Non OEM battery fitted - Car still under warranty

[DS9]

Hi

I have just encountered a bit of an issue and thought i'd bounce it off people here for thoughts.

My DS9 was a late June 22 reg date, apparently a part of a fleet order that fell through. When I bought the car 13 months later from Nissan Leicester I was told the lease co was a partner/ subsiduary of the group and they were offloading them. This was plausible, i saw some at other Nissan dealers, Scarborough springs to mind, and then a few were at motorpoint.

I have just taken the car in for warranty repairs, the usual things which arent quite perfect, a light and bumper, but the dealer also then did a health check because I had mentioned 2 additional things. First the radio presets seem to have vanished for no reason and the driver side airflow is always cool. All things being equal the first point of call here would probably be the aerial and the heater matrix. However things are not what they seem.

When performing the health check the technician found that the battery fitted was not the original one, at first this seems weird because I bought a car with 100 miles on the clock. Trying to rationalise what may have occurred the DS service guy suggested with the car sat for so long, perhaps the battery died and they replaced before selling to me, then couldnt find an original/ didnt return to manufacturer under warranty and replaced with something not quite as good. This could mean the battery hasn't quite got the power it should have to deal with the car. By the way I do notice it shuts down quite quickly if the ignition is on the car isnt running.

Now I'm waiting for the DS service guy to email me the exact details of what is fitted and how this is substandard. I have the option to change for a new proper one at the dealer (£391 inc fitting with a 3 yr guarantee) or get a Bosch from Kwik Fit at £221 after discount code applied with a 5 yr guarantee https://www.kwik-fit.com/batteries/sear ... osch-s5a08

Obviously however the option of sending the battery back to the manufacturer and it being a warranty repair does not exist, as the battery is not an original part.

The option is to change nothing and retain what's there but this is not worth considering. First if it is the cause of the 2 gremlins I'm having it's just easier to eliminate them, but then theres something else. One thing I love about the DS9 when it is operational is the freewheeling mode in ECO mode. If im driving at motorway speed, lift off the accelerator, the revs fall from from circa 2k to 800rpm...idle, and the car freewheels. Early after getting the car I had instances where on a gradual decline this could occur for a distance of 2 miles at a time. Recently though I have noticed it happens far less often, and only when I am a long distance into a run, its like the battery needs to have a lot of charge available for it to function. MPG has dropped off a bit too, once i was maybe looking at 50mpg+ on a long run, and I think I could get 55mpg with freewheel activated using speed limiter. These days its more like 40-45mpg.

So I need to change, makes sense, i'll save more on petrol than retaining whats there and crosses off a possible reason for the gremlins so it looks like I'm in a hole for £221 as I'd prefer the Bosch option. It isn't the end of the world by any means.

Question is, do i just suck it up, or have I any leverage in going back to Nissan Leicester who sold the car to me?

Question is though

[wheeler]

What brand is the battery & what is the spec of it?

[tricoloured]

Hi

Please excuse me for chucking this in but I would have thought that "freewheeling" (if I understand correctly like being in neutral) would use more fuel albeit a minimum as the engine has to be kept running at idle but if it was in gear and the engine is overrunning due to the momentum of the vehicle the ECU would shut of the fuel to the engine ?

Once again apologies for my interjection.

[Gibbo2286]

Does the existing battery have a date code and if so does it match the car age?
One possibility is that someone at the dealership took advantage of the sell off and swapped it for his own old one.

[PaulC5]

Winter mpg is usually not as good as summer mpg since the engine has to warm up from a lower temperature. Also it requires a bit more effort driving through cold air - velodromes for cycling give quicker times when warm and are about 25°C. If you are going to base buying a new battery on mpg then if comparing winter mpg against summer then you may not find any improvement.

[DeuxChevaux]

Does the existing battery have a date code and if so does it match the car age?
One possibility is that someone at the dealership took advantage of the sell off and swapped it for his own old one.

Used to happen a lot when I was an apprentice many years ago

[DS9]

Thanks all for your replies, and I'll respond to each.

Wheeler - The DS guy didnt go into detailed specifics but generally it sounded substandard to what is expected in terms of power. I did ask for a detailed spec and he said he'd email me but that hasn't arrived yet.

Tricoloured - No need to apologise mate, all comments welcome. The car definitely uses less fuel when freewhelling and you are right it's the same say as being in neutral with the engine running at idle.. The drivetrain is very smooth in the DS9 and you can just about detect the decoupling of the drive when it occurs, and also the re-engagement when the accelerator is later pressed. Obviously another by product of this is the lack of engine braking which some may find disconcerting but I always try and keep my distance so I have a more of a gap to brake into if necessary. I'll post a pic of it in action below this post if I can.

Gibbo2286/ Deuxchevaux - Great point and not one I'd thought of, when the DS guy finally emails I'll ask him.

PaulC5 - Valid point. I appreciate I wont get summer mpg in winter, for one thing cold air is more dense than hot air. But im not really basing my decision to swap on that. There is extra load on the battery in winter and thats why I believe with a substandard battery the car is increasingly reluctant to go into freewheeling mode.

[DS9]

I have tried to do the attachment, if it works it shows what the dash says when freewheeling is in action. I took this pic at exactly 1000 miles on the clock.

Car speed 66mph, engine revs about 800rpm.

What is also noteworthy here is for some strange reason my DS9 is not fitted with ACC, just CC. At first I thought it'd be something I miss. However if you think about it I could not use either ACC or CC and utilise the freewheeling as the engine would need to maintain constant speed. Instead I just use speed limiter all the time.

[tricoloured]

Thanks for the pic DS9, not seen it in action before.

After I posted I thought about it some and it made more sense to me.

I have a 2018 Expert van 2.0hdi with the EAT6 auto box and often on a slight decline I want to change up to use gravity to allow me to coast up to speed but it doesn't allow me to like I could with a manual box by putting it in a higher gear, it will do it but more restrictive than a manual so takes longer, even if I use the the paddles in manual mode it will only allow a change within it's limits so I still have to use a little throttle where I possibly wouldn't need to with a manual.
I,m not sure if it would make much difference to the mpg though.

I hope that made some sense anyway as it was a long way of saying I now understand the freewheeling mode.

Cheers all

[DS9]

It would make some difference to the MPG, albeit not as much as freewheeling.

If you were in a manual in 5th say you'd have more engine braking vs 6th and retain less speed so mpg would be a little higher. Like you say in auto's its like they are programmed on the revs for each gear, where changing down is fine but you can't select a gear too high. I presume this is to prevent the engine labouring and potentially stalling.

My last car was a 2l diesel fiat 500x auto, and i'll be honest I do miss the torque of 350nm. Even though it was 140hp it did always feel to have masses of torque. It was 9 speed as well and at motorway speed never changed down at constant speed. i could drive at 75mph constant speed ticking over at 2,000 revs and go up a steep incline and i don't think i can ever once remember it changing down from 9th.

Now I have a petrol car 50kg heavier and with 225hp/ 300nm, and I notice the lack of torque. It changes down sometime but this is maybe because of the high gearing, about 39mph per 1,000 revs in 8th gear.

One thing I will say tho is the engine noise difference is night and day. I took my car to a garage a couple of weeks ago and had the mechanic in it for a short drive. We must have gone 50 metres or so and he turned and said, "Is this hybrid or electric?". I said "neither". He couldn't believe how smooth the drivertrain was and the quietness of the engine.