The Battery Replacement Thread

[JohnOver]

You need to invest in Leaf Spy and an OBD II to see what you really have left. I live in Houston, and sometimes I get LBW at 27%. That's really a LOT.

I got this one and it works perfectly. Samsung S4 phone.

http://rcbullock.blogspot.com/2014/09/bluetooth-obd-2-for-nissan-leaf-and.html

Yep. I've been using them for years:

... (LEAF Spy Pro says I have 76% SOH, 5 QC, 5442L1/L2) ...

Where are you in Houston? I went to high school at Dulles in Stafford.

 

[DaveEV]

I took it in for the 60k, but the brakes were doing a different kind of grabbing than before MUCH worse at low speed and kind of a shudder at speed (felt like warped rotors to me). I've been having to get creative as my pack got weaker and charge to more than 80% (especially in the cold), which means that I've only been getting about 5kW of regen all the way down 17. So I had to use friction to keep in line with traffic. With the new battery I could run the heater and get enough regen so that I still had 10 bars after 10-12 miles of dropping the 2000 feet.

OK, that makes sense. So I wonder what caused your warped rotors. 99/100 times it's a buildup of pad material on the rotors, typically caused by a hard stop (highway speeds to a stop) where you don't roll the car for a bit and brake pad deposits are left on the rotors, not rotors that are actually warped.

http://www.stoptech.com/technical-support/technical-white-papers/-warped-brake-disc-and-other-myths" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

So the question is - what really caused the warped brake rotors - was it the reduction in regen causing an increase in friction brakes being required and a few hard stops with improperly bedded pads/rotors? Or is it just the nature of driving HWY 17?

I'm holding out for a true 200+ mile range... I figure that will be in 2016 or maybe 2017.

IMO - if you're expecting a true 200+ mile range meaning a Tesla like ~85 kWh - don't hold your breath unless you want to pay Tesla $$$ for one. I doubt the Model 3 will be out before 2018 at the earliest and I suspect the Nissan offering will be more like a true 125-150 mile range based on the numbers being bandied about during interviews (400 km on the Japan cycle - current LEAF is rated well over 200 km on the Japan cycle, so expect less than double the current range in the next generation LEAF, anyway.

Another couple of months with this battery and I won't be able to get home. Right now, if I'm even barely aggressive on 17 climbing the hill I get home with a flashing 5 and low battery warning.

Just to be clear, is your commute is 35 miles round trip or 35 miles each way - and do you live at/near the top of the Santa Cruz Mtns or in Santa Cruz? Since you have Leaf Spy, what's your SOC% and GID count when you get home?

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

2011 versa had marginally different length width and wheelbase than Leaf but with twice the cargo space. I think it didnt have nav available, but otherwise fitted much the same in the 1.8sl at $17,800. And it was a second faster 0-60.

$25k buys a top of the line Accord. That is a higher class of car.

Thanks for the tip, pretty certain the car comparison is fair though still a bit confused on the forum.

***disclaimer*** total experience with Versa; one car for 3 days

drive both THEN say they are comparable cars. Be it ballast or batteries; the LEAF simply feels MUCH better to me. but then again, maybe I just drove a Lemon Versa

 

[Weatherman]

***disclaimer*** total experience with Versa; one car for 3 days

drive both THEN say they are comparable cars. Be it ballast or batteries; the LEAF simply feels MUCH better to me. but then again, maybe I just drove a Lemon Versa

I drove a Versa when I was vacationing in Reno, NV back in November. Five days of driving around the mountains surrounding Lake Tahoe.

There is no comparison between a LEAF and a Versa. The Versa was slow, unresponsive and struggled on the climb up the steeper grade roads. It's only advantage... I didn't have to worry about running out of charge on the battery.

 

[memoryisram]

Small update to my 2011 Leaf battery warranty experience. I finally got around to buying a cheapo Android tablet for LeafSpy and ODBII bluetooth reader, and the wealth of data you are able to gather from it is indispensable. I've been watching my capacity slowly fall from 72% to 69% over the past month or two, but I've moved to Palm Springs (from San Diego) for the next few months for work, so this dessert heat is certainly going to kill off this battery sooner than later.

I actually found a great Nissan dealership out here (Palm Springs Nissan) that is very well versed in the battery pack replacement program. I had my car towed there when I punctured a tire over a piece of rebar in a parking lot. They were in the process of doing a swap on a 2011 while I was waiting for the tire. I was told as soon as I lose another bar, bring it in, they will gather my details, order the pack, and once it arrives in 3-4 weeks, bring the car back in for the swap no hassles. Really looking forward to it because this diminished range is killing me.

Here's a quick screenshot I took when I hit 69%:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0HiBNfN-MdmcDFrQVo1S09xWUE" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[spike09]

My Battery Capacity finally dropped to 8 bars after 34 months and 25K miles. My commute is 25 miles round trip so I waited over a month before taking it to the dealer. Bill Siedle Nissan swapped my battery pack with a brand new battery pack for Zero dollars out of my pocket. They gave me a Nissan Versa as a free loaner while my LEAF was in the shop.

It was Bill Siedles first battery swap so of course it took longer than expected. They sent the battery report to Nissan the very first day but it took a couple of weeks for Nissan to approve the battery swap and ship the new pack to the dealer.

The dealer also had to order a bracket to make the 2015 battery pack fit into a 2012 LEAF. I had read about how this bracket had to be ordered separately but I forgot about it by the time I dropped off my car.

It took over a week after the batteries were installed for my car to communicate with the new battery pack. This was right around Christmas and New Years so all the Nissan techs who knew how to fix this problem were on vacation!

I got my LEAF back exactly one month after dropping it off :roll:. My LEAFDD meter showed 100.16% Health and 276 GIDS after my first full charge. It has now been over a month on my new batteries and Health has dropped to 94.90% but I still get 278~274 Max GIDS. I am charging to 100% just like on the old pack but this time I charge up the batteries every night.

Thank you Nissan. It feels great to be back to full capacity. The car still drives like new after 3 years .

Although I never had an issue with the LEAF range to begin with, I do hope the next LEAF delivers on the 200+ miles promise.

 

[DarkDave]

I became a member of the 4 bar loss club on Jan 5th. The Leaf Spy stats for the battery at the time of loss were:

24,532 miles
SOC=79.9%
SOH=65%
AHr=43.14
385.7V
Hx=44.65%
1435 L1/L2 charges (99.9% were L2)

I've still been able to get at least 40 miles of range on an 80% charge, so I wasn't in a big hurry to get the replacement process started. Plus the rate of degradation has been pretty slow the past few months. Last time I took a close look at the stats in October, the AHr was 43.18, Hx=44.72%. My daily commute is usually 25-30 miles total.

I finally got around to taking in my car to the dealer this morning to get the warranty claim started. Tech was done with my car about 8:45am, and I promptly got a call at 9:20 from the service manager saying Nissan had already approved the battery swap. Delivery is estimated to be 4-6 weeks for the battery. Yay!!!

 

[TickTock]

Just got mine replaced last week. It took ALL of the 4-6 week estimated delivery time for the battery to arrive (last day of week 6). The new battery was confirmed to be the new chemistry with the new harness (dealership told me that that is all they get now for battery swaps). Details of first 100% charge:
284 gids
94% SOC
394.5 V
100% SOH
99.6 Hx
78mOhms


They snapped a picture of it for me before install:

 

[spike09]

Just got mine replaced last week. It took ALL of the 4-6 week estimated delivery time for the battery to arrive (last day of week 6). The new battery was confirmed to be the new chemistry with the new harness (dealership told me that that is all they get now for battery swaps). Details of first 100% charge:
284 gids
94% SOC
394.5 V
100% SOH
99.6 Hx
78mOhms


They snapped a picture of it for me before install:

Now I do not feel so bad about it "only" taking 4 weeks for my battery replacement!

 

[vegastar]

Congratulations on your new battery! I assume the new battery is about 50kg lighter than the previous one, do you notice any improvement in performance?

 

[TimLee]

78mOhms

From the EV-CAN using a CANary logger?
Is ESR only on the EV-CAN?
So CANary logger, or LEAFDD, or other EV-CAN monitoring device is needed to monitor ESR?

 

[TickTock]

78mOhms

From the EV-CAN using a CANary logger?
Is ESR only on the EV-CAN?
So CANary logger, or LEAFDD, or other EV-CAN monitoring device is needed to monitor ESR?

There isn't a direct ESR message so, yes, you need to monitor the EV-Can. Capture all the Pack Volts and Pack Amps messages and then compute the ESR based on delta_V/delta_I as the load changes. If I recall correctly the LeafSpy device makes a directed request for this information as well so you can get a reasonable estimation by capturing the V&A at idle(?) and again during acceleration.

 

[Yogi62]

I became a member of the 4 bar loss club on Jan 5th. The Leaf Spy stats for the battery at the time of loss were:

24,532 miles
SOC=79.9%
SOH=65%
AHr=43.14
385.7V
Hx=44.65%
1435 L1/L2 charges (99.9% were L2)

I've still been able to get at least 40 miles of range on an 80% charge, so I wasn't in a big hurry to get the replacement process started. Plus the rate of degradation has been pretty slow the past few months. Last time I took a close look at the stats in October, the AHr was 43.18, Hx=44.72%. My daily commute is usually 25-30 miles total.

I finally got around to taking in my car to the dealer this morning to get the warranty claim started. Tech was done with my car about 8:45am, and I promptly got a call at 9:20 from the service manager saying Nissan had already approved the battery swap. Delivery is estimated to be 4-6 weeks for the battery. Yay!!!

I have to say I am astounded by how much degradation you experienced om 24K miles. You are in Florida, do you parking outside? Here in Boston with 22K on a 2013 I am still getting 284 GID. Heat or lack of it must be huge factor.

Question about the exchange. Given your commute was still workable, was there any thought of riding it for a while or was there a deadline for doing the swap?

 

[DarkDave]

I became a member of the 4 bar loss club on Jan 5th. The Leaf Spy stats for the battery at the time of loss were:

24,532 miles
SOC=79.9%
SOH=65%
AHr=43.14
385.7V
Hx=44.65%
1435 L1/L2 charges (99.9% were L2)

I've still been able to get at least 40 miles of range on an 80% charge, so I wasn't in a big hurry to get the replacement process started. Plus the rate of degradation has been pretty slow the past few months. Last time I took a close look at the stats in October, the AHr was 43.18, Hx=44.72%. My daily commute is usually 25-30 miles total.

I finally got around to taking in my car to the dealer this morning to get the warranty claim started. Tech was done with my car about 8:45am, and I promptly got a call at 9:20 from the service manager saying Nissan had already approved the battery swap. Delivery is estimated to be 4-6 weeks for the battery. Yay!!!

I have to say I am astounded by how much degradation you experienced om 24K miles. You are in Florida, do you parking outside? Here in Boston with 22K on a 2013 I am still getting 284 GID. Heat or lack of it must be huge factor.

Question about the exchange. Given your commute was still workable, was there any thought of riding it for a while or was there a deadline for doing the swap?

I'm actually in Arizona, where I think we ended up being the true guinea pigs for this car. I didn't have a deadline for replacing the battery, but I figured I should get it done now before the summer heat hits here in Arizona. I've had the car a month shy of 4 years now. Even though I still had a year left on the original battery warranty, now seemed like a good time to get it done after hearing positive results from everyone else who's had the battery pack replaced. And given that most people were quoted a 4-6 week ETA for the battery, I wanted to get it done now before my work schedule gets hectic later this spring.

So, much to my surprise when I got a call last Monday saying my battery had arrived. 6 days from approval and order to arriving at the dealer!! I had it installed last Thursday through Autonation Nissan Chandler. I have to say it's been the most painless, least stressful warranty repair I've ever done on a car. I couldn't believe it when I was quoted 4-6 weeks and it arrived 6 days after I took it in to get the process started. The battery pack swap was done 6 hours after I dropped it off and picked up the same day.

The P/N code on the order was for the newer lizard battery, I'm really hoping the lizard battery holds up to the heat here in AZ. I almost never charged to 100%, hoping that would extend the life of the battery when it didn't. But then again, I'm really glad Nissan kept their word that they would take care of their customers.

Minus worn tires and worn spots on the crappy interior fabric, I feel like I'm driving a new car again. Here's the Leaf Spy stats after the first 100% charge. The cells still need to be balanced, they were all over the map after the first charge as the packs are shipped uncharged.

47 months, 25,417 miles, new battery:
AHr = 66.14
SOH = 100%
394.88V
Hx=99.97%
Gids= 286

My Gid-O-Meter box I use for tracking the percent charge while driving reported a charge of 101.7%, due to the 286 gids reported.

 

[RegGuheert]

78mOhms

From the EV-CAN using a CANary logger?
Is ESR only on the EV-CAN?
So CANary logger, or LEAFDD, or other EV-CAN monitoring device is needed to monitor ESR?

There isn't a direct ESR message so, yes, you need to monitor the EV-Can. Capture all the Pack Volts and Pack Amps messages and then compute the ESR based on delta_V/delta_I as the load changes. If I recall correctly the LeafSpy device makes a directed request for this information as well so you can get a reasonable estimation by capturing the V&A at idle(?) and again during acceleration.

From your spreadsheet, I can see that the highest resistance you recorded with the old pack was 191 mOhm and the last resistance you recorded was 140 mOhm, so it appears the resistance was roughly doubled at 54% SOH. I've been wondering if anyone has calculated the individual cell impedances and created a histogram showing the spread.

Also, I have noticed multiple times when driving in very cold weather that the cells at the end of the rear stack and at the bottom of the other stacks show a lower voltage than the rest of the pack. I assume this is due to their being colder and therefore have lower capacity and higher resistance. But that is a short-term effect. I wonder if there is a correspondingly higher degradation in the other cells during hot weather. Does anyone notice the cells in the middle of the rear stack or the tops of the front stacks degrading faster than the rest?

 

[Evoforce]

I would like to know DarkDave, if you had every one of your warranty timeframe battery inspections. Or if any were missed or late. Example 12, 24, 36, 48, etc. respectively, monthly battery checkups.

 

[DarkDave]

I would like to know DarkDave, if you had every one of your warranty timeframe battery inspections. Or if any were missed or late. Example 12, 24, 36, 48, etc. respectively, monthly battery checkups.

My Leaf did have a battery check once every calendar year, but not all of them were before the yearly date. The dealer never informed to me that the battery checks were a requirement for my battery to be eligible for replacement when I did take it in for replacement. The only reason the battery check on my car was done around the 3 year mark was because I took it in to have one of the software updates done under the service campaign.

I took a look again at the letter from Nissan about the expanded warranty coverage for capacity. No where in the text does it mention yearly checks being required for replacement, only that the warranty is for 60 months or 60,000 miles, whichever comes first.

It always seemed to me like the yearly battery check was just there for Nissan to collect data and to keep the owners informed about their car's battery health.

 

[TomT]

I am researching something and I though this information was here, but I can't find it...

Does anyone have a copy of the invoice or a list of all the part numbers for the capacity warranty battery replacement on a 2011 or 2012 with the 2015 battery?

Thanks!

 

[Evoforce]

The 2011 SL Leaf I just purchased had the battery replaced in Dec 2014 @ 22,273 miles. Here is the list:

1 748N2-3NF0A COVER BATTERY
1 748N3-3NF0A COVER BATTERY
1 295B0-3NF9E BATTERY ASMY
2 749D0-3NF1A BRKT ASMY-BAT M
4 01125-N0111 BOLT
1 24220-7S020 CLIP
1 297C1-3NF0A SWITCH-DISCONNE


Enjoy!

 

[Evoforce]

I also did some deep digging and found the previous owner of my leaf with the 10 bars. I called him tonight to inquire about the car under his care

He helped me feel much better about the holes in the history that I had on the car. It was a lease return (which is what I figured) and while it was in his care he did all of the warranty requirements. Yessssss! He turned it in November in California.

He may be able to find some of the paperwork for me and send it. I found out that he liked the Leaf so much, that he moved on to purchase a 2015 S Model Leaf. Who knows, he might be a forum member. I'll probably talk to him again and find out.

So... I have to figure out if it needs to go in for a battery check but I am sure glad to find out that it had all the required ones previously.