The battery is swollen, is it covered under warranty?

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EunhoPark

Member
Joined
Jun 5, 2023
Messages
6
hello. Nice to meet you.
I am the owner of the 2nd generation Nissan Leaf.
In my country, the Leaf's battery warranty is 100,000 Km / 8 years. General car warranty is 100,000 Km / 3 years.

Recently, the performance of the battery seems to have deteriorated significantly, so I visited the service center before the warranty period expired and had the battery disassembled and inspected, and some of the 24 modules (7 or more) were swollen. If the battery module is swollen, can I receive warranty repairs such as replacement?

I would like to get a full battery module replacement. I don't know if the rest of the battery modules are OK or not.

Does anyone have a history of replacing the battery because it swelled?
 
Welcome to the forum. When lithium battery cells swell, they are bad, and can fail in a possibly dangerous way. Nissan's battery chemistry is probably too stable for that, but the cells are definitely "defective" and qualify for replacement under the battery warranty.
 
Don't know what country you are in, but in the US, I suspect you would have violated the warranty when you opened the battery pack (you have to "break" a seal to do it).
Swelling is definitely a symptom of a failed Lithium battery, but the swelling can be caused by many things (such as extreme heat)...and if the range was that bad, LeafSpy plots could probably have identified the suspect cells/modules. How many capacity bars were showing in the dash??
 
LeftieBiker said:
Good. Then the warranty should still be in effect.


Yes, The battery warranty is no problem.

What I'm curious about is when only some of the modules are inflated.
I wonder if only the swollen module can be replaced under warranty or if it can be replaced entirely.

Since the vehicle has already driven nearly 90,000 km for 3 years, if only some modules are replaced, wouldn't there be problems with cell balancing imbalance and imbalance between modules?

I would like to receive a full module replacement warranty, can I claim a full replacement? The warranty repair instructions were not clearly stated.
 
Swollen cells do usually occur in small numbers in packs that haven't been severely abused. I've had one or two swell in E-bike packs, but have never seen a pack with ALL swollen modules. As for Nissan's obligation, they are only required to replace bad cells or modules. They are also only required to get the pack back to adequate performance, NOT like-new performance. If the pack won't be restored to that adequate level by replacing just the swollen modules, they will likely replace the whole pack.
 
LeftieBiker said:
Swollen cells do usually occur in small numbers in packs that haven't been severely abused. I've had one or two swell in E-bike packs, but have never seen a pack with ALL swollen modules. As for Nissan's obligation, they are only required to replace bad cells or modules. They are also only required to get the pack back to adequate performance, NOT like-new performance. If the pack won't be restored to that adequate level by replacing just the swollen modules, they will likely replace the whole pack.

hello. I received the final opinion from Nissan Center today.

No functional problems were identified during vehicle battery inspection and various tests. Warranty repairs are not possible because there is no problem with the normal operation of the vehicle.
If reassembly is difficult due to module deformation, only the corresponding module can be replaced, so only 4 are replaced.

In conclusion, a swollen battery is not covered under warranty. However, since the battery is swollen and cannot be reassembled, replace the severely swollen battery module.

I do not understand the response of Nissan Center.
As the battery swells, performance degrades naturally.
What is your opinion? How should I respond?
 
That's crazy. Not totally shocking from an automobile manufacturer/dealership, but still it's objectively Nuts. Swelling is a sign that failure is likely imminent, and with most lithium chemistries it also signals danger if the cell is kept in use. Nissan appears to be gambling that the more stable chemistries used in Leafs won't allow for catastrophic cell failure, but that doesn't mean that they can just shrug off and deny it when cells begin to fail.
 
LeftieBiker said:
That's crazy. Not totally shocking from an automobile manufacturer/dealership, but still it's objectively Nuts. Swelling is a sign that failure is likely imminent, and with most lithium chemistries it also signals danger if the cell is kept in use. Nissan appears to be gambling that the more stable chemistries used in Leafs won't allow for catastrophic cell failure, but that doesn't mean that they can just shrug off and deny it when cells begin to fail.

Then, do you think that at least a module with deformation should be replaced even if the entire module cannot be replaced?
 
I'll re-phrase what I basically said in my earlier post.
Nissan is not going to repair/replace anything that doesn't show up on a diagnostic/codes error report as a failure...and that includes any mechanical deformities. I'm not saying that swollen Lithium modules are good (I have discarded similar batteries in CE devices), but I would never dis-assemble a pack (and I'm actually surprised a Nissan dealer did so without a DTC) considering the cost/difficulty.
At least you are getting a few replacement modules; now you just have to hope they properly balance them before insertion into the existing pack.
 
Stanton said:
I'll re-phrase what I basically said in my earlier post.
Nissan is not going to repair/replace anything that doesn't show up on a diagnostic/codes error report as a failure...and that includes any mechanical deformities. I'm not saying that swollen Lithium modules are good (I have discarded similar batteries in CE devices), but I would never dis-assemble a pack (and I'm actually surprised a Nissan dealer did so without a DTC) considering the cost/difficulty.
At least you are getting a few replacement modules; now you just have to hope they properly balance them before insertion into the existing pack.

Thank you for your reply. There were no errors with the diagnostic code. I felt the deterioration in performance so much that I paid for the overhaul and requested an inspection. The car's battery bar was also holding 12. This is why I can't trust Nissan's battery diagnostic program...
 
Nissan is a member of the Better Business Bureau, and people have won against them in BBB arbitration. Your case may have a good chance of winning there. You just need an expert to testify - or evidence to admit on the record - that swollen lithium battery cells are considered BAD by everyone other than NIssan.
 
The diagnostic tests probably don’t include performance under load. With the 40kWh Leafs in New Zealand we are just starting to see problems with 2017 models when trying to climb a long steep motorway at 100kph. The video here at https://youtu.be/byuWVpr-HUk documents what happened where the battery fails to deliver the required power while still well above battery warning levels and one cell drops rapidly in voltage.

The same thing happened to me in a 2018 40kWh yesterday on the same road into a strong wind, with battery temperature not warm, with SoC crashing from 25% to 0% over maybe 30 seconds. For me the power remained and the reported capacity recovered once over the top. It seems these batteries have at least one weak cell, potentially swollen, which means they can’t deliver the expected performance.

As these specific cars are second-hand imports from Japan there is no warranty but I would interested in any thoughts on what is an appropriate benchmark for battery performance and if such issues should be covered if there was a warranty (we also have Nissan sold and warranted 40kWh here).
 
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