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Insomnia: Car Won't Sleep, Vampire Drain, & Tesla Doesn't Know Why

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B

bruinmd

New Member
Nov 1, 2018
3
0
Los Angeles, CA
#1
Hey Guys,

Wondering if I can get some help on this forum. I've had my Model 3 LR for about 2 months. I noticed about 2 weeks into ownership that it was draining about 1 mile per hour of battery life when it's parked in ambient temperatures. I turned off cabin overheat protection, rebooted the car, removed the widget on my iPhone, and even turned off the AC before leaving the car. Nothing seemed to help and I averaged about 20-25 miles lost per day.

I only noticed near the beginning when I got the car that when I opened the app it said "Waking Up"...I have not seen it since. The car is simply not sleeping at all despite all efforts. I used TeslaFi for 2 days to verify if it was going to sleep (with sleep settings on) and then I removed the API key, changed my Tesla account password, and deleted by TeslaFi account. 1-2 weeks later and still experiencing the significant drain.

I brought my Model 3 into service and it seems like the Tesla engineers are having trouble diagnosing the problem. I told them that I think it's because the car isn't sleeping and if they find the reason it's not sleeping then it should solve the vampire drain. I recommended checking the battery management system bootloader and checking any sensors that might be keeping the car from sleeping. It's been over a week and still no luck.

TL;DR: Car won't sleep. Tesla engineers are having trouble diagnosis it. Any tips?

Thanks!
 
#3
P=VI said:
When you exit the car and close the door, does the screen shut off?
Click to expand...

Yeah the screen shuts off when I exit the car and close the door. When I get back in the car, it turns back on right away without any delays. When I have the widget enabled on iOS, it would just say "Parked" and never says "Asleep" like other Model 3s.

A technician keeps telling me that losing 10-15 miles of range overnight is normal, but that definitely is not normal per the manual.
 
#4
10-15 miles overnight drain is not normal of course. Vampire drain was my concern before my car was delivered, especially as I barely drive and car stays in garage. I measured and it is 3 miles a day (24 hours). Something definitely keeps your car awake.
 
#5
BestHand said:
10-15 miles overnight drain is not normal of course. Vampire drain was my concern before my car was delivered, especially as I barely drive and car stays in garage. I measured and it is 3 miles a day (24 hours). Something definitely keeps your car awake.
Click to expand...
Yeah seems like 1-3 is the average. My car has been in service for 2 weeks now and they have made ZERO progress. Supposedly Tesla engineers don't know what's wrong with it and they don't know why it's not going to sleep. I'm a bit skeptical about that. Perhaps the service center is just ignoring it?
 
#6
bruinmd said:
Hey Guys,

Wondering if I can get some help on this forum. I've had my Model 3 LR for about 2 months. I noticed about 2 weeks into ownership that it was draining about 1 mile per hour of battery life when it's parked in ambient temperatures. I turned off cabin overheat protection, rebooted the car, removed the widget on my iPhone, and even turned off the AC before leaving the car. Nothing seemed to help and I averaged about 20-25 miles lost per day.

I only noticed near the beginning when I got the car that when I opened the app it said "Waking Up"...I have not seen it since. The car is simply not sleeping at all despite all efforts. I used TeslaFi for 2 days to verify if it was going to sleep (with sleep settings on) and then I removed the API key, changed my Tesla account password, and deleted by TeslaFi account. 1-2 weeks later and still experiencing the significant drain.

I brought my Model 3 into service and it seems like the Tesla engineers are having trouble diagnosing the problem. I told them that I think it's because the car isn't sleeping and if they find the reason it's not sleeping then it should solve the vampire drain. I recommended checking the battery management system bootloader and checking any sensors that might be keeping the car from sleeping. It's been over a week and still no luck.

TL;DR: Car won't sleep. Tesla engineers are having trouble diagnosis it. Any tips?

Thanks!
Click to expand...
Do you park a car in garage? If yes, you can hear quiet whirring sound after you park. Does it stop after awhile? Or it makes that sound all the time?
 
#9
bruinmd said:
Yeah the screen shuts off when I exit the car and close the door. When I get back in the car, it turns back on right away without any delays. When I have the widget enabled on iOS, it would just say "Parked" and never says "Asleep" like other Model 3s.

A technician keeps telling me that losing 10-15 miles of range overnight is normal, but that definitely is not normal per the manual.
Click to expand...
Mine never says "asleep"; only parked.
 
#10
bruinmd said:
Hey Guys,

Wondering if I can get some help on this forum. I've had my Model 3 LR for about 2 months. I noticed about 2 weeks into ownership that it was draining about 1 mile per hour of battery life when it's parked in ambient temperatures. I turned off cabin overheat protection, rebooted the car, removed the widget on my iPhone, and even turned off the AC before leaving the car. Nothing seemed to help and I averaged about 20-25 miles lost per day.

TL;DR: Car won't sleep. Tesla engineers are having trouble diagnosis it. Any tips?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Have you ever charged the car all the way to 100%? If so how many times since the past 3 months? If you have not, I would recommend to charge all the way atleast a couple of times. I have been noticing a significant drain in my Model 3 too, but as soon as I charged to 100% (for the first time) I'm seeing some noticeable improvement (atleast the first 40 miles or so). I cannot confirm the overall improvement yet, as I'm planning to drive the battery down to 10% or so and then do the math.
 
#13
BestHand said:
No, app never says "asleep". It says "parked", ut when you open app it says also something like "waking up"..., so basically it means that car "asleep".
Click to expand...

@antoinearnau

Use the iOS Widget (not the app) or similar feature if using Android. Allows you to see the state of the vehicle without waking it up.

Caveat: in the widget, the asleep state isn’t necessarily updated every time the car wakes up. So if it says it is “asleep”, it is reasonably certain to be (if it is idle it will say “parked”), but the “last updated” doesn’t accurately reflect the last time the car woke up. It just reflects when the widget was last updated...which is not all that useful. *But still useful for checking car state without waking it up.*
 
Last edited:
#15
Ok, so every time you mess around with the app, you drain your battery. I know it seems obvious but i am new at this game.
However the car sitting outside unpluhged with temperature going from -10 to -15 c must be a factor right ?
 
#17
antoinearnau said:
Ok, so every time you mess around with the app, you drain your battery. I know it seems obvious but i am new at this game.
However the car sitting outside unpluhged with temperature going from -10 to -15 c must be a factor right ?
Click to expand...

I don’t have personal experience with the cold, but my understanding is that it isn’t that bad. Some others who do can comment on exactly how it works, but my understanding:

1) You do lose some rated range when the battery is cold, but it is temporary. When the battery warms up the missing miles come back (assuming you have enough energy in the battery to warm it with acceleration - note that regen won’t help since it is disabled for a cold/frozen battery, to protect it (elemental lithium plating can occur if you attempt to charge a frozen battery I guess)). You might lose 5-10 miles rated range (aside: extrapolated max range at 100% will still be ~310 miles though) when the battery gets cold. But again, they aren’t really gone. Drive somewhere far enough away and they’ll likely become available. I saw someone say that on the charging page, you can see a section of your battery is “blue” - but again no experience.

2) I haven’t seen data on battery warming when asleep/idle. From what I have heard so far, it doesn’t sound like any significant effort is made to keep the battery warm when parked. Possibly things will change and it will warm the battery when the temp drops further, below 10F/or around -10C - @coleAK will let us know if it is bad I am sure.

Others can comment/correct as needed.
 
#18
We had 3 days last week where it was ~0F to <10F and not counting energy used to pre heat I lost ~3-4% (9-12 miles) battery per day in the 10-11 hours my car sat outside in those temps. Of those days I had the “ snowflake” when I left work but I got regen back and had no “snowflake” within 4-5 miles of 35-45 mph urban driving.
 
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