Car warranty - wrong battery in car

nicky73

Hi,
I brought a 3 year old Nissan Juke in November 2020 from a Nissan dealership which came with a 1 year warranty.
Today the car wouldn’t start, had AA out who advised the battery isn’t charging properly as it’s been fitted with a standard battery and not a stop start battery. 

The AA have managed to charge the battery but also said it’s losing charge from somewhere when the engine is off and needs replacing urgently. 

Rather than replacing it they suggested contacting Nissan as they have sold the car with an incorrect battery which he said is why it’s failed. 

I’ve called Nissan warranty team who said to book the car into a local Nissan dealership. However when I called my local dealership they advised this isn’t covered under warranty. I explained that surely they have to replace as the battery has failed because they’ve sold me a car with the wrong battery fitted - so it would have been known this would fail far sooner than the correct stop start battery. Unfortunately they weren’t interested. 

I have now emailed the person who sold me the car on the hope they’re agree to fund the replacement. 

Can anyone confirm my rights with this? For info the service book shows the annual services were all carried out at the dealership where I brought the car from.
Thanks 

Aylesbury_Duck

nicky73 said:

Hi,
I brought a 3 year old Nissan Juke in November 2020 from a Nissan dealership which came with a 1 year warranty.
Today the car wouldn’t start, had AA out who advised the battery isn’t charging properly as it’s been fitted with a standard battery and not a stop start battery. 

The AA have managed to charge the battery but also said it’s losing charge from somewhere when the engine is off and needs replacing urgently. 

Rather than replacing it they suggested contacting Nissan as they have sold the car with an incorrect battery which he said is why it’s failed. 

I’ve called Nissan warranty team who said to book the car into a local Nissan dealership. However when I called my local dealership they advised this isn’t covered under warranty. I explained that surely they have to replace as the battery has failed because they’ve sold me a car with the wrong battery fitted - so it would have been known this would fail far sooner than the correct stop start battery. Unfortunately they weren’t interested. 

I have now emailed the person who sold me the car on the hope they’re agree to fund the replacement. 

Can anyone confirm my rights with this? For info the service book shows the annual services were all carried out at the dealership where I brought the car from.
Thanks 

I think you're on a sticky wicket.  You bought a second hand car with a battery that might not have been the correct specification, but it was clearly a battery that worked fine until the other electrical fault appeared and means it is losing charge.  An annual service might comment on the battery health but not necessarily whether the battery type was correct or not.

Ultimately, batteries are consumable items, will last a few years at best, much less if used for a lot of short journeys, cold starts, etc. and most can be replaced for less than £100.  The last battery I bought cost me £32 with a discount from Euro Car Parts, for example.

In summary, do you really want to go through a whole load of possible back and forth trying to get the seller to pay for a new battery that can be replaced for a small sum and which would probably need replacing imminently anyway (if it's a four year old car)?  Of more importance is the reason this battery has failed.  If it's just reached it's end of life, then no drama, just replace it.  If it's losing charge because of an electrical fault, the priority is to establish what that fault is, whether it is covered under warranty and get it fixed.

nicky73

Thanks for the helpful reply.
The AA said they think the battery isn’t charging when the engine is off because the battery is the wrong type - which is why I think they should replace it / fix any other issue.  His view was that the battery shouldn’t have failed at this age and the only reason it had was the wrong type being included.
I’d have paid him to replace the battery there and then for the convenience of having it resolved today has he not insisted that Nissan were responsible.
As it is, I need the car, so if I don’t get a response from Nissan tomorrow morning I’ll be booking it in to my local garage for them to replace the battery / identify any other issue. 

Aylesbury_Duck

nicky73 said:

Thanks for the helpful reply.
The AA said they think the battery isn’t charging when the engine is off because the battery is the wrong type - which is why I think they should replace it / fix any other issue.  His view was that the battery shouldn’t have failed at this age and the only reason it had was the wrong type being included.
I’d have paid him to replace the battery there and then for the convenience of having it resolved today has he not insisted that Nissan were responsible.
As it is, I need the car, so if I don’t get a response from Nissan tomorrow morning I’ll be booking it in to my local garage for them to replace the battery / identify any other issue. 

That's not the same as saying it's draining because of a fault, which is what you said the AA man said in your first post.  You need to check the report carefully, because if there's a fault causing the battery to drain prematurely, a new battery will not last as long as it should.

As to the bolded bit above, a battery won't charge when the engine is off, irrespective of what type it is.  Unless it's plugged into a charger, it will only be charged by the alternator when the engine is running.  Your car will have some things that are on when the car is idle, such as the alarm sensors, memory for the radio, etc. so the battery is doing some work when it's parked up, but it's negligible and as soon as the car is taken for a decent run, that loss of charge is recovered.

The stop/start reference is simply that when in stop/start mode, the battery is doing more starts per journey than when running in normal mode or a car without stop/start.  The battery spec for that type probably has greater capacity, that's all.  It doesn't mean the car won't run on the "normal" type of battery, it just won't last as long if you're doing a lot of city driving in stop/start mode.  Any car I've driven with stop/start allows you to turn the function off, anyway, so if you were worried about battery life, just turn it off.

MattMattMattUK

nicky73 said:

Thanks for the helpful reply.
The AA said they think the battery isn’t charging when the engine is off because the battery is the wrong type - which is why I think they should replace it / fix any other issue.  His view was that the battery shouldn’t have failed at this age and the only reason it had was the wrong type being included.

nicky73 said:

The AA have managed to charge the battery but also said it’s losing charge from somewhere when the engine is off and needs replacing urgently.  

You need to be which of those two statements is correct.

The battery will never charge when the engine is off, it requires the alternator to be spinning, which is spun by the engine.

Start/Stop batteries are designed with a larger capacity and to to handle load differently, in a normal car the battery only needs to supply power to start the engine via the starter motor occasionally and to help balance load to onboard electronics. A start/stop battery is designed for much more frequent starts and is also designed to continue to power vehicle electronics whilst the engine is not running, this ranges from things with minimal power usage like the radio or lights, through to large loads such as air-conditioning pumps and in some cases electrical heating systems. However none of those should cause the battery to be "losing charge from somewhere when the engine is off", if it is being used to power vehicle electronics then it is not losing charge, it is being used.

nicky73 said:

I’d have paid him to replace the battery there and then for the convenience of having it resolved today has he not insisted that Nissan were responsible.
As it is, I need the car, so if I don’t get a response from Nissan tomorrow morning I’ll be booking it in to my local garage for them to replace the battery / identify any other issue. 

Start/stop batteries are slightly more expensive, but not much more. In reality it is unlikely to be included under the warranty, the warranty given for second hand vehicles almost always excludes batteries (as well as tyres, brake pads and discs etc.). You can see if they will make a contribution as a gesture of good will, but I suspect that they are under no compulsion to do so. 

neilmcl

MattMattMattUK said:

Start/stop batteries are slightly more expensive, but not much more. In reality it is unlikely to be included under the warranty, the warranty given for second hand vehicles almost always excludes batteries (as well as tyres, brake pads and discs etc.). You can see if they will make a contribution as a gesture of good will, but I suspect that they are under no compulsion to do so. 

I'd disagree, an equivalent AGM battery can be nearer twice the price, particularly when you take into account battery registration/coding.

peter_the_piper

Make of battery also makes a difference, a bosch one for my picanto was nearly £400 but a different make was about £200.

Grumpy_chap

I am a bit confused as there are some inconsistencies in the thread.

The main question seems to be whether Nissan are liable for the incorrect battery fitted to a three year old used car.  Unless the battery type is a specific item recorded on the pre-delivery check-list (which I doubt), then I would not expect that this is a factor that the garage is responsible for.  Nissan do not own and have control of the car from new right throughout until the car is sold, so it is entirely possible that the selling Dealer was unaware of the battery having been exchanged by the previous owner.

What may be worth checking is whether the alternator is working.  This may be an item covered under the warranty (although I doubt consequential damage to the battery would be).  Even if not covered under warranty, it is peace-of-mind for the OP to know that the alternator is functioning as it should and will not lead to the new battery failing prematurely.