High Vampire Drain

[Droschke]

My car must be set to "auto update"

There is no such thing as "auto update". Someone has to give it a go on the app or in the car. The only exception is that in certain rare cases in the past when a car's software was a way too old (years old) due to the owner refusing to apply numerous updates then Tesla had forced the updates with no user consent.

... and I still want to know why I can't cancel an update remotely ...

This is a good question.

 

[ucmndd]

... and I still want to know why I can't cancel an update remotely ...

You can, if you do so during the 2 minute countdown before the update actually starts.

Once it’s in progress, there is no cancelling, inside the car, via the app, or otherwise.

 

[Oldrocky]

Yes, I know about that part - cancelling the apply of the update/not able to do so after it
actually starts the apply.
This was still downloading - and causing vampire drain - and I wanted to stop the
download (due to high vampire drain during the download) and run that at a later time.
It appears there is no way to do that (cancel the download of the update).
Status now is that the update is sitting - waiting after completing the download - for me
now to start the apply phase.
And the vampire drain went to a very low number ... now ... due to the settings I have in the
car. The most important vampire drain seems to be leaving the security system running.

Seems like there could be a way to make the security system be less of a drain - it's fine for
"just today" ... not so fine for times when you are away from the vehicle for several days.
- Jim in the PNW

 

[tesluv108]

Did another test while I was out of town. Left battery at 40% and didn’t charge for 10 days. It was at 24% after those ten days and in sleep mode unplugged the entire time. Kinda disappointing

 

[Droschke]

Did another test while I was out of town. Left battery at 40% and didn’t charge for 10 days. It was at 24% after those ten days and in sleep mode unplugged the entire time. Kinda disappointing

The same use case for me currently. Except that mine is 2% or 5 miles per day.

 

[tesluv108]

The same use case for me currently. Except that mine is 2% or 5 miles per day.

I think you mentioned you don’t have sentry correct? I think 2% is way too much but it’s winter time here. At 1.6% a day with garage temps around 43-55 consistently now.

 

[Droschke]

I think you mentioned you don’t have sentry correct? I think 2% is way too much but it’s winter time here. At 1.6% a day with garage temps around 43-55 consistently now.

Correct, no sentry. But I did upgrade to MCU2 last summer which reportedly increases the vampire drain in the older cars like mine. Leaving the car for 10 days, garaged and unused, would result in at least 50 miles of vampire drain for me, even during the warmer weather.

 

[Droschke]

Update:
Got the low 12v warning several weeks ago and had it replaced this week. My vampire drain while the car is parked and idle has gone down to 3 miles per 24 hours vs. the previous 6.5 miles I was experiencing before the 12v replacement.

How long after a low 12v battery warning?

I believe this scenario is correct: 1 - You park, lock your car, and walk away. 2 - Your 12v dies. 3 - You return and try to unlock the car. 4 - You can't unlock the car since 12v has died (unlocking needs the 12v). 5 - Even if you somehow gain access to the inside, by forcing the windows to...

teslamotorsclub.com

 

[vcor]

Update:
Got the low 12v warning several weeks ago and had it replaced this week. My vampire drain while the car is parked and idle has gone down to 3 miles per 24 hours vs. the previous 6.5 miles I was experiencing before the 12v replacement.

Makes sense. If the 12v battery was weak and required more frequent charging, it's going to increase the drain on the main battery as it recharges the 12v battery more times than it would for a good 12v battery.

 

[Droschke]

Makes sense. If the 12v battery was weak and required more frequent charging, it's going to increase the drain on the main battery as it recharges the 12v battery more times than it would for a good 12v battery.

Definitely. It's been pretty consistent in the reduction of 50% per 24 hours while the car is parked and unplugged.

Next I'm planning to measure the same except while the car is plugged in. The reason being that when I was on MCU1, leaving the car plugged in was yielding a higher Vampire drain as I described earlier in this thread. I'm curious to see if the difference is true now that I'm on MCU2.

 

[tesluv108]

I just did another longer term test. Parked the car at 92% on March 29th. It’s been garaged and not driven since. Today April 7th it’s showing 80%.

 

[Droschke]

I'm showing about 2.5% vampire drain for every 24 hours , plugged or unplugged, the car parked in the garage, no accessory attached, no 3rd party app used, and even with a brand new 12v battery installed recently. The drain has been following a pretty consistent pattern after I upgraded to MCU2.

Besides the more power hungry MCU2 processor and the lack of standby power supply support with the older cars (all mentioned in other threads), my home router consistently shows network traffic for the car every hour. The car never goes into a deep sleep, something very obvious since if I get into the car after days of being parked and unused, both screens come up instantly once the door is opened.

 

[tesluv108]

I'm showing about 2.5% vampire drain for every 24 hours , plugged or unplugged, the car parked in the garage, no accessory attached, no 3rd party app used, and even with a brand new 12v battery installed recently. The drain has been following a pretty consistent pattern after I upgraded to MCU2.

Besides the more power hungry MCU2 processor and the lack of standby power supply support with the older cars (all mentioned in other threads), my home router consistently shows network traffic for the car every hour. The car never goes into a deep sleep, something very obvious since if I get into the car after days of being parked and unused, both screens come up instantly once the door is opened.

I’d be disappointed if I were you. That’s a lot of power drain for an “upgrade” you likely paid out of pocket for. I’ll stick to mcu1 as long as possible

 

[Droschke]

I’d be disappointed if I were you. That’s a lot of power drain for an “upgrade” you likely paid out of pocket for. I’ll stick to mcu1 as long as possible

Cons:
The vampire drain cost if my car is parked and left unused for a year is about $100.

Pros:
I'm getting a lot of improvement with MCU2 (mentioned in numerous threads).

 

[MrTeaUSA]

If you park in the garage for extended period, can you plug the 12v battery to a slow 12v charger from the 12v outlet. I charged mine since the 12v battery low warning. It works for me so far. Last time I replace 12v battery it was 6 months ago.

 

[tesluv108]

More data on this. I have a new 3 and an s. The 3 has Lfp battery and was charged to 100% on 3 December. The S was charged to 50% on 3 December.

The results are very disappointing for the S. The 3 did amazing losing just 2% in 8 days.
The s lost 12% in 8 days.

 

[Droschke]

More data on this. I have a new 3 and an s. The 3 has Lfp battery and was charged to 100% on 3 December. The S was charged to 50% on 3 December.

The results are very disappointing for the S. The 3 did amazing losing just 2% in 8 days.
The s lost 12% in 8 days.

It lines up with my daily loss.

 

[MrTeaUSA]

Just like your cell phone, it have do things in the background, like send data back to HQ, wake up to check the phone apps calling for data etcs..

 

[vcor]

New cars (including the S/X LR/Plaid) lose less vampire power per day than older models like the S85. Tesla keeps making significant design changes to reduce vampire drain, but most of these are hardware changes, so no software update will reduce vampire drain in older models.

 

[Rocky_H]

New cars (including the S/X LR/Plaid) lose less vampire power per day than older models like the S85. Tesla keeps making significant design changes to reduce vampire drain, but most of these are hardware changes, so no software update will reduce vampire drain in older models.

I would clarify this a little bit about how what you're referencing is like "new" only back to "less new". The truly "old" cars before they had any radar or cameras and no autopilot, etc. had no advanced features that could cause that increased drain, so vampire losses have always been really low on the old cars like my 2014 S85.