What to do with a bricked Leaf?

[Gen1LeafProject]

What's the best way to get some money out of a totally dead 2011 leaf?

The Leaf was a great car for our "first electric" commuter and perfect for our needs. The 40 miles of remaining range on the 8 bar battery was plenty for our in-city commute.

But then, I did a stupid thing. When replacing the 12V battery, I hooked it up backwards. Yeah I know, dumb. For over 60 seconds I wondered what was wrong. I fried a bunch of fuses, and likely a bunch of electronics as well. After replacing every fuse (even the ones that were hard to get to) and hooking the battery back up correctly, it won't charge, or turn on the dash panel, or do anything.

I called 3 dealers in my area (Seattle) and they all said "can of worms, you probably fried a bunch of electronics, bring it in and we'll spend money until you tell us to stop, or accept that it's dead."

Since I only paid $2500 for the car, I've decided to move on and accept the consequences of my mistake. Now, what do I do with it?

I'd like to get SOME money back, but I have never "junked" an EV before so I'm at a loss.

Any guidance appreciated.

 

[cornbinder89]

I would think that it shouldn't be totally dead. Main fuse at the battery? I would think you should be able to get at least a light to light. If I didn't get that, I would poke around and see how far the power is making it.
None of this means it isn't toast, but it would be more value to someone if some of the stuff works, then there is a chance at a private sale.
Barring that, then call a junkyard to come haul it off.
If you were nearby, I'd come and poke around and see what could be seen.

 

[atikovi]

Scrap cars are something like 10 cents pound or over $300 for the whole car. You could probably get $250 for just one door, hood or hatch, but that takes a lot of time and space to part it out. Maybe post it on Facebook for $1000 and take the first $500 offer.

 

[BillAinCT]

I would think that it shouldn't be totally dead. Main fuse at the battery? I would think you should be able to get at least a light to light. If I didn't get that, I would poke around and see how far the power is making it.
None of this means it isn't toast, but it would be more value to someone if some of the stuff works, then there is a chance at a private sale.
Barring that, then call a junkyard to come haul it off.
If you were nearby, I'd come and poke around and see what could be seen.

Exactly, and if it were something simple that you've missed you will have junked a car that someone might get running quickly. Please find someone to help do more troubleshooting.

I do know a Mercedes was jumped "backwards" and it took out the main computer and a couple of other things. Because the main computer was fried the car appeared completely dead. That is expensive to try to replace for possibly nothing, but it could be that. Maybe you can get a cheap one from a junk yard to do a test.

 

[bojoho]

Give me 1 hr with it.

I'm in the Seattle area.

Direct message me and we can set up a time in the next couple weeks.

 

[Lovelyleaf]

Surely the battery alone is worth what you paid for it? Or use it as a power wall?

 

[cornbinder89]

Give me 1 hr with it.

I'm in the Seattle area.

Direct message me and we can set up a time in the next couple weeks.

Please let us know if you have any success/ what you find.

 

[Gen1LeafProject]

OK will do

 

[cornbinder89]

Any news?

 

[Gen1LeafProject]

So I spoke with bojoho on the phone (super helpful guy) and we discussed some scenarios and tests. I slow-charged the 12V battery, verified it is good, put it in and hooked it up, checked cross-power across the poles (good), then attempted to figure out if power was getting to the BCM. The BCM is what I think is fried. Looking at the circuit diagram, if you hook it up backwards like I did, there is no fuse between the positive terminal and the BCM, so I sent a lot more amperage through it (backwards) than it's supposed to have. I was stumped when it came to figuring where exactly the BCM is, so I never got around to testing whether power is actually getting there with a multimeter.

The (probably) fried BCM is a $900 part that requires dealer reprogramming to match the VIN and then can't be returned if there are other problems.

In the meantime, we've decided to take the suggestion of just putting it on Facebook and seeing what it will fetch to someone who wants to sell it for parts. Other than the electronics, the car's in pretty clean shape, and no accidents, so everything from the headlight assemblies to the seats, doors, hood, etc is sellable. By someone who has more time and patience than me. I did a rough calculation of potential part value for the easy-to-remove parts based on ebay prices (using ChatGPT4, what an amazing time-saver tool) and it came out to 4K to 10K, depending on how fine-grained and how much effort someone wants to put in. I'll include that info in the ad with the pictures of the freshly washed and detailed car, and see what happens.

In the meantime we're looking for a good used EV to replace it. The cost savings for EV commuting (if one has a short commute) is astonishing. In the 1 year that we owned it, we saved more than the cost of the car in gas, net of electricity costs, even accounting for 10% loss during charging. We mostly plugged it in at home on 110. Never needed more charging than that. Occasionally we got "free electrons" from my wife plugging it in at work, and I'm not even factoring that in. It was a good buy, and a good car.

No regrets.

Well, other than killing this car. I regret that.

 

[cornbinder89]

Thanks. The BCM is in the battery pack I believe. Did any of the rest of the car come back to life?