100 thousand miles and still going strong.

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Gusy12

Member
Joined
Aug 7, 2020
Messages
13
Well my 13 plate Leaf passed the 100 thousand mile mark. Still got 11 bars, range about 70-80 miles in summer, around 60 miles in winter. Honestly well worth the money (bought £7000 second hand 4 years ago), literally paid for itself with savings on fuel, maintenance and tax. Only issue I had was tie rods and ball joint needed replacing around 2 years ago when it had 70 000 miles on the clock. I did this myself costing about £400 (price included me buying the tools and parts). Apart from that it's been great.

IMG-20210404-071624.jpg
 
Nice, yes I'm not surprised you had to do front-end work, I've been hearing unsettling front-end noise on my '13 since, well basically 5k miles when I took it in and Nissan replaced several parts under warranty. 7 years and 35k later and I still hear weird noises out of the front end, sounds like things are worn out but I now just ignore it as I don't feel it's a safety thing. To me I don't like that a vehicle drove relatively easily should have to have front-end work at 5k, 40k or even 100k miles but it is what it is. My last 2 new vehicles, a 94 Geo Metro(very cheap vehicle) and 2004 Scion Xb both passed 100k and I never had to do anything to the front end nor heard such noises coming out of it like my Leaf, makes me wonder how cheap things are up there.....
 
Can't agree more, I hear rattling and noises going over bumps. I partly blame the rock hard tures due to inflation for range. But my noise somewhat quite down when I gently apply the brakes which makes me think I am hearing the brake pads rattling around. But great news about 100k!!!
 
Impressive on the battery front. You are obviously in the EU, but it would be nice to know exactly where by updating your profile. We all know that climate has a huge impact in situations like yours.
 
Stanton said:
Impressive on the battery front. You are obviously in the EU, but it would be nice to know exactly where by updating your profile. We all know that climate has a huge impact in situations like yours.

Yeah, I'm from the UK, actually around 15 miles from the Sunderland Nissan factory where the car was made.
 
Steelcity said:
Can't agree more, I hear rattling and noises going over bumps. I partly blame the rock hard tures due to inflation for range. But my noise somewhat quite down when I gently apply the brakes which makes me think I am hearing the brake pads rattling around. But great news about 100k!!!

Jack up the front wheels and try to move them left to right and up and down to see if there is any play(movement). They should be hardly any movement when you do this. If there is then something has went bad. If it is left-right l movement then it's most likely tie rod ends, If its up down movement its most likely a bearing or ball joints. for me I had movement up down left right. Then take the wheel of that has this movement and move the tie rods back and forward to see if there is any movement again, again it should be quite hard to move them then check the boots for grease/cuts. Any that has movement or cuts in the boots need replacing, which is a relatively straight forward job TBH.
 
Congrats on hitting 100K! Four bars on your temp meter in April probably helps with you still having 11 bars. Ours is a 2011 and we're now at 7 bars on the battery. I don't recall ever seeing 4 temp bars. We also had an issue with the front end. They replaced an axle under warranty - it's had zero issues otherwise. It's been the most reliable vehicle I've ever owned.
 
I second Gusy12's recommendation to check wheel play when jacked up. These noises should be looked into and could definitely be safety issues.

My 2011 @ 67k mi was making a lot of clunking over bumps; I found a lot of left-right play (no up/down though), but I could see the ball joint moving/clanking when I played the wheel left-right.

I suspect a lot of this is because they use almost all the same suspension components as the Juke on a MUCH heavier vehicle.

I DIY pressed them out/in - normally not a big deal, but these joints are a huge PITA; especially if in a rust belt.

First, I had to torch and hammer the knuckle/joint bolt out, so I bought new bolts. Then, I could not separate the joint with a pickle fork, even stacked. I had to buy a separate tool that presses by post out, but since it sits flush to the knuckle unlike most vehicles, you need to stick a small nut on top in there for something to press against.

Of course, once I replace the ball joint, there was still movement, but now it was in the tie rod end; which was very stiff by touch, but probably got worn prematurely from a failing ball joint.

I'm guessing everyone who owns a early Leaf will need ball joint + tie rod end replacements in the coming year.
 
Gusy12 said:
Stanton said:
Impressive on the battery front. You are obviously in the EU, but it would be nice to know exactly where by updating your profile. We all know that climate has a huge impact in situations like yours.

Yeah, I'm from the UK, actually around 15 miles from the Sunderland Nissan factory where the car was made.

This should be in your profile if you don't people constantly asking you this question
 
My PNW 2013 LEAF is also over 100k miles now and it's still clinging to 11 capacity bars. I have noticed that LBW now appears at 21% rather than at 20%, so I suspect that's actually triggered by a GID threshold rather than by an SOC value. Also, the 80% charging feature is now a 79% charging feature :)

Other than that, I likewise have some front end clunking with my LEAF. Not sure yet if it's the lower control arm bushings, sway bar, or a tie rod end. Hopefully not the latter.
 
Reached 120000 miles now 10 years old and still going great !
https://www.yogile.com/fi1j0mtx45p/026906572l/share/?vsc=
 
SageBrush said:
Why is 100k miles something to crow about ?

Because most people told me the battery would be useless by the time it reached 100k. I reckon I could get 150000 + miles before range dropped below 50 miles. Which 99% of my journeys are within.
 
Gusy12 said:
SageBrush said:
Why is 100k miles something to crow about ?
Because most people told me the battery would be useless by the time it reached 100k.

Hmmm. So we can write the LEAF's epitaph as "it could have been worse."

Gotcha
 
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