It’s easily done with a couple of readily available parts. The dealership won’t do it but aftermarket can put any of the available sizes in the Gen1.
Purchased a 2011 Nissan Leaf!
- Thread starter Sedin26
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Looks ok. If you’re serious about a Leaf you should get a Leafspy report on any one you’re interested in buying. Lots of battery health info.
What is the reduction in winter range because of heating the cabin and windshield?
So far it seems like 20% or so. It doesn’t get below freezing much here but my understanding is the early Leafs lose quite a bit more range once it goes below freezing…
I didn't mention this as an option, but I can certainly make it to the train station with an older Leaf, that is less than 9 miles from my house and I definitely enjoy the trip on the train more than driving into town. I also like to take my bike along for the connection between the destination train station and the office, about a mile and a half each way. That's kind of a 9 months of the year type deal though, not so comfortable in the dead of summer.
Truth be told I can make it to the train station with my one gear Navigator also as there are no speed limits above 55 on the way there, but for how much longer is that sustainable? LOL. And I think I mentioned earlier in this thread that 55mph/90kmh is about 3200 RPM.
Guess I could drop the pan and see if there are any glittersparkles in there.
This is a completely aftermarket deal from an outfit in China using brand new CATL batteries in a stock Leaf case with the BMS programmed for your generation of Leaf. The company has videos on YouTube, look for "VIVNE". They will ship to your house or to an installation partner in the US. But they are not really cost efffective, a new 8K battery for a 3K car? I suppose if you are really, really committed to the Leaf platform.
In my opinion, if we're talking 11K, I'd rather just buy a used 2017-2019 Bolt. Especially if the battery has already been replaced under the recall, you get an 8 year, 150,000 total mile battery warranty re-up on that. And it will have a lot more niceities like Android Auto and Carplay and so forth.
For 13K I have also seen 2022-2023 40KWH Leafs pop up near me, so there is that as well.
I need to get some kind of cheap basic transportation because I am not going to pay to get the transmission rebuilt on the Navigator, and a used Leaf seems like as good as option as anything. Certainly I'm not going to get an ICE vehicle in this price range that doesn't potentially have the same issues as my Navigator.
Another option might be a low-ish miles used transmission on the Navigator, I have located a few, for about $1K, but I would almost certainly want to send the vehicle down the road after that.
I have found lease deals in the $200-$250 range for brand new EVs like the ID.4 but the Boss isn't going for it, for reasons I won't get into on a public forum.
That's right, send it down the rainbow road to Valhalla.
Sometime in the last few days our 2011 Leaf dropped from 9 bars to 8 on the battery capacity/health scale. I was expecting this, as it was at about 68% State of Health when we bought it. Here's where the approximate levels fall:
12 bars = 100% to 85%
11 bars = 85% to 78.75%
10 bars = 78.75% to 72.5%
9 bars = 72.5% to 66.25%
8 bars = 66.25% to 60%
7 bars = 60% to 53.75%
6 bars = 53.75% to 47.5%
5 bars = 47.5% to 41.25%
4 bars. = 41.25% to 35%
3 bars = 35% to 28.75%
2 bars. = 28.75% to 22.5%
1 bar = 22.5% to 16.25%
0 bars = 16.25% to 0%
Still loving the car. If I could summarize, I'd say it's a great car for someone who has a city commute without too much highway/freeway driving. Charging at home on 120v works great. Moderate climate would also be better, as I don't think range would be great in very cold environments.
12 bars = 100% to 85%
11 bars = 85% to 78.75%
10 bars = 78.75% to 72.5%
9 bars = 72.5% to 66.25%
8 bars = 66.25% to 60%
7 bars = 60% to 53.75%
6 bars = 53.75% to 47.5%
5 bars = 47.5% to 41.25%
4 bars. = 41.25% to 35%
3 bars = 35% to 28.75%
2 bars. = 28.75% to 22.5%
1 bar = 22.5% to 16.25%
0 bars = 16.25% to 0%
Still loving the car. If I could summarize, I'd say it's a great car for someone who has a city commute without too much highway/freeway driving. Charging at home on 120v works great. Moderate climate would also be better, as I don't think range would be great in very cold environments.
I rolled over 100,000km a couple of days ago. On the same day, BC Hydro gave me my new payment amount for my monthly electricity payments. I live in an all electric house, with heat pump and tank water heater. 1500sf. I have had the car for 6 months, half of that summer and half colder winter weather (in Victoria terms, which means freezing point at worst so far).
My electricity has been averaged out to a $120/mth total for a couple of years. Factoring in the last 6 months of charging, BC Hydro is increasing me to $143/mth. I expect my usage over the next 6 months to be about the same. I am not good at math but I suspect this means I will end up levelling out at around the $165/mth range. I also added a hot tub 3 months ago so that is also accounting for a bit of the increase but the EV would be most of it. Without running the numbers in a more formal way, it appears that I am paying about $40 to $45 CAD extra to BC Hydro per month to charge the Leaf.
I should note that I drive it anytime I can when I'm going out, unless I know it will be too far for the limited range. I drive my daughter to school several days per week and then to work from there. My standard round trip commute is 16km (10 miles). I am on pace for about 10K kilometres (6200 miles) over the course of a year. Now that I am running the defroster or heater most of the time and it is colder out, range has absolutely cratered. I would say 30 miles might be the max under those circumstances. For sure it's lost at least 50% of range, maybe a bit more.
I sometimes drive it to my parent's place - it's an 11 mile trip but is mostly highway and the last few kilometres are up a mountain. If you watch the range estimate on the way up, you can almost see it go down moment to moment. Luckily, the opposite happens on the way home and the highway on the way back is mostly downhill too.
Based on the $500 a month I was spending on gas in my truck and a generous estimate of $50/mth to charge the EV, I am saving an average of $450 a month in operating costs, with cheaper insurance. This pays for the car in well under 2 years. If it was half as good, that still puts it at $225 in savings per month.
This is a great car for us, where we are, where I work, in our climate. Anyone with a much longer commute (especially highway) would have trouble. Anyone in a climate that got colder would have trouble. I would be willing to bet most of the older Leafs left on the road are in moderate climates like ours. I'm not willing to make too many sacrifices in comfort or convenience so would get something better (like a Bolt) if the Leaf stopped comfortably doing what we need it to do.
I have had no maintenance so far. At 100,000km now, I plan to change the reduction gearbox oil, coolant (Asian Blue), and will also do the cabin air filter and windshield wipers. The sway bar links are fairly squeaky but the job is too involved for me so I'll have a shop do it sometime in the spring or summer.
My electricity has been averaged out to a $120/mth total for a couple of years. Factoring in the last 6 months of charging, BC Hydro is increasing me to $143/mth. I expect my usage over the next 6 months to be about the same. I am not good at math but I suspect this means I will end up levelling out at around the $165/mth range. I also added a hot tub 3 months ago so that is also accounting for a bit of the increase but the EV would be most of it. Without running the numbers in a more formal way, it appears that I am paying about $40 to $45 CAD extra to BC Hydro per month to charge the Leaf.
I should note that I drive it anytime I can when I'm going out, unless I know it will be too far for the limited range. I drive my daughter to school several days per week and then to work from there. My standard round trip commute is 16km (10 miles). I am on pace for about 10K kilometres (6200 miles) over the course of a year. Now that I am running the defroster or heater most of the time and it is colder out, range has absolutely cratered. I would say 30 miles might be the max under those circumstances. For sure it's lost at least 50% of range, maybe a bit more.
I sometimes drive it to my parent's place - it's an 11 mile trip but is mostly highway and the last few kilometres are up a mountain. If you watch the range estimate on the way up, you can almost see it go down moment to moment. Luckily, the opposite happens on the way home and the highway on the way back is mostly downhill too.
Based on the $500 a month I was spending on gas in my truck and a generous estimate of $50/mth to charge the EV, I am saving an average of $450 a month in operating costs, with cheaper insurance. This pays for the car in well under 2 years. If it was half as good, that still puts it at $225 in savings per month.
This is a great car for us, where we are, where I work, in our climate. Anyone with a much longer commute (especially highway) would have trouble. Anyone in a climate that got colder would have trouble. I would be willing to bet most of the older Leafs left on the road are in moderate climates like ours. I'm not willing to make too many sacrifices in comfort or convenience so would get something better (like a Bolt) if the Leaf stopped comfortably doing what we need it to do.
I have had no maintenance so far. At 100,000km now, I plan to change the reduction gearbox oil, coolant (Asian Blue), and will also do the cabin air filter and windshield wipers. The sway bar links are fairly squeaky but the job is too involved for me so I'll have a shop do it sometime in the spring or summer.
It sounds like the Leaf is working out well for you.
You are an informed owner who made a choice based upon his use case, which the Leaf suits.
You also considered charging and have found that Level 1 works for you as you use the car.
May the car continue to be useful to you even as the battery degrades with time and use.
You are an informed owner who made a choice based upon his use case, which the Leaf suits.
You also considered charging and have found that Level 1 works for you as you use the car.
May the car continue to be useful to you even as the battery degrades with time and use.
Small city like Victoria BC helps too.
I looked at a few Leafs but for one thing the wife just wasn't going to go for another old car, no matter how 'open-sourced' the knowledge about the car is. Sometimes if you're upsetting the wife, it's better just to spend the money if you have it.
And the new Leafs aren't really much cheaper than the Bolts, which have active cooling, or even the ID.4s in some cases, which is a lot more car for the money.
Then a deal popped up for the Lightning in my profile photo. Loving it so far. The range is not amazing at 230 miles at 100% battery for the standard battery version I have, but it's really all I need for what I do with a car. Bonus is that I can carry mulch in the back from Home Depot! lol.
Which just goes to show that Americans will almost always choose pickups if all else is equal. Haha.
Stuff like that is what almost got me to buy one. My local dealer just didn't want to budge enough on the price. We've done a couple of rock and mulch runs in the Model 3. I got smart and bought rubber mats for the trunk finally. I'm buying it by the bag though. I just love how the Lightning just feels like a normal truck.
I’ve spent most of my driving days in trucks. All else being equal I’d almost always choose to drive a classic truck.
Ha, my story is almost identical: I bought 2011 ZE0 LEAF late last year with almost 100,000 km (60,000 miles) on the clock, 8 bars of battery capacity. Apparently it had scarcely been driven in Japan for its first 7 years of life, then imported here to New Zealand. It's well loved and scuffed up, but was cheap (payback interval should be around 5 years for me, as I don't cover a lot of distance, and EV running costs here have doubled with the introduction of road user charges). Level 1 charging at home (230 V mains here) to 80% gives me enough range for weekly errands. I'm keeping my Honda Fit for occasional longer trips.
Mine also had creaking front suspension, which I feared was the struts going out, but after spraying silicone oil around the bushings it's been fine, so consider that before replacement if everything looks OK.
I've changed the reduction gear oil and upped the tyre pressures to 290 kPa (42 psi) and it's gone from 6.5 km/kWh with its previous owner to at least 7.1 km/kWh (uh, 2.3 yard/btu?), and that includes regular hilly driving. I used Nulon Low Viscosity ATF, which mentions Nissan Matic S on the pack. The plug magnets held a fair bit of gel-like debris, all very fine, and the fluid was dark brown but not burnt-smelling. I wondered about a moly additive for the gear oil but opted not to this time - any opinions?
So far it's been ideal for my usage. I never liked using the Fit on small trips as it's so detrimental to the engine, though it gets pretty good FE on the open road: 20 km/L (47 mpg) on the last road trip, and over 700 km (435 miles) is possible on one tank. I usually use a synthetic 5W-30 or 0W-20 with Liqui Moly Friction Reducer in the engine.
Mine also had creaking front suspension, which I feared was the struts going out, but after spraying silicone oil around the bushings it's been fine, so consider that before replacement if everything looks OK.
I've changed the reduction gear oil and upped the tyre pressures to 290 kPa (42 psi) and it's gone from 6.5 km/kWh with its previous owner to at least 7.1 km/kWh (uh, 2.3 yard/btu?), and that includes regular hilly driving. I used Nulon Low Viscosity ATF, which mentions Nissan Matic S on the pack. The plug magnets held a fair bit of gel-like debris, all very fine, and the fluid was dark brown but not burnt-smelling. I wondered about a moly additive for the gear oil but opted not to this time - any opinions?
So far it's been ideal for my usage. I never liked using the Fit on small trips as it's so detrimental to the engine, though it gets pretty good FE on the open road: 20 km/L (47 mpg) on the last road trip, and over 700 km (435 miles) is possible on one tank. I usually use a synthetic 5W-30 or 0W-20 with Liqui Moly Friction Reducer in the engine.
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BTW, you can fully expect to break the cabin air filter cover when removing it! If you're lucky it won't be quite so bad on the LHD model. Removing the glove box isn't necessary but is generally recommended.
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- Sep 22, 2024
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The Leaf had an issue of "clicking" when applying the brakes..if this is the noise you hear there is an updated axle nut.
Ah, I've heard that's quite a common issue. I don't think that's what mine was experiencing, as it was a creaking sound when driving over bumps, not under acceleration or braking, and spraying the front suspension bushings with silicone oil made it go away completely. I'll watch out for the axle nut issue though.
Funny, this is apparently a common thing with early Chevy Volts as well. What is it with EVs and axle nuts!
