It's much easier to buy a OBD-II to Bluetooth dongle and use the free version of LeafSpy to do it yourself. Leafspy gives you much more information than the dealer will. Most don't seem to mind the car being checked.
Just thinking about getting Leafspy and the OBD-ll dongle, just a question or two, do you keep the dongle attached all the time (obviously if going to garage remove it before hand) and does Leafspy pro give full instructions on use and how to interpret the results?
Most dealers don't know anything about the cars that they sell, and if they do will rarely give you the samples that you need. As @Rei says buy it for yourself and take the readings on as low a battery SoC as you can - certainly below 20% to be sure to show individual issues unless the SoH is very good.
I went as far as emailing a dealer this morning. I asked how many bars were remaining on the battery out of 12. They said 7. Do Leafs go that low and still get put on offer or did they give me the state of charge of the battery. The car was only 4 years old.
How much ££ are they asking for that car? 7 bars on a leaf30 = 60miles of range? What are you going to be using the car for, and what range do you need?
For the dongle checking follow the advice of @Rei. If @Sputnik72 is online, I think they may have done some checking of cars using leafspy while checking out cars.
It is not an exact science but roughly, the LEAF looses it's first bar at 85% battery SOH (State of Health) and then looses a bar at every 7% SOH there on. So if a LEAF has lost 5 bars (if my maths is correct) then you are looking at potentially 58% SOH remaining, which in a 24Kwh LEAF is about 35 miles winter range.
Remembering that NISSAN warranty the battery's for 8 year (5years for the 24Kwh) to 70% SOH then having a potential 58% is well approaching where the viability of the vehicle for practical usage against financial cost of the vehicle is basically not worth it.
Unless you get the vehicle very cheap then in reality a battery with 5 bars missing is only good for a solar power bank or similar.
If you see a vehicle with potential, if you post your local area, then they may be somebody on the forum with LeafSpy and a dongle, that might be happy to check the vehicle for you, always worth a try.
To me, a 40Kwh (it's only 4 years old max) with 5 bars missing would be very worrying, could be duff cells, but if under 100K miles would be still under warranty. I assume higher miles otherwise it would have been sorted out and suggests an ex taxi.
The LEAF 40 had 37.5Kwh battery when new - so at 58% would have 24Kwh battery left and about 80 miles winter range. which is still useful at the right price.
The LEAF 40 had 37.5Kwh battery when new - so at 58% would have 24Kwh battery left and about 80 miles winter range. which is still useful at the right price.
Interesting. The autotrader part-ex price for that comes back at £13930. Quite a difference to the asking price? There seems quite a few leaf30 online for a lower price.
there's a red one, private sale in Luton. Says 12 bars and they are asking £10k. The vehicle check service says they've owned it since July20. Good location context in photos of car too.
Surely they're getting mixed up? There's nothing in those pictures showing the battery health. It's showing 44 miles on 26% charge... which seems to be fine (44/26 x 100 = 169 miles). As long as it's been serviced, it still has 4 years / 40k miles left on the warranty, I wouldn't be worrying.
Surely they're getting mixed up? There's nothing in those pictures showing the battery health. It's showing 44 miles on 26% charge... which seems to be fine (44/26 x 100 = 169 miles). As long as it's been serviced, it still has 4 years / 40k miles left on the warranty, I wouldn't be worrying.
If they’ve said 7 bars it can’t be the state of charge, because the 40 reports that solely as a percentage, there are no bars on the battery icon. On the other hand, 5 bars lost is a heck of a lot in 4 years, even with 70,000 miles.
I suppose the obvious answer is taxi and a lot of rapid charging, but I don’t suppose someone has misread the dots on the side of the display that indicate which screen you are on as if they are the battery bars? I could just about imagine someone who didn’t know the car getting a garbled explanation based on the old 30 display and thinking they were.
The other thought is that you could say you would buy it but want the warranty repair to 70% battery health done first. Even then, though, I’d want a lower price. Admittedly my 68 plate 40 has been driven very little for a combination of reasons, so only has 13,000 miles, but I’ve got all the bars still, and no noticeable reduction in range yet.
If they’ve said 7 bars it can’t be the state of charge, because the 40 reports that solely as a percentage, there are no bars on the battery icon. On the other hand, 5 bars lost is a heck of a lot in 4 years, even with 70,000 miles.
I suppose the obvious answer is taxi and a lot of rapid charging, but I don’t suppose someone has misread the dots on the side of the display that indicate which screen you are on as if they are the battery bars? I could just about imagine someone who didn’t know the car getting a garbled explanation based on the old 30 display and thinking they were.
The other thought is that you could say you would buy it but want the warranty repair to 70% battery health done first. Even then, though, I’d want a lower price. Admittedly my 68 plate 40 has been driven very little for a combination of reasons, so only has 13,000 miles, but I’ve got all the bars still, and no noticeable reduction in range yet.
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