Interpreting a battery capacity test

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RogerHalifax

Member
Joined
Dec 29, 2015
Messages
19
Hello,
I am considering purchasing a 2014 iMiev in Halifax, NS. The car is a demo, with 500kms. I asked for a check on the battery capacity. The results were: test 784 Battery Capacity Secular Deterioration 5.06% and test 785 Battery Capacity cycle deterioration .19% Could someone kindly help me understand these results? I am obviously interested in how much capacity loss the battery has. How should this effect the amount I would offer for the car? Thanks for any help.
 
Those terms of description of the tests do not sound familiar to me at all--the service manual has procedures for using the Mitsu Universal Tester, aka the MUT, to measure the capacity, both from values stored in memory, and by doing a battery drain and recharge test. Maybe those are from the stored data, but i've just never heard of it like that.

A quicker and better option might be to find a member in the local area who has the OBD reader and the CanIon android app on their phone. In less than a minute Canion can display a nice bar chart graph showing the voltage of all the cells in the pack. If a cell is defective it will be out of line with the rest.

Ask about how long the battery is covered under warranty--if it has the 10 year then it is covered no matter what the test data shows, i.e. not a worry. Try to get the best deal you can, but you will love driving it so much that you can't get the grin off your face...
 
I agree with kiev as this is also the first time I have heard of these specific test numbers and descriptions..

Had to look up the meaning of secular, as I hadn't heard its use in the context of battery capacity. Found this use in Economics:
"Occurring or persisting over an indefinitely long period." Example: there is evidence that the slump is not cyclical but secular.

Certainly a good bargaining chip for you in negotiating a price, but I also wouldn't worry about it as so far Mitsubishi has been very good about honoring the battery warranty.
kiev said:
... Try to get the best deal you can, but you will love driving it so much that you can't get the grin off your face...
A few weeks ago my next-door neighbor bought a used i-MiEV to complement the Leaf he's had for four years which he gave to his daughter - he can't get the grin off his face praising the i-MiEV's sprightliness!
 
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