I'm new to Tesla but I have this one question

[Sebat4]

Hey all,

My Model Y is my first Tesla ever but today I walked up to my car (parked on the parking lot over night) and I could hear a fan going on the passenger side right before front windshield. Is that a normal thing? I thought maybe I had AC going but it was off. I'm trying to understand what that sound is. Does anyone knows what that might be?

 

[dhrivnak]

There are fans that can run to cool the cabin or the battery Depending on temperature and the sun. So if warm not unusual. But if below 60 then likely strange.

 

[Sebat4]

Yeah, it's 93F outside today and the car is parked in the shade but gets hit by the sun for some time in the day. I thought it might be a cooling fan for the car or something. Just wanted to make sure I'm kot freaking out. Thank you for the quick response.

 

[Chisale]

Yes. Likely your cabin overheat protection turning on. When possible it will run the Fan only. But if it gets really hot then the AC will turn on briefly too. It will try to keep the cabin in the 90-100 F range. You can turn this on or off on the control panel. It does use up quite a bit of energy if parked in the sun all day and with no window coverings.

 

[Feathermerchan]

There is a feature you can turn on that uses passive (no A/C) to cool the cabin when the inside temp exceeds 95 deg. Check settings or manual.

 

[Sebat4]

Ahhh I see. I just notice that a battery was at 84% this morning 9am and now it's 82% in the afternoon 3pm. I still have functions to figure out, so new that even those tutorial don't explain a lot. I'm gonna try and move the car into the shade and try to keep it there. Should I have that function on to run the fans if it's a hot day?

 

[Sebat4]

Is this function something that isn't bad for the car in a hot weather?

 

[HenryFarkas]

Hey all,

My Model Y is my first Tesla ever but today I walked up to my car (parked on the parking lot over night) and I could hear a fan going on the passenger side right before front windshield. Is that a normal thing? I thought maybe I had AC going but it was off. I'm trying to understand what that sound is. Does anyone knows what that might be?

 

[HenryFarkas]

I'm a new Tesla owner, too. Every time I walk to my car, the fan is on. I just figured that the car sensed my phone and turned itself on.

 

[Sebat4]

I'm a new Tesla owner, too. Every time I walk to my car, the fan is on. I just figured that the car sensed my phone and turned itself on.

Funny thing, I thought that too but then I remembered that I didn't sync my phone to my car... Haha

 

[Impaler]

Also have had my model Y for four days now… I have not enabled cabin protection because it is a energy hog, as others have said. What I did the other day when it was very hot out, was as I left my place of work I opened the app and turned on the climate to get it down to 72°. I actually lost about 3% charge doing that, but for the sake of 10 minutes it wasn’t bad and when I got in the car it was very reasonable.

 

[TomServo]

When Cabin Overheat Protection is enabled does anyone know the UPPER and LOWER temp limits that it will try to maintain. I mean I don’t think it would need to lower the temp from say 130 to your SET temp. Maybe bring it down to say 90 degrees and hold it there. During the summer in some parts of the country that could consume many miles of range.

 

[Feathermerchan]

See your owners manual. There are at least two kinds of cabin overheat protection. One uses ambient air (blower) and another uses A/C.
I think they both are fixed in temperature.

 

[bpjones]

Is this function something that isn't bad for the car in a hot weather?

If I understand your question correctly, the feature is designed to protect your car's interior from damage caused by overheating. I’ve enabled it and never worried about the battery usage.

 

[Sebat4]

What if I would just use a Vent option in the app to remove inside air?

 

[Feathermerchan]

What if it rains?

 

[Impaler]

What if I would just use a Vent option in the app to remove inside air?

That’s a good idea to get the hot, stale air out and maybe if there’s a breeze, to get some air flow in with zero SOC impact. As the other poster above me said, might want to do only 10-15 min before you go to your car after you check the weather.

 

[qingshan]

What if I would just use a Vent option in the app to remove inside air?

I use that here in SoCal where it's been 100+, w/o AC option for cabin protection but even running ac isn't terrible on charge and it shuts off of soc (state of charge) gets low (20% I think)

Think of the car as semi-sentient, it takes care of itself and runs systems as needed

And welcome.

 

[Sebat4]

What if it rains?

I do get the part of rain, but when it rains the car is cooled off to the temp of outside, and when it's 95F or more here temp drops down so I don't worry about that. Only gonna vent when on a sunny day for 10-15min as mentioned in the other post.

 

[Sebat4]

Another question: Is there a way to setup a warning that the cabin temp is over 100F or is there an app that can do that?