Hi, I'm Dala, and today we are going to be
upgrading the battery on this 2011 Nissan Leaf
With a newer one, a 30kWh pack from a 2017 model, Let's get started! So the first step is to jack up the car. I always use some ramps along with jackstands
to make it stand up quite a bit from the floor, in order to be able to extract the battery
out the side. So first step is to remove the 12Vbattery. So close all doors and wait 2 minutes before
disconnecting the 12V lead acid battery. Once the 12V Battery has been removed you
can then move on to the high voltage service disconnect plug under the backseat. The service disconnect plug is located here
in the back seat, behind this cover that is fastened with 3x 10mm bolts. As always when you are dealing with these
orange high voltage things, you should wear the appropriate PPE. So here this is Class0 high voltage gloves. In order to remove the fuse, you simply pop
up this small tab, and lift up the green one and pull up. Nice! Next order of business is to crawl under the
car and remove all the splash shields. So these ones are held on with 10mm bolts
and these plastic clips that you simply pop out. There is a total of 3 of these plastic underbellies
you need to remove. When you are working under a dirty car, it
is a good idea to wear some protective glasses, because dirt will get in your eyes. So there are two cables that you need to disconnect
under the battery, I'm just gonna show you on this pack instead because it is easier
to film. So the first one is the communication plug,
this is the same removal on both generations. So to un-clip it, simply turn it counter-clockwise,
and it will move outwards and then you can simply pop it out. So this cable, the high voltage cable, is
the next one you're gonna be removing. When you are doing this under the car, you'll
need your class0 gloves on. I'm gonna show you a bit, it is normally fastened
like this to the battery, but on the underside you'll see a few things here. The first one is this blue tab. This is the first thing that you will pull
down. Secondly there are two tabs that need to be
de-pressed. One is here on the side, and the other one
is here. As you drag this downwards, you'll need to
press both at the same time to get it to move fully back. Once you are done it should look something
like this, and then you can start to
focus on getting the battery pack down. Under the vehicle there are 8 17mm bolts that
you will need to crack open. I Recommend using a breaker bar before applying
some form of impact or something else. All around the battery there are 8 17mm bolts
spanning the outside perimiter of the battery, but also on the rear, there are two places
where the battery also attaches to the frame so look out for these two. A total of 10 bolts So on the rear of the battery on the left
side we have the older style bolt that the old leaf uses, but the newer style battery
uses a much more thinner threaded bolt, so when you are installing the new battery you
will have to get yourself this type of bolt. One thing i forgot to mention that you should
also remove before removing the battery, are these ground straps that connect on the front
of the battery. There are two of them. This one is actually starting to look a bit
corroded, and there is a recall campaign going on, so you can bring in your Leaf and get
a new set installed for free. So I definitely recommend checking that out
if you haven't done so already for your car. Once all the bolts have been removed, the
battery can be lifted down, and dragged out from the side. The 24kWh battery weighs a total of 273kg,
so you will need to use some appropriate gear for safely lowering it down. So here we are underneath the car, so this
is the rear where the battery attached. And the newer battery works a bit differently,
the bolt holes are not on the same place, so you have to drill out these rear supports. I have put some markers here so that I know
how much to drill out. So let's get to drilling! So here are the brackets after being drilled
out. And some protective coating applied to them
so they wont rust. So here we have the two communication plugs
for the battery. On the left, we have the older standard, the
22-pin. And on the right the new 36-pin. I sell an adapter cable so that you can get
a really easy plug'n'play upgrade, but today we are going for a budget version, since luckily
the new battery came with this short cut plug, that I'm gonna be soldering on to the vehicle
instead. This is done to save a bit of money, because
these connectors are usually quite pricey, so that is why I'm opting for the solder move
here. Ok, so here I'm now mid-splice so the old
connector, the 22-pin has been cut off, and the 36-pin has been spliced on. This is nothign that I recommend, but this
is a budget build. So yeah I would much rather recommend using
the ready made adapter cable instead, so you don't have to do any splicing since that introduce
an additional failure point. Again this is not needed on the newer mode,
so if you are starting to upgrade a Leaf that is 2013+ You will not need to do this modification. But yeah, let's continue. So to make a really nice blockoff plate for
the unused HV heater connection, I'm gonna be using this plug that came with the battery,
just because it's already designed to fit that space. But there are some modifications needed to
plug before I can mount it. As you can see here these two high voltage
connectors, you can't just plug it in, since then you will have it exposed to the elements. So I'm gonna be opening up this one and pulling
out the wires and instead filling it up with some RTV silicone sealant, and then just letting
it cure. So first step here is gonna be removing the
white hat covering it. So there are a total of 4 clips on each corner
that we simply unplug. Like so. And then it can be removed. Then as you can see, there is some red rubber
sealant here that you can simply pry up, like this. And now we can remove these wires. And this is done from the other side, you'll
need a really small screqdriver for this. There are some tabs here on the inside that
you need to push up in order to release the pins so I'm gonna switch to a smaller screwdriver
and do just that. So yeah, simply gonna go in here and press
these tabs down, and at the same time I'll start pulling on the wire from the other side
like so. Pull the pin right out and then do the next
one. There are also alternatives to this, you can
buy some ready made plugs that are made for these delete kits, but like I said earlier
this is a budget build so we are saving some money. So the next step is then to fill this whole
assembly with some RTV silicone, and then put the cap back on. So let's do that. Now the new battery is mounted, and this is
what the connectors look like. On the left, we have the unused port filled
with the delete cap. In the middle ,the normal HVplug, and on the
far right we have the new spliced B24 connector that is 36-pin. Nice! When you're re-installing the splash guards,
some of the bolt holes won't line up, so it is a good idea to take a step drill and make
some new holes where appropriate. Luckily all the plastic clips will work, it's
just some of the bolt holes that won't line up. But it's much better to do this DIY method
instead of buying new splash guards, since these will cost several 100€s from Nissan. So here is an example of the misaligned bolt
holes, so it was simply to drill a new one. So the next step is to install a CAN-bridge
with the BatteryUpgrade firmware. This vehicle already has a CAN-bridge, since
it has been running the LeafEnhancer software to get some additional features. So in this video I'm simply gonna update the
firmware to contain the battery upgrade stuff. I'm still gonna show you where the CAN-bridge
is located on these older models. It is here under the cupholder so I'm just
gonna pop that off right now. To remove this piece you don't need any tools,
you can just use your hands and pull it upwards. There are also some wires in here that you
will need to disconnect. And then one wire still on the other side. Or actually, two wires. Here you can see where I have already mounted
the CAN bridge. It is held in place with a zip-tie around
this bar, and yes you can also see the wiring harness coming off it. I'm gonna show you where the wiring harness
attaches on the other side also, so you can understand how involving it is to install
this CAN bridge. So let's take a look on this side where the
wiring attaches. To remove this piece, you simply need a screwdriver,
and there is a plastic clip here that you simply unscrew, and then you can pull it out. Like so. Simple clip. And then this piece can be just removed. Like so. Here is the cable, that goes in from underneath
the vehicle, and then enters the compartment, and this cable here I have cut open, and extracted
the green and blue wire. And these ones are then cut here in the middle,
and then one set of wires, this bottom ones, goes into CAN1 the battery labelled wiring,
and the other one these two go into CAN2 the vehicle side. I have also grounded the CAN-bridge here on
this bolt. So this is where you do all the work to get
the CAN-bridge mounted. It is also a good idea to cut out a bit of
this capret, that way you'll gain a bit more space to splice the cabling in. Finally then the power for the CAN bridge. As you can see here, this red wire goes up,
and it travels along here, and it goes to the back of the OBD2 port. There is a yellow wire there, that is constant
12V and this wire is then used to supply power to the CAN-bridge. I've also mounted a tiny fuse behind here,
because the fuse that covers the whole OBD2 port is a bit oversized, so it is always a
good idea to install a second fuse just for the CAN bridge. And that wraps up the CAN bridge wiring. That is basically all there is to mount a
CAN bridge to the older ZE0 model. So yeah, short recap. Most of the splice happens here, then you
just ground, and pull power. And bam, bridge is installed. Okay, so moment of truth. 12V battery has been reconnected and also
the service disconnect plug, so now it is time for the first startup. Nice! So the installed battery is reading 12/12
bars and no fault codes are active. Very nice! Now it is time for the first charge. And voila! The update is done. And it's now snowing. That's Finland for you... Okay, so while the car is charging I thought
I would mention a few things about this swap. So the car originally came with a 24kWh pack
that had like 14.9kWh remaining, it only showed I think it was 9 bars out of 12, so this replacement
pack is still very healthy, it is showing full 12 bars, and now the vehicle is like
70% ish charged, and it is already showing a lot higher range numbers than before. I think it was showing something like 100km
max. But now with this 30kWh pack I think it will
probably settle at around maybe 170 or 180km now in winter. Yeah! So yeah, I hope you enjoyed this budget upgrade
video. Huge shoutout to all my patreon supporters,
this channel wouldn't exist without you. Also if you are planning to do an upgrade
on your own, please contact me if you need a CAN bridge or the adapter cable. Bye!
