL VOLTAGE LOSS INSPECTION. Here is what the Warranty Information booklet says:
You are required to perform annual EV Battery Usage Report at intervals of 12 months, 24 months, ...
See? They don't even call it an inspection. It sounds to me like it is just a log readout. That could be done at any charge level. Now maybe the OP specifically asked for an inspection or test, or maybe the service department misunderstood the warranty requirement, but the bottom line is that the annual report has no onerous requirement but probably won't tell you much. I expect we will hear about this "2 bar" inspection again, but only in the context of a battery which is acting up.

Ray
 
vegastar said:
Gary,

The SM I have says 2 bars wich I suppose are old bars. What is more important is that it mentions to discharge the battery until the lowest cell pair reads 3,712V. For a perfectly balanced pack this is 356,4V wich is the voltage that my car has when it reaches LBW. This is were the knee of the voltage starts and makes it a lot easier to see unbalanced/damaged cells.


this makes sense
 
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