[Grant Thomas]

Long story short; my LEAF is 2 years old but when it was delivered there was a number of signs that it had been sat unused for some time; green gunk in drainage channels, all green under the boot lid etc.....

Now as a Japanese built LEAF I would expect it's clearly number of weeks old before it came to the UK, but there was also a mess up with the order (switching lease companies) which meant in May 2012 (the week before delivery) the car was rescheduled to an August 22 delivery, so it sat in West Way Nissan Birmingham for at least 3 months. I have a hunch my LEAF was AT LEAST 6-12 months old before I had it delivered 'new' in August 2102. And, for a period of time, it just sat unmoved or charged which is resulting in some premature battery ageing at 25k miles. I already discussing various issues with Nissan resulting from this (13 difference in Rapid Charging between car and charger, 80% Health left.....) and the car is off for a through 'going over' by my local Nissan dealer at the end of August

Is there anyway to tell (from the VIN plate or something) when the car was actually built?

 

[Derekosb]

Supposedly buried in the VIN code.

From here: http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/buying-car/96830-article-find-your-cars-date-manufacture-vin.html

Manufacturer: Nissan

VIN Characters: 17 (beginning mostly with "MD")

Decode:

10th character represents the YEAR of Manufacture
11th character represents the MONTH of Manufacture

An Example:

If your 10th VIN character is C, then it represents the Year 2012
If your 11th VIN character is 3, then it represents the Month of March

Year Codes:

A = 2010
B = 2011
C = 2012
D = 2013

Month Codes:

1 = January
2 = February
3 = March
4 = April
5 = May
6 = June
7 = July
8 = August
9 = September
A = October
B = November
C = December

 

[Dennis]

Didn't have that problem with my Model S.

I picked my Model S up at the Tesla Factory... So, it was built a few days prior to my pick up...

In fact, November 2013, I wrote a series of posts in semi-real-time as I made my way from Southern California to the Tesla Factory to pick up the car.

 

[PaulMorris]

Supposedly buried in the VIN code.

From here: http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/buying-car/96830-article-find-your-cars-date-manufacture-vin.html

Manufacturer: Nissan

VIN Characters: 17 (beginning mostly with "MD")

Decode:

10th character represents the YEAR of Manufacture
11th character represents the MONTH of Manufacture

An Example:

If your 10th VIN character is C, then it represents the Year 2012
If your 11th VIN character is 3, then it represents the Month of March

Year Codes:

A = 2010
B = 2011
C = 2012
D = 2013

Month Codes:

1 = January
2 = February
3 = March
4 = April
5 = May
6 = June
7 = July
8 = August
9 = September
A = October
B = November
C = December

That doesn't seem to work for me. Mine is an SJN VIN info here suggests the month/year isn't hidden in plain sight.

 

[Grant Thomas]

Supposedly buried in the VIN code.

From here: http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/buying-car/96830-article-find-your-cars-date-manufacture-vin.html

Manufacturer: Nissan

VIN Characters: 17 (beginning mostly with "MD")

Decode:

10th character represents the YEAR of Manufacture
11th character represents the MONTH of Manufacture

An Example:

If your 10th VIN character is C, then it represents the Year 2012
If your 11th VIN character is 3, then it represents the Month of March

Year Codes:

A = 2010
B = 2011
C = 2012
D = 2013

Month Codes:

1 = January
2 = February
3 = March
4 = April
5 = May
6 = June
7 = July
8 = August
9 = September
A = October
B = November
C = December

Hmm that doesn't seem to tally....

 

[Grant Thomas]

I just found a tag on the bottom of the passenger seat belt saying Built 2011....

 

[Dennis]

I just found a tag on the bottom of the passenger seat belt saying Built 2011....

Perhaps that's just for the seat itself.

 

[Sussex Trug]

I recalled that there were factory codes as well as models in the first part of the Vin and this fits in with the rather limited and possibly out of date info on this site. http://nissanhelp.com/diy/common/nissan_vin.php
The format appears correct so you just need to fill in the blanks for model type and engine. I think Sunderland cars start SN but it's too dark to go and look now.

I imagine that whilst many components are car specific and just in time produced (like interior trim) some components will be shared across other models in the range. A seat belt might be in that category.

It is also worth remembering that the Japanese car industry was in some turmoil in 2011 following the Earthquake. Manufacturers of fairly generic parts may well have continued production whilst the car manufacturers were waiting to recover lost production into 2012.

 

[Grant Thomas]

I ended up calling local dealer to find out my car was Manufactured in August 2011; 1 year before it was delivered to me as 'new'. I am concerned that my LEAF has spent a year being shipped and stored without any kind of battery maintenance or charging and that is ageing faster than a LEAF that should be only 2 years old.

Here's a couple of pictures from my LEAF DD as well as the Rapid Charge issue:

 

[Edd Beesley]

Grant I am surprised your "Health" number is so low without you having lost a capacity bar.

I saw my health number (and Capacity) dip after doing five rapid charges in a day, followed by the warm weather a few weeks ago, it is now going back up.

Do you very frequently rapid charge?

 

[Grant Thomas]

Do you very frequently rapid charge?

About 3 times a month.

 

[Grant Thomas]

So Health at 79% - is that STRICTLY meaning I have lost 21% since new? If so the 59 amp hour seems to suggest only 7aH lost (10%, assuming it's 66 aH new). Confused.

 

[Edd Beesley]

No, I believe the Health is a bit of a combination between Capacity and some sort of value of "how you treat it". For instance when my friend picked up his '12 plate car this April, it had sat round at a dealer on 100% for god knows how long. Capacity was 62.3, and Health was only 89.

 

[Dean Hamer]

Just for reference my (gen 2 LEAF) battery is showing 100% health on leafspy. With 67.5aH this hasn't changed since I picked the car up 6 months ago with 2000 miles on the clock.

Car is now 15 months old with 10500 miles on the clock.

 

[Edd Beesley]

Well 67.5ah is more than the cells are actually rated for (or were anyway, who's to say the actual cell design hasn't improved over time without Nissan mentioning it....?) so 100% makes sense. The number will go down once you drop below 66ah.

 

[Dean Hamer]

Sorry it's 67.37ah.

Hasn't hardly dropped.

 

[PaulMorris]

@Grant Thomas - I think you have two separate issues here. I suggest the rapid charger issue seems common to most if not all gen 1 LEAFs. @leave and @Paul_Churchley describe exactly the same.

See here: https://speakev.com/posts/32662/

My Gen 2 doesn't show any discrepancy between the % meter in the car and the rapid, and the 90-93% rapid charge lights up 11 battery bars every time showing a sensible amount of kWh discharged into the car in a believably long length of time.

 

[Grant Thomas]

@Grant Thomas - I think you have two separate issues here. I suggest the rapid charger issue seems common to most if not all gen 1 LEAFs. @leave and @Paul_Churchley describe exactly the same.

See here: https://speakev.com/posts/32662/

My Gen 2 doesn't show any discrepancy between the % meter in the car and the rapid, and the 90-93% rapid charge lights up 11 battery bars every time showing a sensible amount of kWh discharged into the car in a believably long length of time.

Correct two issues;
1) My 2 year old car registered new in Aug 2012 is actually 3 years old and degrading just comparable to 3 year old LEAF
2) There is an issue with the Mk1 LEAF Rapid Charger mismatch and it is getting worse as the car ages. I didn't buy the car with this known fault and Nissan clearly knew about it as it is fixed in the Mk2. So my request to Nissan is that they fix this issue with the Mk1 LEAFs as the charge differential is currently 13% on my car and growing.

If I was told that the car gads been kicking about unmaintained for a year before it was delivered to me and that there was a Rapid Charging gap that would widen with age making the car less capable of long journeys without a Level 1 or 2 top up.....I may have come to a different conclusion.

 

[knoxie]

I think you may be on to something there, letting the battery slowly discharge is the worst thing that can happen (it may of course have been left fully charged too) lithium has a shelf life, there is no doubt about that? storage at low temperature reduces this ageing process in the cell but it does have a shelf life which varies from chemistry to chemistry.

I have a 2013 Gen-1 leaf one of the last ones made, don’t know exactly when it was built but the battery is 100% health on leafspy, gets all bars, rarely rapid charged however there is a big discrepancy on a number of rapids that I use to the point where on long trips I have to double charge it, this I think is down to software/firmware issues and may not affect my car on all rapid chargers?

Isnt your car a company car Grant? Wouldn’t worry too much about it unless its really impacting range, leafspy and a dongle is a must have tool for any prospective second hand leaf buyer though, I simply wouldn’t buy a second hand leaf without them letting me plug it in.

 

[h8ten]

The VIN only relates the the actual build of the car, is there anything similar for the battery I wonder?