Battery Drain When Car Stored Outside in Winter for 2 Weeks

[JMesh]

Apologies if this has been answered elsewhere but haven't seen my specific case asked yet.

I have to leave my M3P outside and unplugged while I'm away for 2 weeks later this winter. I live in CO and expect it to be well below freezing each night. Is 2 weeks too long to leave the car unplugged? I'm worried that it will discharge fully or damage the batteries in some way.

Does anybody have experience with this situation?

Thanks for any guidance.

Jason

 

[turok3000]

We just came back from a vacation where our model 3 was parked outside in roughly -2C to 8C temps for 20 days. Sentry mode off (via home exclusion) and no wifi access (I unplugged the wifi extender that the car connects to). I've checked teslafi and charge before we left was 82% and when we arrived home 71%. On average, the car came out of sleep for 20 mins roughly once every 1.5 days.

 

[JMesh]

Thanks @turok3000 . That's very helpful. It's a little colder here but not significantly so.

 

[jjrandorin]

Apologies if this has been answered elsewhere but haven't seen my specific case asked yet.

I have to leave my M3P outside and unplugged while I'm away for 2 weeks later this winter. I live in CO and expect it to be well below freezing each night. Is 2 weeks too long to leave the car unplugged? I'm worried that it will discharge fully or damage the batteries in some way.

Does anybody have experience with this situation?

Thanks for any guidance.

Jason

It would be imperative that you NOT attempt to do anything that would cause a bunch of drain. This means absolutely NO sentry mode, even though you are parking outside. No checking on the car remotely (or limited.. like every couple of days at most), smart summon disabled, USB unplugged, etc.

If you ensure you have everything off, it sounds like you would be ok, provided you start at as high a charge as you could. The thing is, if you are parking outside, most people in your situation would want to try to run sentry mode, and you simply can not do that for that long of a time.

 

[toolman335]

What about running Sentry mode for a day or two to see how much battery it uses? You can always shut it off.

 

[jjrandorin]

What about running Sentry mode for a day or two to see how much battery it uses? You can always shut it off.

We know how much it uses. It uses 1-2 miles of range per hour of usage. If this OP runs sentry mode for 1 day, he will lose somewhere between 24-30 miles of range. two days = 48-60 miles of range.

 

[KenC]

Apologies if this has been answered elsewhere but haven't seen my specific case asked yet.

I have to leave my M3P outside and unplugged while I'm away for 2 weeks later this winter. I live in CO and expect it to be well below freezing each night. Is 2 weeks too long to leave the car unplugged? I'm worried that it will discharge fully or damage the batteries in some way.

Does anybody have experience with this situation?

Thanks for any guidance.

Jason

Just make sure you check your drain rate before you go. Check your miles when you get home, then check when you leave in the morning. If the drain rate is not high, then you're set. Some people have high drain rates due to the car not sleeping or Sentry mode or Smart Summon being on. Just double-check before you actually leave.

 

[JMesh]

Thanks, all. for good advice. If I have to leave it outside, I'll be turning off sentry and as many other functions as possible.