Nissan QashQai Forums

This morning I had an interesting chat to the parts guy at my local Main Dealer, we were talking about the Start/Stop issues that some cars are having and got onto talking about batteries failing, where I mentioned that the new Varta Battery like in the picture above should hopefully sort the issue, the parts guy then gave me a smile and said no, we're no longer fitting the Varta battery anymore, we are fitting a basic £69 Nissan battery which solves the issue and he brought one out from the back to show me, I couldn't see any manufacturing names on other than Nissan ( no Renault ) so if I do end up needing a new battery it will probably be the cheap one that is fitted, but if it solves the problem then OK.

That cheapo battery doesn't stack up with the need for a special Start/Stop modern car need...does it? So I wonder what the battery monitoring system does when its told this is not a battery to expect (maybe?).

The difference is about +£120 or so.

I totally agree...I should have asked him what the thinking was behind the change.

Maybe Nissan are tired of buying expensive batteries to cover warranty work and are just going to fob us off with cheaper replacements.

Weasel wrote: ↑Sat Jul 20, 2019 2:24 pm I totally agree...I should have asked him what the thinking was behind the change.

Maybe Nissan are tired of buying expensive batteries to cover warranty work and are just going to fob us off with cheaper replacements.

Surely the criteria to judge any replacement part is how well it performs. The cost price is no guarantee of good quality is it.

The QQ went in for the IEB update on Friday and while they were doing it they also did the BCM and an engine update, I was told that the BCM update would sort out the battery charging issues to which I was a little sceptical, but it seems to have done the trick, on tick over my voltage used to be about 12.8v whereas now it is about 13.2 and holding, so we'll see how it goes.

Thank you for your feedback. I doubt, unless they did also IPDM update. BCM has nothing to do with it. Please monitor and give us update after a while.

duncho wrote: ↑Sun Aug 25, 2019 6:26 am Please monitor and give us update after a while.

Will do, duncho.

After a couple of days the tickover voltage is still holding steady at 13.2v from the rather crappy 12.8v, maybe it's down to that mystery engine update that was carried out at the same time as the BCM update.

Will keep on monitoring and report back in a couple of weeks.

Thank you for feedback, please keep an eye on it

I couldn’t start the QQ this morning, lots of clicking, warning lights and various messages about Stop Start and Chassis failures.

I telephoned Nissan Breakdown and they sent the RAC who have just fitted a new battery to replace the Renault Nissan FIAMM EFB.

Fortunately, the FIAMM battery recorded a faulty cell so the RAC were able to replace the battery, there and then, without having to resort to the dealership, all free of charge.

I now have a RAC AGM battery installed, manufactured by Varta (picture below - rotated accordingly).

I believe it’s been mentioned on this forum before but the main problem is with the EFB batteries, not necessarily the company that manufactures them.

Anyway, apart from a couple of lost system settings (car display colour, best MPG - nothing major), the QQ seems happy. Fingers crossed it stays that way!