Model 3 “running” while parked

[travesty]

Hi all. Relatively new here - been hanging out in the waiting room until I took delivery of my M3P on the 23rd.

As a new Tesla owner, I’m still learning, so excuse my ignorance...

My car is parked in the garage, and while parked and locked, it sounds like something is still running. It’s a little louder than a refrigerator compressor running. As far as I know , everything is turned off (climate controls, etc.), and I’m not currently charging. Is this normal?

 

[ratsbew]

Normal. Not sure why though. Sometimes the pumps run to circulate coolant. Sometimes the hvac runs to dry out the condenser.

I wish that it wouldn't because it wastes energy.

 

[jdcollins5]

It is pretty cold in VA right now so it could be trying to maintain battery temp above a certain level. Normal.

 

[AlanSubie4Life]

My car is parked in the garage, and while parked and locked, it sounds like something is still running. It’s a little louder than a refrigerator compressor running. As far as I know , everything is turned off (climate controls, etc.), and I’m not currently charging. Is this normal?

It does this when the car is not sleeping. It also does it for a period of time after parking, sometimes. Anyway the easy way to check if the car is sleeping is to look at the widget (if you have an iPhone), not the app, for your Tesla. It will say click to open app or something if it is sleeping. If not it will give you up to date info.

Car does not sleep for a variety of reasons - sentry can be one. Also, a few other features.

If you are optimally configured for minimum drain, the car will be awake for about 2 hours per day (to recharge the 12V). The rest of the time your car will be sleeping.

It is pretty cold in VA right now so it could be trying to maintain battery temp above a certain level. Normal.

I don’t live in a cold environment, but are you sure about this? Maybe someone who lives in a cold area with a 12V battery monitor could post their data on sleep patterns. My understanding is it has to be EXTREMELY cold to do any sort of wake up to warm the battery. It does not make any sense to wake up to warm the battery if it is 10F or something - that is fine for the battery, as I understand it - you just cannot put any charge into it. So it would be a waste of energy.

Would be good to get some solid data on this (again) from people who have the right monitoring equipment in place, in any case. Just to get the record straight on what to expect for temps from 0F to 40F. There appears to be confusion on “fake” drain due to the battery being cold, vs. actual drain due to some warming features turning on.

 

[JulienW]

Be carful and park far enough from the back wall since this can happen to anyone.

 

[TimothyHW3]

Hi all. Relatively new here - been hanging out in the waiting room until I took delivery of my M3P on the 23rd.

As a new Tesla owner, I’m still learning, so excuse my ignorance...

My car is parked in the garage, and while parked and locked, it sounds like something is still running. It’s a little louder than a refrigerator compressor running. As far as I know , everything is turned off (climate controls, etc.), and I’m not currently charging. Is this normal?

If it is a 2021 model the heat pump will run after you stop the car. I think it should go away after 5-10 minutes. And it will run a little longer than it used to do so with the old ones without heat pump. Probably something to do with the way they designed it. Make sure sentry is disabled and don't open the Tesla app or use any third party apps. This will let the car sleep. Otherwise it will continue to run, like a PC when you just dim the display.

 

[murphsmurf]

I think this is a recent change for moisture in the climate control system. I will find the fan running for a bit sometimes; I believe it is running air through the system to clear out any moisture that may remain in the ducts. Owners have complained of a musty smell before, and this was a software fix for a hardware problem.

 

[pl8dlikafiddle]

It’s the elves working hard to keep Elon’s musk out of your cabin HVAC system.

You’ll understand in a few weeks...

 

[zecar]

I think it now runs the fan more to dry the AC condenser. Perhaps runs the heat pump for that reason too. Too many stinky HVAC complaints

Anyway, these noises are normal yet mysterious. I just assume the car is doing something useful with my electricity.

 

[travesty]

It does this when the car is not sleeping. It also does it for a period of time after parking, sometimes. Anyway the easy way to check if the car is sleeping is to look at the widget (if you have an iPhone), not the app, for your Tesla. It will say click to open app or something if it is sleeping. If not it will give you up to date info.

Car does not sleep for a variety of reasons - sentry can be one. Also, a few other features.

If you are optimally configured for minimum drain, the car will be awake for about 2 hours per day (to recharge the 12V). The rest of the time your car will be sleeping.



I don’t live in a cold environment, but are you sure about this? Maybe someone who lives in a cold area with a 12V battery monitor could post their data on sleep patterns. My understanding is it has to be EXTREMELY cold to do any sort of wake up to warm the battery. It does not make any sense to wake up to warm the battery if it is 10F or something - that is fine for the battery, as I understand it - you just cannot put any charge into it. So it would be a waste of energy.

Would be good to get some solid data on this (again) from people who have the right monitoring equipment in place, in any case. Just to get the record straight on what to expect for temps from 0F to 40F. There appears to be confusion on “fake” drain due to the battery being cold, vs. actual drain due to some warming features turning on.

Thanks for this info. I did have sentry mode enabled, and after disabling it, it seems to have stopped. I’ll reenable it tomorrow and see if it comes back or not.

Also, is there an iPhone widget still available? I couldn’t find anything about it.

 

[Candleflame]

car can take up to 90min to dry the AC out. was patched in to prevent "stinky AC"

 

[theothertom]

I dunno....I find mine running hours after exiting the car. I don't think it's the BMS (not cold enough). It stops immediately when I open the door and I have to manually turn the climate control off to keep it off.

 

[AlanSubie4Life]

Also, is there an iPhone widget still available? I couldn’t find anything about it.

Yes there is. Things are a bit different in iOS 14 but you can still add it.

 

[travesty]

Yes there is. Things are a bit different in iOS 14 but you can still add it.

Care to share how? Been searching but coming up dry aside from 3rd party apps.

 

[AlanSubie4Life]

Care to share how? Been searching but coming up dry aside from 3rd party apps.

If you have the app you already have the widget. You just need to add it.

Use widgets on your iPhone and iPod touch

 

[justsomeguy]

It is pretty cold in VA right now so it could be trying to maintain battery temp above a certain level. Normal.

I read this a lot on here, but there's no way it does this. The energy required to do this would completely drain a full battery in a day or two.

EDIT:

Thinking about it a bit, that may be a _bit_ of an exaggeration, but the energy expenditure would be quite a bit more than even running sentry. I think anyone would notice that level of "vampire" drain.

 

[Phlier]

The car will also wake up to charge the 12v battery. This process does make some noise.

 

[BrandX]

Care to share how? Been searching but coming up dry aside from 3rd party apps.

You and me both. I can see the Stats widget, but not a Tesla app one.

 

[drtimhill]

Hi all. Relatively new here - been hanging out in the waiting room until I took delivery of my M3P on the 23rd.

As a new Tesla owner, I’m still learning, so excuse my ignorance...

My car is parked in the garage, and while parked and locked, it sounds like something is still running. It’s a little louder than a refrigerator compressor running. As far as I know , everything is turned off (climate controls, etc.), and I’m not currently charging. Is this normal?

First, the car normally goes to sleep after some time when its parked and locked. This time car vary depending on temperature and other variables. The car may also wake up occasionally to perform housekeeping, such as charging up the 12V battery (yes, there is one, though it's small).

Second, there are a few settings that can change the sleep behavior and keep the car awake. The car stays awake if you have Sentry Mode on (though look at the options that disable this when parked at home/work) or if you have Smart Summon Standby on. You might want to check these settings.

As others have noted, you can deduce if the car is asleep or not by opening the Tesla app. If you see the app "Waking Up" notification for 10 or more seconds, you can be sure the car was asleep.

 

[travesty]

You and me both. I can see the Stats widget, but not a Tesla app one.

When you swipe from left to right from your first iPhone screen, you can add the Tesla app to that screen. Let me know if that doesn’t help, and I can post more details.