Looks like someone tried to lever my front nearside window down

[al45tair]

How annoying. Some miscreant has attempted to lever down my front nearside window, causing slight damage to the chrome trim (the most annoying bit being the dent they've put in it). Doesn't seem to have triggered Sentry Mode, which suggests it happened when I was at home, but it also didn't get picked up on my doorbell camera, presumably because it was during the day and I was actually in the house when they were doing it :-(

(There wasn't anything left in the car, before anyone suggests otherwise.)

I'm guessing replacing that chrome piece is expensive…

 

[Soul Surfer]

It may be a better option to leave sentry on all the time - even at home. Just a suggestion.

 

[al45tair]

It may be a better option to leave sentry on all the time - even at home. Just a suggestion.

Indeed. The only reason I don’t is that I’m still waiting for my EV charge point to be fitted, so right now the sentry mode battery drain is a bit irritating. I’ve told my doorbell camera to trigger all the time now, even when I’m at home, so it’ll catch anyone doing this kind of thing.

If they’d succeeded, they’d have set the alarm off and there wasn’t anything in the car to steal anyway, so the main issue here is the (minor) damage to the trim piece, which, let’s face it, would have happened even if I’d caught them on camera. (Plus I have very little faith that the local police would do anything about it even if i handed them video footage of it happening.)

 

[al45tair]

Having looked at some other threads here I’m now wondering if this was just an extreme example of the window trim getting damaged because someone tried to shut the door with the window up. But I don’t see how it’d cause scratches in that particular direction.

 

[Gumball]

That really looks like someone closed the door with the window al the way up.

 

[al45tair]

That really looks like someone closed the door with the window al the way up.

Maybe. Though I don’t see how the glass would cause the dent it did (it’d be pointing in the wrong direction), and there have been repeated problems on the street I live on with folks trying to get into cars. My brother, who is a car dealer and who I’d imagine is familiar with frameless windows (Tesla isn’t the only company that does them, after all), reckons it looks to him like a break in attempt. I don’t claim to know either way.

 

[afadeev]

How annoying. Some miscreant has attempted to lever down my front nearside window, causing slight damage to the chrome trim (the most annoying bit being the dent they've put in it).

Sorry to hear that.

there have been repeated problems on the street I live on with folks trying to get into cars. My brother, who is a car dealer and who I’d imagine is familiar with frameless windows (Tesla isn’t the only company that does them, after all), reckons it looks to him like a break in attempt. I don’t claim to know either way.

If this is a recurring problem where you live, I'm not sure that fixing the damage to the chrome trip is the right solution.
You really need to MOVE.
Nothing short of that will solve your long-term problem. Short term, sure, you can replace the trim.

HTH,
a

 

[outofcontrol]

It doesn’t help, but I went for a doorbell that records 24/7 for that exact reason as I don’t like detection based recording as it does miss things. (I have a nest wired doorbell - 10 day 24/7 and 60 day event)

If you look on YouTube there are videos of people removing that chrome trim that may help understand how easy it looks.

 

[RayK]

That really looks like someone closed the door with the window al the way up.

I would think that the more likely scenario would be that the door was opened from the inside and the window failed to lower. I believe that early on with the Model 3, if one used the emergency handle to open the door, the window would not lower. Or that it was slow to lower so that if you were to simultaneously lift the handle and push the door out, the window would not retract fast enough to clear the trim.

 

[Gumball]

If it happened by opening the door, you would never get the dent. That dent is the exact spot the window hits first and hardest when you close it and it is not down. Don’t ask me how I know….good thing replacment is fast and easy by mobile service, and as far as I remember not to expensive.

 

[nate704]

Doorbell cameras are garbage when it comes to capturing "incidents" due to it's low quality and super wide angle lens. You need the real security camera setup.

 

[techzelle]

Sure looks like someone was jamming a screwdriver between the glass and trim to pry the window down. Short scrapes on both glass and trim at irregular intervals, resemble a flat head screwdriver.

 

[shyboy]

Doorbell cameras are garbage when it comes to capturing "incidents" due to it's low quality and super wide angle lens. You need the real security camera setup.

Have you seen Eufy video deadlock + door bell (S330)?

One of the amazing piece or Art I have seen. Two products packaged into One.
Its been one year I am using it and very happy with this.

Let me know if you want referral for that.

 

[al45tair]

If it happened by opening the door, you would never get the dent. That dent is the exact spot the window hits first and hardest when you close it and it is not down. Don’t ask me how I know….good thing replacment is fast and easy by mobile service, and as far as I remember not to expensive.

Sadly in the UK, mobile service apparently won't replace these. I asked and they closed the ticket and referred me to a body shop. I might just order the part and do it myself; looking on YouTube, it looks like you just pull out the rubber and unscrew the chrome piece. However, as someone else said, maybe I don't want to fix it for now in case it happens again (whatever the cause was — it does look like screwdriver damage, but I could equally believe it could be cause by slamming the door with the window right up).

 

[Soul Surfer]

It may be a better option to leave sentry on all the time - even at home. Just a suggestion.

To all the really nice people who gave my suggestion a , I was merely suggesting and nothing else. I happen to leave my sentry on all the time after seeing what some haters do out here in the Big Smoke. So please try and not be a hater too.

Peace out - JP

 

[gearchruncher]

I happen to leave my sentry on all the time after seeing what some haters do out here in the Big Smoke. So please try and not be a hater too.

Just be aware that leaving sentry on 24/7 is the same as driving an additional 7,500 miles a year in electricity and cost. If doing it without being plugged in all the time it also adds cycles to the battery.

Not super aligned with the general purpose of EV's.

 

[Soul Surfer]

Just be aware that leaving sentry on 24/7 is the same as driving an additional 7,500 miles a year in electricity and cost. If doing it without being plugged in all the time it also adds cycles to the battery.

Not super aligned with the general purpose of EV's.

I actually never thought of that. Thank you for that insight. I barely put on 10k miles per year and my car is always plugged in. Does this also mean the the battery uses cycles for sentry, when plugged in?

I probably average less that 200 miles per week and often even less than that. Retirement has some advantages and disadvantages too.

 

[RayK]

Sentry uses the car's battery even when plugged in. Assuming you're connected to a live charger, the HV battery will get charged backed up to whatever your target limit is when it's been sufficiently drained. That's what I've gathered from reading about this here. I don't have Sentry on at home and I don't charge here as well.

 

[stopcrazypp]

Sentry uses the car's battery even when plugged in. Assuming you're connected to a live charger, the HV battery will get charged backed up to whatever your target limit is when it's been sufficiently drained. That's what I've gathered from reading about this here. I don't have Sentry on at home and I don't charge here as well.

Does “shore power” go through the battery?

That's generally how the battery charging works, but according to above thread, when the car is awake, accessory loads are powered via shore power. Of course when accessories exceed what shore power can provide (such as when heating) then the battery is still drained. Presumably this includes Sentry. Technically, yes, the battery is still connected in this case (as in the contactor does not disconnect the battery), but the current flow is net zero.

I do know however when the car sleeps after reaching its set charge it does not draw power from the shore (according to my energy monitor). I never use Sentry when at home however, so can't say if the car was kept awake there would be any difference.

 

[gearchruncher]

Of course when accessories exceed what shore power can provide (such as when heating) then the battery is still drained. Presumably this includes Sentry. Technically, yes, the battery is still connected in this case (as in the contactor does not disconnect the battery), but the current flow is net zero.

There's no such thing as "shore power" in a Tesla.
The only way AC power gets into the car is via the charger. The charger that can do 11kW. There is zero way sentry draws 11kW. Or even 1kW.

The HV battery system in the car is pretty simple. It's one bus. On that bus is the battery, the battery charger, and the loads. Nothing "flows through" the battery. If the voltage on the bus is higher than the current battery SoC, the battery charges. If it's lower, it discharges. The only thing on this bus that can balance this out is the charger.

Sentry runs off the 12V system, and uses something around 100w.
This can easily be run for 30 minutes off just the 12V battery. But to run it for any real length of time, that 12V system needs to be maintained with external power. This is where the HV battery comes in. The PCS (power conversion system, DC/DC converter) is left on when in sentry to keep the 12V system maintained and not drain the 12V battery.
By definition, the PCS cannot be on unless the contactors are closed. This is just the architecture of the power system. These contactors and the PCS being on add another 100w or so as they are not 100% efficient.

So now your HV battery is being drained at 200+W. Which is nothing for it, except this is 24/7, so that's 4.8kWh per day, which is about 20 miles of rated range.

So now let's ask how we'd handle this off "shore power" which is actually the battery charger. The one designed to max at 11,000w. And we need it to accuratley output about 200w. If it does more, the battery charges. If it does less, the battery discharges. A charger that wasn't really designed to do less than 1kW, as the lowest normal input it takes is 12A @ 120V.

And that battery charger itself is not 100% efficient, so just having it running at all the time wastes a lot of electricity. Which is why when you charge at 120V, you lose about 30% of that energy, but when you charge at 6kW you hardly notice it.

So it makes a lot more sense to let the battery discharge 1-2%, then turn on the charger at full rate and top it off, then wait until it discharges some and then repeat. But this does put cycles on the battery.

This all makes sense when you realize that Sentry is a marketing gimmick afterthought, not part of the car's original requirements.