May be Returning to Dead Car

[vickh]

I believe most systems that draw power get shut down when the traction battery reaches 20% which make good sense; however, if I am not mistaken, the 12V AGM battery will be topped off via the traction battery until the traction battery reaches 0%. After that, the 12V battery will discharge until you can no longer open the doors or drive the car. Would be nice if the car had a way to disconnect the 12V battery negative terminal when the traction battery reached around 5%. This would keep from depleting or destroying the 12V battery and give you maybe enough range to limp home and plug in. To recover when you returned to the car you would connect a 9V battery to the terminals to access the frunk/12V battery and reestablish the 12V battery negative terminal. The method now is to access the 12V battery using a 9V battery, jump the cars 12V battery and drive whatever is available below 0% or tow the car. There is also a very good change the 12V AGM battery will need to be replaced.

We need a solar trickle charger option for this type of problem. Lets tweet@ Elon!

 

[Smitty79]

There’s a J1772 less than a mile away and. Supercharger 15. If I can drive it at all,I’ll be fine.

What draws battery from the 12V system that’s on when the car is off?

 

[Akikiki]

The weather. In cold climates the car will turn itself on to warm and protect the battery.
In hot weather, the car will turn itself on to cool and protect the battery.
If you have pre-conditioning turned on, the car will turn the A/C on to cool the cabinet. It remembers your schedule of use and then begins to cool itself in anticipation of you getting in the car.
Have Sentry or the Dashcam turned on? Have an aftermarket dashcam?
You were checking the car via the app for a while, right? And have not decreased or ceased doing that? Checking the car via the app will wake it out of sleep.

I think @KenC's idea of creating a new profile "vacation mode" that leaves the car in its most conservative posture it a really good idea. Even if it simply shuts down a couple of things, it can make a difference. And it reminds up to think conservative on the car too.

 

[Smitty79]

The weather. In cold climates the car will turn itself on to warm and protect the battery.
In hot weather, the car will turn itself on to cool and protect the battery.
If you have pre-conditioning turned on, the car will turn the A/C on to cool the cabinet. It remembers your schedule of use and then begins to cool itself in anticipation of you getting in the car.
Have Sentry or the Dashcam turned on? Have an aftermarket dashcam?
You were checking the car via the app for a while, right? And have not decreased or ceased doing that? Checking the car via the app will wake it out of sleep.

How cold is cold for heating the battery?

 

[Akikiki]

I don't remember hearing an exact temperature. Reading about folks on the TM forum that routinely deal with cold climates talk about how they adjust their driving. For instance, start charging at night later than in the summer, so the car finishes its charge closer to their departure time. This way the battery that had heated for the charge, is still warm and does not need to heat from "cold".

Remember that everything is relative. What is cold for folks in Canada may not be cold but simply not as cold in the mid west.

I encourage you to visist Articles | TeslaTap and check out some of the thorough information that he has posted to help everyone. He does not have an account on TMC.

 

[Smitty79]

Reading the 12V battery article on the TeslaTap site, it seems that I should be able to do the 9V battery trunk opening and get some charge from another car. After that, I will likely have enough in the main battery to drive a few miles to some kind of charger.

 

[KenC]

The weather. In cold climates the car will turn itself on to warm and protect the battery.
In hot weather, the car will turn itself on to cool and protect the battery.
If you have pre-conditioning turned on, the car will turn the A/C on to cool the cabinet. It remembers your schedule of use and then begins to cool itself in anticipation of you getting in the car.
Have Sentry or the Dashcam turned on? Have an aftermarket dashcam?
You were checking the car via the app for a while, right? And have not decreased or ceased doing that? Checking the car via the app will wake it out of sleep.

I think @KenC's idea of creating a new profile "vacation mode" that leaves the car in its most conservative posture it a really good idea. Even if it simply shuts down a couple of things, it can make a difference. And it reminds up to think conservative on the car too.

Anyone try to create a new profile yet with low power settings?

The other idea I had was to just carry a small power bank that can start your car. I have one. It's in my trunk. It looks like a regular old 10,000mAh power bank with a couple USB ports, but it also has a port to connect the cable to jumpstart a 12V battery. So, you've got your power bank to power your mobile devices and a backup 12V battery starter, all in one. I've never used it, but once at a rest stop a young couple asked if I could help them start their small car. Of course in a Chevy Volt, you're not supposed to jumpstart another car, so I pulled out this little power bank and it worked.

The young man then looked at his g/f and said, "I'm getting one of those!". Not a Volt but a power bank starter.

 

[vickh]

Anyone try to create a new profile yet with low power settings?

The other idea I had was to just carry a small power bank that can start your car. I have one. It's in my trunk. It looks like a regular old 10,000mAh power bank with a couple USB ports, but it also has a port to connect the cable to jumpstart a 12V battery. So, you've got your power bank to power your mobile devices and a backup 12V battery starter, all in one. I've never used it, but once at a rest stop a young couple asked if I could help them start their small car. Of course in a Chevy Volt, you're not supposed to jumpstart another car, so I pulled out this little power bank and it worked.

The young man then looked at his g/f and said, "I'm getting one of those!". Not a Volt but a power bank starter.

It would be nice if the power bank was powerful enough to give you a few miles of range too

 

[Smitty79]

What is the most likely scenario for the car "Dying" due to vampiric losses? From reading this, the losses to the main battery are likely from charging the 12V battery for computer stuff. I saw at least one comment that at a certain level, it won't keep charging the 12V.

So I am expecting to show up at the car with a dead 12V and a low main battery. I have a power station that's designed to be able to jump multiple cars or provide 110V AC. I ran my fridge off of it for a while during a power outage. I figure I can use it to get some charge on the 12V and drive a mile or so to a place I can charge up enough to get to a Supercharger or all the way home.

Does all of this make sense?

 

[ACofNY]

I wonder if you found out that your battery levels drops to the critical level and you are not expected to be back soon, can we call Tesla road service to do something to avoid a dead battery? I know they have software features to prevent a critically dead battery but I’m not sure if it would protect 100% this)

(It’s a shame that you can’t use Sentry in situations like this, this is when you need it the most .)

 

[AlanSubie4Life]

What is the most likely scenario for the car "Dying" due to vampiric losses? From reading this, the losses to the main battery are likely from charging the 12V battery for computer stuff. I saw at least one comment that at a certain level, it won't keep charging the 12V.

So I am expecting to show up at the car with a dead 12V and a low main battery. I have a power station that's designed to be able to jump multiple cars or provide 110V AC. I ran my fridge off of it for a while during a power outage. I figure I can use it to get some charge on the 12V and drive a mile or so to a place I can charge up enough to get to a Supercharger or all the way home.

Does all of this make sense?

I think you’ll show up to a car with about 12-15% battery left. Your car should hit 20% by around day 12.5, and then you’ll have another 5.5 days standard drain from there. Maybe it will do better if Tesla actually reduces other drains at those battery levels.

Let us know! You might have just enough to make it home depending on whether it is uphill or downhill. Newberg seems pretty tight from PDX.

 

[Smitty79]

I think you’ll show up to a car with about 12-15% battery left. Your car should hit 20% by around day 12.5, and then you’ll have another 5.5 days standard drain from there. Maybe it will do better if Tesla actually reduces other drains at those battery levels.

Let us know! You might have just enough to make it home depending on whether it is uphill or downhill. Newberg seems pretty tight from PDX.

I sure hope you are right. I will update when I get home.

 

[vickh]

What is the most likely scenario for the car "Dying" due to vampiric losses? From reading this, the losses to the main battery are likely from charging the 12V battery for computer stuff. I saw at least one comment that at a certain level, it won't keep charging the 12V.

So I am expecting to show up at the car with a dead 12V and a low main battery. I have a power station that's designed to be able to jump multiple cars or provide 110V AC. I ran my fridge off of it for a while during a power outage. I figure I can use it to get some charge on the 12V and drive a mile or so to a place I can charge up enough to get to a Supercharger or all the way home.

Does all of this make sense?

Coincidence that I took my highlander ICE out today and 12 Volt died. AAA said 2.5 hrs since their system was down!

What's the best recommendation to buy a power station that's designed to be able to jump cars? Ideally, it would also have solar trickle charging as well so I can just leave it in the back and forget about it.

Tesla should have something like this for those of us who park out in the sun
Tesla's Musk says solar panels on cars make little sense, but that's not stopping Toyota, Hyundai

 

[KenC]

Coincidence that I took my highlander ICE out today and 12 Volt died. AAA said 2.5 hrs since their system was down!

What's the best recommendation to buy a power station that's designed to be able to jump cars? Ideally, it would also have solar trickle charging as well so I can just leave it in the back and forget about it.

Tesla should have something like this for those of us who park out in the sun
Tesla's Musk says solar panels on cars make little sense, but that's not stopping Toyota, Hyundai

I see alot of those NOCO branded lithium power banks advertised in the stores during the holidays. I just have a cheap 3rd-party one I picked up from Woot, during one of their sales. Probably under $30. For a car you don't drive much, you should put it on a trickle charger. I've tried solar trickle chargers, but they always flake out on me.

 

[acarney]

With all the important stuff off (Sentry, cabin over temp) I was seeing drain of about 1 to 2 miles a day when I left my car parked in an airport parking lot for 9 days. I was really impressed that once I turned that stuff off the car was pretty solid. Temps were cold, but not sub zero. I think we were like 60 in the days and down to low or mid 30s at night, with maybe one or two times dipping into the 20s. So if the battery needs to heat, I think it's below 30 and maybe in the 20s.

I also left my app in the background most the time, but I did make sure stats was a force close and don't use any other apps, the car was in deep sleep most the time.

 

[Sophias_dad]

As another data point, parked in my garage for 8 days, my AWD 3 lost 1 mile per day, and I was pretty happy with that. It was not plugged in, and temps were 40-65f or so. I'd check it maybe once a day.

 

[AlanSubie4Life]

As another data point, parked in my garage for 8 days, my AWD 3 lost 1 mile per day, and I was pretty happy with that. It was not plugged in, and temps were 40-65f or so. I'd check it maybe once a day.

Out of curiosity, for this data point, were you running TeslaCam, or was the drive removed from the USB port? I've never been able to accomplish this sort of drain level for an extended period (my recent experiment with all known vampiric features disabled was spoiled by Smart Summon Standby).

 

[vickh]

My SR went from 27 to 20 ( lost about a mile/hr) in covered parking today. No sentry etc, no wifi . I wonder if I should force close the Tesla app

 

[vickh]

I see alot of those NOCO branded lithium power banks advertised in the stores during the holidays. I just have a cheap 3rd-party one I picked up from Woot, during one of their sales. Probably under $30. For a car you don't drive much, you should put it on a trickle charger. I've tried solar trickle chargers, but they always flake out on me.

I should have done it for my dead sonata
will try leaving this on for a few days and see what happens:

1.5 Watt Solar Battery Charger

 

[Rottenapplr]

I was gone for 9 days and lost about 8% of charge. Starting from 70%. It was parked at home in the garage, and it was still plugged in, but I set charging to 50%.