The Aftermarket Traction Battery Thread

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Thank you very much for sharing!
I was almost sure it would work but I wasn't sure about how many parts needed to be changed.

What's next a 40kWh? :mrgreen:
 
Excellent, well done! That looked seriously cold.

Is this a way to swap any battery without Nissan's Consult tool? VCM + LBC + key programming? I hope so.
 
What year of Leaf did you upgrade jsa0161, I have a 2012 I would like to do this too but I am not sure what I would have to do with the extra connector from the 30 kwh battery for the heater.
 
NiallDarwin said:
Excellent, well done! That looked seriously cold.

Is this a way to swap any battery without Nissan's Consult tool? VCM + LBC + key programming? I hope so.

It was cold, very cold! :D

I was offered help from a person who owned this tool: this tool:https://www.aliexpress.com/item/OBDSTAR-X-100-ProS-OBD2-Auto-Key-programmer-C-model-eeprom-security-code-reader-same-x200/32687310187.html
He had used it to register keys with the Leaf in the past and also thought it would be possible to register my key with VCM, using this tool.
Unfortunately he lived to far away so never got a chance to take him up on his offer. I think it would have worked.
 
Bigboler said:
What year of Leaf did you upgrade jsa0161, I have a 2012 I would like to do this too but I am not sure what I would have to do with the extra connector from the 30 kwh battery for the heater.

I got a 2014 Leaf. There could be other issues with a 2012 model. Not sure if the 30 kwh VCM would have worked. Yes, no? I don't know.

I don't think the extra connector for the battery heater would have been a deal breaker though. Probably just a can bus error code, but I'm guessing the car would still have worked.

They changed the canbus-with-friends-connector on the first gen1 battery back to the second gen ( 2013 +) so you need a adapter for that.
 
Just removed my deffective 30kwh from my leaf and replaced with a 24kwh battery. So yeah a downgrade.
12 bars restored , only one small issue
Error code " p3102 invalid battery".
The battery needs pairing with the vehicle, unfortunately nearest dealership refused to do it because they not HV battery trained.

I have VCM from donor car so looking to replace that.
The vehicle drives in limited mode now. Once i take off the VCM will be immobilized...
 
Driver said:
Just removed my deffective 30kwh from my leaf and replaced with a 24kwh battery. So yeah a downgrade.
12 bars restored , only one small issue
Error code " p3102 invalid battery".
The battery needs pairing with the vehicle, unfortunately nearest dealership refused to do it because they not HV battery trained.

I have VCM from donor car so looking to replace that.
The vehicle drives in limited mode now. Once i take off the VCM will be immobilized...


So you could try the HV pairing tool from evsenhanced, however, that tool only is certified to work with like for like replacements. Nissan doesn't officially support replacing a 30 kWh battery with anything other than a 30 kWh battery and the tool hasn't been tested doing that. I have no idea if it would work for your situation.

http://evsenhanced.com/products/hv-battery-pairing-tool/

I can say the tool works well. I just used it to swap a 12 bar 24kWh battery into my 7 bar 2011.

I sounds like someone has already succeeded in changing battery capacity by swapping the VCM's as well as the battery. You could do that at the dealership, then have them program the keys, assuming they're willing to.
 
I swapped a 2011 warranty replaced battery into another 2011 car. The mounting brackets and rear cover plates were different but the cabling itself was the same.

Because I had both cars (and not just the battery), all the parts were available to swap.
 
So you could try the HV pairing tool from EVSEnhanced, however, that tool only is certified to work with like for like replacements.

I have sent them a message and waiting for reply.

Dealer accepted to relearn my keys if i replace the VCM on my own... will be only next week to find out if will work or not.
 
jsa061 said:
Allright, so I'm finally done. It was a little more work then I expected but that's what you get when you are an optimist. I changed the battery in my own garage and in hindsight I wish I had invested in better, taller jack stands. The car needs about 70 cm ground clearance, at least if you are going to take out the battery from the back of the car.

After the car had the proper height it was actually not to difficult getting the battery out. I used a lifting table on wheels that I borrowed from a friend. ( Minimum height of table was 34 cm, battery pack is about 26 cm. And some extra cm penalty for taking the battery out from the back of the car) .Then it's easy to support the battery as you unscrew the bolts. Of course, you need to unload the old battery and get the new one on the table - there is some logistic there that took some time as well.

Another issue I had that took a long time figuring out was how to remove the main battery cable. Nissan has made some crazy patent that involves first pressing really hard on one side of the cable-release-mechanism , pull a little and then press another place. Why?

Swapping out the VCM was one of the easier parts of the operation. You just have to remove all the screws you can find on the inside and outside of the glove department and take the hole thing out. Than it's straight forward.

After swapping the battery and the VCM I of course wanted to test the car only to find out I got a lot of error messages. It all boiled down to that the keys need to be registered in the VCM. It's a straight forward procedure that has to do with Nissan immobilizer system. I got no error regarding incorrect battery ID or anything in that regards ( Leaf Spy pro). The range and everything was displaying correctly but it was not possible to get the car out of Park. This is where my part of the job ended. I had to tow the car ( front wheels were locked so I just called the professionals) to Nissan and they actually were quite helpful. They registered the keys with the VCM and now everything is working properly except the app. I'm not able to preheat the car or read out the battery information using the Nissan app. Interestingly, I can see my driving history on the app.

Some pictures:



Hi jsa061,

Did you get to figure out how to make the Nissan App work again?
Or maybe using another App like "My Leaf" or another one works?

And finally just for details sake, I use the App for 3 things: checking status, use AC, start to charge*.
You didn't explicitly mention it but I imagine "start to charge" function also does no work, is this correct?

* - I use this to charge from 80% to something closer to 100% before I go use the car, together with turning the AC on, so I get the most range without having the battery stressed for sitting at 100% for long.

Thanks and enjoy the 30kwh :mrgreen:
(yes, happy for you but also green because I'm jealous ;) I've got an mk1... I guess it won't be as simple...)
 
Driver said:
So you could try the HV pairing tool from EVSEnhanced, however, that tool only is certified to work with like for like replacements.

I have sent them a message and waiting for reply.

Dealer accepted to relearn my keys if i replace the VCM on my own... will be only next week to find out if will work or not.
What are these 'keys' ?
 
@SageBrush: I believe it is really the car keys - to open and start the car with.

As far as I understood it, everything needs to be paired/registered with the VCM.
The battery was fine as he replaced both the VCM and the battery from the same donor car.
But the keys were from his car and the new VCM from the donor car wouldn't recognize them.
That is why they needed to be reprogrammed/paired/registered/... to work - making all electronics parts agree that those are the valid keys to open and start the car :)

Notice that he also mentioned (same thread, other answer) he had gotten the keys from the donor car as well, but those wouldn't work because VCM works together with more electronics parts (BCM for instance) that were not replaced.
 
I will have 48 replacement batteries please.



https://thedriven.io/2019/06/03/new-zealand-battery-module-adds-45-range-to-nissan-leaf/
 
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