Lighter 12 volt power stopped working (1 day old)

[mknmike]

We just brought the M3RWD home yesterday. 258 miles of 272 range available. Floor mats won’t arrive for more than a week. So I grabbed the 12 volt corded vacuum to get the leaves off the floor and install some used black floor mats I’ve got. Passenger front done and moved clockwise to the front driver and the port stopped working. I tested the vacuum in another car, and it works fine. What did I do? I read that there are no fuses. Is there a reset somewhere? No messages are popping up in the app. Do I need to drive around? Or did I break my car less than 24 hours into our ownership?

 

[GHammer]

We just brought the M3RWD home yesterday. 258 miles of 272 range available. Floor mats won’t arrive for more than a week. So I grabbed the 12 volt corded vacuum to get the leaves off the floor and install some used black floor mats I’ve got. Passenger front done and moved clockwise to the front driver and the port stopped working. I tested the vacuum in another car, and it works fine. What did I do? I read that there are no fuses. Is there a reset somewhere? No messages are popping up in the app. Do I need to drive around? Or did I break my car less than 24 hours into our ownership?

The circuit breaker should reset on it's own after the car goes to sleep so dont drive it. Leave it alone for 30 min to several hours and it should be fine.

 

[GtiMart]

...which means that your vacuum pulled more than the allowed power (150W?) from that 12V plug. Maybe don't do that again?

 

[mknmike]

...which means that your vacuum pulled more than the allowed power (150W?) from that 12V plug. Maybe don't do that again?

It’s a “car and driver” vacuum I had laying in the basement and was hoping to leave in the frunk. It was doing a great job vacuuming, but I guess it’s the wrong one for this car.

It’s going to be hard to leave the car alone for a half hour, but I’ve got a phone charger that lights up when it has power plugged in and hope to see it glowing the next time we get in the Tesla.

I guess circuit breakers make a lot of sense, just like a house, but in a house you can manually reset them. A timed reset is kind of weird.

Thank you and happy Thanksgiving!

 

[mknmike]

The circuit breaker should reset on it's own after the car goes to sleep so dont drive it. Leave it alone for 30 min to several hours and it should be fine.

Do you know if Sentry mode will prevent the reset? I’m waiting on it now, but see the car is in sentry mode (as I set it yesterday).

 

[GHammer]

Do you know if Sentry mode will prevent the reset? I’m waiting on it now, but see the car is in sentry mode (as I set it yesterday).

Yes, sentry prevents the car from sleeping so it would follow that it could prevent the reset.

 

[GtiMart]

It's not a timed reset specifically. The e-breakers reset when the car sleeps. No one knows exactly how much time it will take for the car to go to sleep because it depends on so many factors out of our control. One thing you can control is Sentry, that keeps the car awake so it will never sleep. Bad in your case.

 

[stopcrazypp]

Do you know if Sentry mode will prevent the reset? I’m waiting on it now, but see the car is in sentry mode (as I set it yesterday).

You can also try to power off on the car, which may get it to sleep faster. When the car goes to sleep, you hear a clunk sound from the contactor disconnecting the high voltage battery.

https://www.tesla.com/ownersmanual/model3/en_us/GUID-E75DB1EC-A705-4784-9983-DE677D1BF7C1.html#:~:text=On%20the%20touchscreen%2C%20touch%20Controls,%2C%20touch%20the%20touchscreen%2C%20etc.

 

[mknmike]

Thank you all for the help. The lighter power came back as I noted the light on my phone charger. I have yet to try the vacuum again. I guess I shouldn’t.

Thank you!

Sincerely,
Mike

 

[SageBrush]

I have yet to try the vacuum again. I guess I shouldn’t.

A vacuum that is e.g. clogged may trip a breaker. If you place the vacuum end flush down on the carpet in an attempt to pull up deep seated dirt, the same effect may occur.

My suggestion then is to see whether the e-breaker trips when you just operate the vacuum in open air, after you have convinced yourself that it is not clogged. Our little battery powered hand vacuum has an attachment with powered wheels. We have to clean hair out of the axle occasionally, or the battery is not strong enough to turn the clogged wheels.

 

[mknmike]

I had a brush tip (not roller) on this little vacuum. I shut it off between seats going around the car clockwise, but think it was a very short shutoff between rear and front driver side. I think it was right after I turned it on for the front driver floor. There’s some visible black carpet fuzz on the filter that you can see through the clear plastic housing. So maybe it’s beginning to get clogged, but I doubt it. The vacuum seemed very strong, maybe stronger than in a normal car. Perhaps normal cars have some type of throttle on the possible amps that can be pulled, and the Tesla does not. I read about people frying radar detectors in the Tesla lighter port. So I wonder if the vacuum was somehow drawing more amps than it would in a normal car and cooked up the circuit breaker. I bet I’d be able to vacuum that driver floor, but don’t think it would be worth it. I wonder if there’s a way to insert some throttling device or an external circuit breaker in the lighter port in the console to assure this doesn’t happen again.

 

[GtiMart]

You should be able to look at the "electric plate" on your vacuum and that will tell how many amps it pulls. The user manual specifies a 12A continuous pull with 16A spikes. If it exceeds that then don't use it.

 

[stopcrazypp]

I had a brush tip (not roller) on this little vacuum. I shut it off between seats going around the car clockwise, but think it was a very short shutoff between rear and front driver side. I think it was right after I turned it on for the front driver floor. There’s some visible black carpet fuzz on the filter that you can see through the clear plastic housing. So maybe it’s beginning to get clogged, but I doubt it. The vacuum seemed very strong, maybe stronger than in a normal car. Perhaps normal cars have some type of throttle on the possible amps that can be pulled, and the Tesla does not. I read about people frying radar detectors in the Tesla lighter port. So I wonder if the vacuum was somehow drawing more amps than it would in a normal car and cooked up the circuit breaker. I bet I’d be able to vacuum that driver floor, but don’t think it would be worth it. I wonder if there’s a way to insert some throttling device or an external circuit breaker in the lighter port in the console to assure this doesn’t happen again.

Your car is a 2023 model with a 16V low voltage battery right? If so, the 12V outlet actually outputs 15.5V instead of the ~13-14V typical of standard outlets in ICE cars and the older Teslas with a lead acid battery. This may cause the vacuum to pull more power and make it easier to trip.

There are plenty of cigarette port extension cords with external fuses, but those are more of a hassle than resetting the Tesla E-fuse given you have to replace the fuse every time it trips.

I think the better car vacuums would have a current limiter built-in, given normal cars have fuses also that can trip.

 

[mknmike]

lots of debris on the floor and I figured WTF and used the vacuum I’d put in the frunk even though it has blown the “fuse” before. I didn’t get far at all before the circuit breaker popped this time. And one look at the vacuum made it completely apparent why.

A) no inline fuse

B) wire insulation failure

I fixed the vacuum. We will have to wait a day or so though before I can test the vacuum again.