seb
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Posts: 62
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Post by seb on Oct 1, 2019 12:09:06 GMT 11
Hi all, Nissan are replacing a faulty cell on my 2012 Leaf battery. They are stating I am only getting standard part replacement of 20k or 1 year, instead of the 5 years battery replacement warranty. They are saying that you also only get 1 year with a full battery replacement.
Has anyone has had one cell, or full battery, replaced under warranty? If so what warranty did you get on the full battery or the individual cell you had replaced?
One more thing. 2012 Leafs do not have the heat-resistance chemistry, but they do not stock the old battery chemistry anymore. So they are planning to replace one cell in the battery with the new chemistry, but leave all other cells the same.
Anyone has had any concerns/issues with this?
Thanks!
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Post by lesmando24 on Oct 8, 2019 8:24:17 GMT 11
They replace the battery with the same chemistry. My replaced battery is the same as the original. Even the bars disappear at the same intervals.
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Post by rusdy on Oct 8, 2019 11:21:20 GMT 11
They replace the battery with the same chemistry. My replaced battery is the same as the original. Even the bars disappear at the same intervals. This is bad AND sad news I've been planning to replace my Leaf's battery next year. If this is the case, looks like I'm going to use my Leaf to its 'death-of-impracticality' then (range drops to 60-ish km on full charge), which I predict in 3 ~ 4 years. Within that time frame (3 ~ 4 years): - AUD10k battery replacement for same battery chemistry is simply too expensive. With life-span of 5-ish years, that is 2-isk thousand dollars per year cost!!
- Aftermarket battery replacement will most likely very expensive ($1 per Wh);
- No real 'affordable' EV in Australia
Sad, sad, sad. I'm crossing all my fingers and toes for Tesla autonomous fleet already operating in 4 years with 25-cents per km cost. Aaaah, I only can dream... Looks like e-Bike is it...
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Post by Feng on Oct 8, 2019 13:22:20 GMT 11
Are you sure the chemistry is the same? I lost my first bar at 34k on my original battery. I've just passed 50k on my new battery and it's currently at 87.44% SOH. Maybe the car initially lost some capacity while it sat for a year waiting for purchase, but I like to think it's because the new battery has better chemistry.
Anyone else with a replacement battery able to share their experience?
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seb
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Posts: 62
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Post by seb on Oct 8, 2019 19:18:58 GMT 11
Hi Feng, Nissan dealership guys in Sydney told me it's unlikely they would hold old battery chemistry in stock. So I am likely getting the replacement cell with new battery chemistry while the rest of the battery is old chemistry.
I think that's really bad. They'll have different response to temperature, so result in imbalance while getting hot in use.
The worse thing is that I have 1.5 years left in my existing 5 year battery warranty, and they are replacing one cell with 1 YEAR replacement part warranty. Essentially taking off 0.5 year from my existing warranty!!!!!
Very disappointed in Nissan. I secretly hope (but not really) the latest Nissan Leaf is another flop.
I'll let you know how this pans out.
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Post by empowerrepower on Oct 8, 2019 22:46:53 GMT 11
Hi Seb, I'm very puzzled that they think that they can do a single cell replacement, and I'd be talking to them again. Lesmando24 was a guinea pig for a cell replacement, and they kept his car for months, but could never get the cell replacement to work, and in the end, replaced the whole battery. After that, all the replacements that I heard of were full battery replacements. Your dealer could talk to Nissan Moorooka, who have done a number of battery replacements under warranty, about whether a cell replacement can be done. I'm thinking that Lesamando's attempted cell replacement was done there, but I could be wrong.
As to the warranty on a battery replacement, when mine was replaced at Nissan Moorooka in May this year, I asked about a warranty on the new battery. They told me that there wasn't one. Getting a new battery though gave a great increase in range and regen.
Do talk to your dealer - you don't want to be without your car for months because they are trying something that won't work. They may not know any better.
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seb
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Post by seb on Oct 13, 2019 18:52:25 GMT 11
That's super useful empowerrepower! Thank you. I will certainly do that. lesmando24 would you mind commenting on your experience? Fortunately I have a replacement car from the nice dealership I bought the 2nd hand leaf from while this is under repair. I am really really unhappy with Nissan Australia. They went as far as claiming that may car was safe to drive (even in the motorway) when my car used to go to turtle (power-limited) mode with 15% of battery capacity! Turns out, dealership in Sydney deemed the car non-road worthy from this fault!!! It's really bad publicity for their New Leaf...
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Post by empowerrepower on Oct 13, 2019 21:09:01 GMT 11
Hi Seb, can understand you being unhappy. Good to be well informed on the ins and outs of battery replacement, so that they can't pull the wool over your eyes, even if it is from their own lack of knowledge. If your car can go into turtle mode with 15% of battery left, sounds like there is something quite wrong outside of the usual battery degradation. Over 4 1/2 years of ownership, we never hit turtle mode despite getting to where the GOM told us that we had 0 km left, so why it would get to turtle with 15% left is odd. There are others on this list much more techy than I, so perhaps able to give some insight.
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seb
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Post by seb on Oct 14, 2019 15:00:25 GMT 11
Yeah. They’ve been very difficult in this entire process. I don’t exactly know why. Maybe trying to make more people buy the new leaf, than to refresh their battery on the old one.
Not entirely sure they should have given you no battery warranty. A replacement should also come with 5 years. I think that’s how consumer law works.
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Post by jacky on Nov 4, 2019 18:48:32 GMT 11
Yeah. They’ve been very difficult in this entire process. I don’t exactly know why. Maybe trying to make more people buy the new leaf, than to refresh their battery on the old one. Not entirely sure they should have given you no battery warranty. A replacement should also come with 5 years. I think that’s how consumer law works. The 5 years battery warranty is on the capacity of the battery. If you lost 4 bars with in the warranty, they replace the battery pack not a single cell. However, it seems like you are not losing 4 or more capacity bars, right? My experience with Nissan on the battery is that Nissan dealers may not know much about the battery warranty and the Nissan customer service do not know anything about the battery warranty. The technical team in Nissan are those who knows the warranty and approve the battery replacement.
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seb
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Posts: 62
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Post by seb on Nov 6, 2019 9:36:52 GMT 11
Thanks Jacky. That's very helpful. The battery capacity (i.e. how much charge you can put into it when fully discharged) is below 4 bars loss, but the gauges don't show this (I believe because of balancing issues). It makes the situation a bit more complicated, so Nissan are trying to replace the cell that looks wrong.
In my view they are been cautious or simply burning time until I give up. I won't.
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Post by jacky on Nov 6, 2019 10:03:48 GMT 11
Thanks Jacky. That's very helpful. The battery capacity (i.e. how much charge you can put into it when fully discharged) is below 4 bars loss, but the gauges don't show this (I believe because of balancing issues). It makes the situation a bit more complicated, so Nissan are trying to replace the cell that looks wrong. In my view they are been cautious or simply burning time until I give up. I won't. When the 4th was dropped, the battery capacity was a bit less than 16kWh when charged to 100% according to LeafSpy. Are you sure your request was reviewed by the technical team in Nissan? The technical team should ask the dealer to do some tests and review the data before they recommend any remediations.
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seb
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Post by seb on Nov 7, 2019 11:34:00 GMT 11
Hi Jacky. Yes. Plenty of tests by Nissan dealerships at the behest of Nissan Australia (in two different dealerships). They just ignore the fact you cannot push more than 14kWh into the battery from fully discharged; regardless of what the bars/cell voltage gauges say.
They've taken the battery to Melbourne claiming this is the ONLY place in Australia with a battery balancer (at least Moorooka Nissan have one), and intend to replace only one cell with less warranty than the existing battery warranty.
It's getting silly. They are trying to wear me and the dealership down, until they wise up in the dealership for the next customer with a battery problem.
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Post by jacky on Nov 8, 2019 11:56:49 GMT 11
Hi Jacky. Yes. Plenty of tests by Nissan dealerships at the behest of Nissan Australia (in two different dealerships). They just ignore the fact you cannot push more than 14kWh into the battery from fully discharged; regardless of what the bars/cell voltage gauges say. They've taken the battery to Melbourne claiming this is the ONLY place in Australia with a battery balancer (at least Moorooka Nissan have one), and intend to replace only one cell with less warranty than the existing battery warranty. It's getting silly. They are trying to wear me and the dealership down, until they wise up in the dealership for the next customer with a battery problem. One thing I learnt from my saga in getting the replacement battery is... you need to be patient, very very patient. I put my car in for the battery claim in March. The dealer claimed the degrade was completely normal and they are not aware of any battery warranty. They got me to take the car back. I called Nissan customer service and they know nothing about the warranty as well. I pushed them to submit a technical report and the technical team stepped in. A few days later, the dealer called back to arrange for tests requested by the technical team. The dealer originally claimed it would take 2-3 days. It ended up taking more than a week. During that week, the dealer told me it would be available to pick next day. In fact, they were waiting for the instruction on the next step. The technical team asked to replace an electronic before they can process my claim and it costed me about $1k. The part needed to be sent from Japan. The part arrived and it took a week to replace while the dealer claimed it would only take 2-3 days. Wait for more than a month after the part was replaced and finally got the approval on the battery replacement. Waited for 2 months for the battery... Finally, the dealer took a week to replace the battery. It took 6 months to go through this process.
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Post by Feng on Nov 8, 2019 12:52:38 GMT 11
Wow that sounded like an awful experience, glad it paid off in the end. Ridiculous how you had to pay $1k to replace an unnecessary part.
I don't know how much blame should be given to the dealer and how much to Nissan Australia.
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Post by jacky on Nov 8, 2019 15:18:46 GMT 11
Wow that sounded like an awful experience, glad it paid off in the end. Ridiculous how you had to pay $1k to replace an unnecessary part. I don't know how much blame should be given to the dealer and how much to Nissan Australia. At first, I blamed the dealer but then I realised it was also Nissan. I would say 10% dealer and 90% Nissan. The dealer simply didn't know much about the battery warranty. This is one of the many reasons I didn't consider the new LEAF and go for a Model 3.
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Post by EVangelist on Nov 11, 2019 10:32:17 GMT 11
One thing I learnt from my saga in getting the replacement battery is... you need to be patient, very very patient. I put my car in for the battery claim in March. The dealer claimed the degrade was completely normal and they are not aware of any battery warranty. They got me to take the car back. I called Nissan customer service and they know nothing about the warranty as well. I pushed them to submit a technical report and the technical team stepped in. A few days later, the dealer called back to arrange for tests requested by the technical team. The dealer originally claimed it would take 2-3 days. It ended up taking more than a week. During that week, the dealer told me it would be available to pick next day. In fact, they were waiting for the instruction on the next step. The technical team asked to replace an electronic before they can process my claim and it costed me about $1k. The part needed to be sent from Japan. The part arrived and it took a week to replace while the dealer claimed it would only take 2-3 days. Wait for more than a month after the part was replaced and finally got the approval on the battery replacement. Waited for 2 months for the battery... Finally, the dealer took a week to replace the battery. It took 6 months to go through this process. Wow, that is painful. I really don’t know why dealers (well, lots of businesses really) feel compelled to make stuff up instead of telling you straight. I know I would be happier overall being told something will take 2 weeks and actually have it done in that time, than be told four times it will take 2-3 days but not have it done each time.
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seb
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Posts: 62
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Post by seb on Nov 13, 2019 11:07:58 GMT 11
I am finding (most) dealers don't know any better; electric car expertise is thin. But I think Nissan Australia play games to drag you through the mud for a new battery. They are in the business of selling you new cars, not giving you a full lease of life to your existing old car. So they will make it as difficult as they can.
In my case, they should be replacing the battery as soon as I reported the issue, and for them to figure out what is wrong with it by themselves. My time is valuable.
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seb
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Posts: 62
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Post by seb on Nov 13, 2019 12:21:37 GMT 11
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