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Bought used 3 privately, transporter in accident, can’t access my car, battery at 32%, now what?

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OK you can forget calling AAA. Just read this article from June 18, 2019 saying AAA has temporarily discontinued it's emergency vehicle charging service. I had just read in the news recently that they are trying to stay relevant in the new upcoming electric car world and am surprised by this especially with Tesla Model 3 selling so well. Hats off to them for offering this early on and likely it will be started up again in some form. Bad timing for you however. Maybe one of the other companies will pan out.

No idea if Spark Charge is available in the Houston area yet or if they are still in a start up phase. Portable Electric Vehicle Charger | Eliminating Range Anxiety | SparkCharge Site shows the charge unit working with a Tesla (watching video seems like an interesting idea--Says level 3, 1 mile every 60 seconds and in your case would at least keep the battery from dying).


spec sheet: Mobile Electric Vehicle Charging Unit | SparkCharge
 
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If I'm not mistaken, you can only edit posts for a few minutes after you make them. I wouldn't worry about correcting your typo.

I'll first note that it's tragic that somebody died in that accident. It's a reminder of the loss of life that happen on our roads every day. Mostly we don't know about it -- the loaf of bread we buy might have been transported by a truck that was involved in such an accident and we'd never know it.

Another point is unclear....

the seller could not charge the car to full battery capacity and it had only 72 miles on it when he loaded the car on to the truck

they [Tesla] took all my details for validation and were able to confirm that the battery is at 32%

72 miles is about 23% of an LR AWD Model 3's range, or 30% of an SR+'s range. I suspect you meant that the car was charged to 72% or that the current range is 32 miles (10% or 13%). If the current charge is 32%, then chances are there won't be any problems. That's 99 miles or 77 miles, depending on the battery size. Typical "vampire loss," if features like Sentry Mode are disabled, is about 1-3 miles per day, so over two weeks, you'd lose about 42 miles, maximum. That's not a lot of miles for driving, but if the car is delivered to your home, you'll be able to charge up enough to start driving with comfortable range within a few hours. Also, once the charge drops below 20%, the car goes into a low-power mode, so the vampire losses should drop further. Since 32 miles is below 20% for either battery size, if that's what you meant, then the car is already in its low-power state, and it might lose another 5-20 miles over the next two weeks, so it'll probably be OK, but that situation is certainly much closer to one that's cause for concern.

I don't think I'd want to try charging the car when you're there. You'll get very little charge on a 120v outlet unless you camp out overnight with the car. You might be able to leave it plugged in after you leave, but then the truck driver would need to unplug the vehicle. Teslas lock their charge ports when they're in use and after a charge has completed, so the driver (or somebody) would need to know how to do this. If they have problems, it might create a further delay. If the site happens to have a 240v outlet of a type with a matching adapter in the car (Teslas used to ship with NEMA 14-50 plugs), then you could add a few miles if you can stay with the car for a couple of hours, and that might be worthwhile.

You may want to ensure that power-hungry features are disabled, though. The worst of these is Sentry Mode, but my hunch is it's already disabled -- it would probably freak out and cause alarms to blare when a car is transported on a carrier. Also check that cabin overheat protection is disabled, as well as the new feature to keep sensors active while parked for the benefit of Smart Summon. I don't recall offhand precisely where in the menus all these options are, so you might have to go digging, either in the actual menus when you get there or in the manual before going.

From your latest post, it looks like your car is off the carrier, so you might see if you can take delivery where it is not. If so, bring a friend (or take an Uber or bus or something to where it is now) and drive it back yourself. Of course, they might have policies against that, and if there's a court order impounding the truck and its cargo, this might not be possible. If I were you, I'd be trying to find out everything possible about that court order, and maybe even hire my own lawyer to help get the car released and get the carrier to pay for whatever your losses are (insurance, interest, etc.) because of the delayed delivery.

Best of luck getting this resolved!
 
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My bad...All of them are October..not August... good catch ..will see if I can update the post...
I fixed your post for you. Sorry to hear about your situation. Hope it works out for you. But you don’t want the car battery to drain to zero. I’m wondering if Tesla can remotely power down the car completely?
 
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I suspect the UMC is in the car (probably the frunk). Have you switched the car to your own Tesla account? If so, I'd call the shop and see if they are helpful about the charging situation. If they are, ask if they will go the car and get the UMC then plug in the car. I'm sure they have an extension cable, if necessary. You can open the frunk remotely from the Tesla mobile app while they're on the phone if you have the car in your Tesla account already.

If you don't have the car under your account yet, I'd recommend starting that process because sometimes it takes Tesla quite a bit of "reminding" to get it done. Meanwhile, I'm sure the seller would help by opening the frunk while the car is still in their account.
 
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Also resist the temptation to keep checking on the charge remaining on your car. Every time you ping it, it wakes up and uses even more juice. Once a Tesla gets down to around 20% state of charge it often goes into a deeper sleep to conserve battery power.

Even if you can't get to a Supercharger, there is usually a destination charger nearby that you can plug into for a couple hours. Just need to stay there long enought to get enough to reach the nearest Supercharger.
 
If I'm not mistaken, you can only edit posts for a few minutes after you make them. I wouldn't worry about correcting your typo.

I'll first note that it's tragic that somebody died in that accident. It's a reminder of the loss of life that happen on our roads every day. Mostly we don't know about it -- the loaf of bread we buy might have been transported by a truck that was involved in such an accident and we'd never know it.

Another point is unclear....





72 miles is about 23% of an LR AWD Model 3's range, or 30% of an SR+'s range. I suspect you meant that the car was charged to 72% or that the current range is 32 miles (10% or 13%). If the current charge is 32%, then chances are there won't be any problems. That's 99 miles or 77 miles, depending on the battery size. Typical "vampire loss," if features like Sentry Mode are disabled, is about 1-3 miles per day, so over two weeks, you'd lose about 42 miles, maximum. That's not a lot of miles for driving, but if the car is delivered to your home, you'll be able to charge up enough to start driving with comfortable range within a few hours. Also, once the charge drops below 20%, the car goes into a low-power mode, so the vampire losses should drop further. Since 32 miles is below 20% for either battery size, if that's what you meant, then the car is already in its low-power state, and it might lose another 5-20 miles over the next two weeks, so it'll probably be OK, but that situation is certainly much closer to one that's cause for concern.

I don't think I'd want to try charging the car when you're there. You'll get very little charge on a 120v outlet unless you camp out overnight with the car. You might be able to leave it plugged in after you leave, but then the truck driver would need to unplug the vehicle. Teslas lock their charge ports when they're in use and after a charge has completed, so the driver (or somebody) would need to know how to do this. If they have problems, it might create a further delay. If the site happens to have a 240v outlet of a type with a matching adapter in the car (Teslas used to ship with NEMA 14-50 plugs), then you could add a few miles if you can stay with the car for a couple of hours, and that might be worthwhile.

You may want to ensure that power-hungry features are disabled, though. The worst of these is Sentry Mode, but my hunch is it's already disabled -- it would probably freak out and cause alarms to blare when a car is transported on a carrier. Also check that cabin overheat protection is disabled, as well as the new feature to keep sensors active while parked for the benefit of Smart Summon. I don't recall offhand precisely where in the menus all these options are, so you might have to go digging, either in the actual menus when you get there or in the manual before going.

From your latest post, it looks like your car is off the carrier, so you might see if you can take delivery where it is not. If so, bring a friend (or take an Uber or bus or something to where it is now) and drive it back yourself. Of course, they might have policies against that, and if there's a court order impounding the truck and its cargo, this might not be possible. If I were you, I'd be trying to find out everything possible about that court order, and maybe even hire my own lawyer to help get the car released and get the carrier to pay for whatever your losses are (insurance, interest, etc.) because of the delayed delivery.

Best of luck getting this resolved!
the car was at 72 miles when picked up by carrier and was at 32 miles few days back when Tesla rep checked it...it is not %, like I mentioned in my post..I guess I've to proof read it better from next time....1st post hence few mistakes...

Yeah, agree with your points on the charging. Will see how things are tomorrow at the body shop and take a call accordingly., will also do the things you suggested if I get access to the car.... In worst case scenario, I'd have to let the car be witout charging and jump start it when it reaches me and super charge it.
 
Also resist the temptation to keep checking on the charge remaining on your car. Every time you ping it, it wakes up and uses even more juice. Once a Tesla gets down to around 20% state of charge it often goes into a deeper sleep to conserve battery power.

Even if you can't get to a Supercharger, there is usually a destination charger nearby that you can plug into for a couple hours. Just need to stay there long enought to get enough to reach the nearest Supercharger.
Yeah, I was opening the Tesla app frequently initially, but now I realized that it would have to constantly connect to the car each time I did that...so I stopped doing that few days back...there is a supercharger 10 miles from my house ..so will ask the driver to drop the car at supercharger...whenever it is back on road..that is.. :)
 
I suspect the UMC is in the car (probably the frunk). Have you switched the car to your own Tesla account? If so, I'd call the shop and see if they are helpful about the charging situation. If they are, ask if they will go the car and get the UMC then plug in the car. I'm sure they have an extension cable, if necessary. You can open the frunk remotely from the Tesla mobile app while they're on the phone if you have the car in your Tesla account already.

If you don't have the car under your account yet, I'd recommend starting that process because sometimes it takes Tesla quite a bit of "reminding" to get it done. Meanwhile, I'm sure the seller would help by opening the frunk while the car is still in their account.
Yes, I have added the car to my tesla app..but, I do have the key card with me..so I can open the car, trunk frunk once I get consent from the body shop owner to do so tomorrow.
 
I fixed your post for you. Sorry to hear about your situation. Hope it works out for you. But you don’t want the car battery to drain to zero. I’m wondering if Tesla can remotely power down the car completely?
Thanks a lot... other than me having to jump start the 12v battery before I can super charge the battery pack, what other downsides are there of a dead battery?
 
I recognize all those locations where the photos were taken. Nice car and good luck! Sorry to read about your troubles.

What's the latest on the car? Is it any closer to you or can it be charged up a bit in its current location?

If Tesla can remote into it one last time, would be good if they a. disabled wifi scanning b. disabled live traffic (oddly helps with vampire drain) c. disabled Sentry mode if active (likely no since previous owners would not leave a flash drive plugged in I bet) d. turned display to night and e. all lights to off... as well as see if they can put it into deep sleep remotely.

No matter what, no soft or hard reboots since if a TeslaCam flash drive is plugged, it would reset to record and eat away at SoC.
 
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Good luck, I hope your car is okay and that you get it sooner than later. Having said that, my car was home delivered to me with ZERO SOC last December. Not only did I get it with zero, but the driver said he loaded it with zero, that morning, and it was now late in the evening. Worse, I couldn't take delivery at my home since the semi couldn't get down my dirt road, so we met at a rest stop, where the driver thought it could charge. Even worse, that rest stop doesn't have any chargers! I had to push the car back onto the semi and take it to a Supercharger 10 miles away.

All's well that ends well. My car charged up and after 11 months, has shown no degradation at all.
 
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When the car its 20% most of the extra features are disabled and it sleeps more.

Eventually, the car will stop connecting the main battery pack if it gets too low. The car will no longer charge the 12v battery, but this will protect the main pack for a very long time (months).

If you have charging at home, I'd have the car dropped at home so you have more time to think about it in a reasonable manner. Also time to inspect for damage from the shipper given the trip.. As you mentioned, I'd have a 12v booster ready and read the instructions on how to access.

Worst case regarding the battery is the 12v will be a bit more worn from being flat. They really don't enjoy that for a long time.

The body shop may have 240v circuits. If so, you could see if they would work something out with you if you are there to plug it in. Offer them $25-50 for the $10 electricity. But, I don't think the risk is too great. The main pack will protect itself just fine.
 
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Yeah, I was opening the Tesla app frequently initially, but now I realized that it would have to constantly connect to the car each time I did that...so I stopped doing that few days back...there is a supercharger 10 miles from my house ..so will ask the driver to drop the car at supercharger...whenever it is back on road..that is.. :)

Well, you might want to think about this for a minute...

1. You haven't had physical access to the car
2. The car may or may not have any hidden damage from the accident
3. By the time you pick up the car, the battery state is unknown

Under the best case scenario, you may have to jump start and trickle charge the car using a 120v outlet at home. But, worse case scenario would mean stranded at the supercharger due to one of many things you haven't confirmed...
1. A small chance that you may not be able to get into the car right away
2. A hidden damage so that it's not wise to drive 10 miles
etc...

Not trying to dampen your spirit but just thinking about the amount of additional troubles you may be in if things don't go well.

Good luck. I really hope the saga ends soon. It's a great car and it will put a smile on your face for months...
 
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Good luck, I hope your car is okay and that you get it sooner than later. Having said that, my car was home delivered to me with ZERO SOC last December. Not only did I get it with zero, but the driver said he loaded it with zero, that morning, and it was now late in the evening. Worse, I couldn't take delivery at my home since the semi couldn't get down my dirt road, so we met at a rest stop, where the driver thought it could charge. Even worse, that rest stop doesn't have any chargers! I had to push the car back onto the semi and take it to a Supercharger 10 miles away.

All's well that ends well. My car charged up and after 11 months, has shown no degradation at all.
Good to know..thanks KenC for the inputs..
 
Well, you might want to think about this for a minute...

1. You haven't had physical access to the car
2. The car may or may not have any hidden damage from the accident
3. By the time you pick up the car, the battery state is unknown

Under the best case scenario, you may have to jump start and trickle charge the car using a 120v outlet at home. But, worse case scenario would mean stranded at the supercharger due to one of many things you haven't confirmed...
1. A small chance that you may not be able to get into the car right away
2. A hidden damage so that it's not wise to drive 10 miles
etc...

Not trying to dampen your spirit but just thinking about the amount of additional troubles you may be in if things don't go well.

Good luck. I really hope the saga ends soon. It's a great car and it will put a smile on your face for months...
Yeah, all of that is likely possible..and now that I've see all this, I guess I'm prepared for what comes next :)
 
I will call the body shop and let them know that I am planning to travel in the next few days and make sure they do not have any problems(due to court order) showing me the truck and car...or even get in to the car...that way..my trip will not be in vain