Model 3 RWD Purchased November 2023

[mknmike]

the images above show the spike just before midnight when I started playing with the charging. Since it only shows each hour’s KWh consumed, it’s not like real time data that would show when I had it at 32 amps vs 16 amps vs 5 amps, but one thing is sure, the 14 amps of battery heating is something I want to minimize. Figuring out how to be as “green” and economical (essentially the same) with this car is my my main goal. Yeah, I do also want to play around a little bit with seeing if I can drift it, and realize that’s the opposite end of the spectrum. That will be very minimal though.

This morning at 6:30 am, I drove my wife to the train station 2 miles away. So again the car took up about 5% of its charge for this short round trip. There was minimal pre-heating, 5-10 minutes max. I did notice the car was 2% down only a mile away. So even once warmed up from the 39 F interior it started with, the percentage continued to drop pretty rapidly in my opinion. This was city driving, block to block mostly green lights and very few stop signs though. I am in Chill mode with “hood” on and basically never need the brake pedal.

I wonder if the 84% charge I’ve used the last two nights with 32 amps starting at 11:30 pm is not optimal, and now that it’s been more than a week, it’s due for another 100% charge. I also am wondering if I should stop charging nightly to let the battery get below 30% for once, maybe down to 10-20%. LFP batteries seem to be a conundrum still, and perhaps they do have a long life that we just don’t even need to worry about. If that’s the case, I want to go for max efficiency. Perhaps I should use the free supercharging near exclusively for these first six months, especially the winter when battery heating can take up so much of my possible charge rate.

 

[ucmndd]

If you want to minimize loss to battery heating, a couple options:

1) charge as soon as you return home from a trip, while the battery is still warm

2) charge longer less frequently. Your idea of running the battery down to ~20% before you charge back up is a good one.

 

[mknmike]

If you want to minimize loss to battery heating, a couple options:

1) charge as soon as you return home from a trip, while the battery is still warm

2) charge longer less frequently. Your idea of running the battery down to ~20% before you charge back up is a good one.

Thank you! Unfortunately there are two problems with both of these regarding costs. When we get home, that’s the evening when we use the most power and will cause the largest possible PEak Load Calculation and payment on our bills. Also. Charging the fastest does the same regarding making the highest peaks.


This has been an impressive learning curve!

 

[mknmike]

I want to learn if these are USB-C ports on the mobile connector or something else. Does anyone reading this know? I found nothing on them in the manual.

 

[RayK]

USB-C ports have a thin printed circuit board located in the middle of the hole:

USB-C - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[mknmike]

Since I was driving by today, I supercharged from about 75-90% while watching videos on how to use FSD and finally figured it out. Pull down on stalk and take note of the presence of the steering wheel in the top left. It worked pretty well, but on my third trip I had to intervene at least twice.

USB-C ports have a thin printed circuit board located in the middle of the hole:

USB-C - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I thought these did. I now see they are not USB-C and there’s a third one of these shallow holes on the back side too. Thanks!

 

[mknmike]

So here’s what 32 amp charging does to the peak load.

Vs 16 amp charging i did the first night.

I get charged for the area under the curve as you’d expect, but the portion of the bill that’s related to the highest hourly usage is difficult to pinpoint because Delmarva does charge for it in the month used, but bills for it in the following month, like they don’t want you to be able to figure out how your bill is calculated. But I believe once I’ve burnt a single hour at that high rate, then any other hour up to 99% of that makes no difference. Dumb. Right? Well, now that I’ve used a single hour with 8.36 KWh, anything at that level or lower won’t make a difference to the PLC. So 32 amps it is, just not while using other appliances.

Since it’s been a week or more since the last 100% charge, and knowing maybe the range estimates are conservative (swindling fast bc LFP batteries may have issues estimating range) I thought I should charge up to 100%. So that’s what I did tonight after running errands. My wife is away, so no appliances were run like she does every evening, just the TV and livingroom lights. Everything else in the house was off. So it was an ideal time to charge without battery heating needed. And I have yet to clear the garage space. Maybe this weekend.

 

[mknmike]

I was pleased to see that after charging to 100% last night, this morning at 7:35-745 am, even after forgetting to shut off the 6:30 am preconditioning I’d set to take my wife to the train station, the car was only down to 270 miles of range from the 272 it started at when I left to take my son 1 mile to school. I shut off the heat and heated steering, etc after everything felt warm enough in the cabin, and I knew I’d soon be leaving it. So I parked it with 270 miles at the end of my driveway near the street bc I have no intention of adding any charge any time soon. As a matter of fact. I understand leaving batteries at 100% can be bad for them. So maybe it’s ok that Sentry Mode kicked on again (not sure why) and knocked it down to 269 miles of range in maybe an hour. I shut it down. I’m going to be interested to see how low we can let the battery get before range anxiety starts kicking in. I know as long as the battery is warm I should be able to add 32 mile of range per hour at home, and the supercharger on the route to get my son is pretty convenient. Assuming there’s no worry with damaging the battery, I should use that as much as possible during these cold months where battery preheating may be necessary.

 

[mknmike]

SPARE REAR WHEELS:
- Jack pads arrived
- tires arrived
- one of two wheels ordered together arrived.
- tested fit of wheel cover (video to be added below)
- have yet to test fit on rear of the car where it seems people say gen2 have larger brakes, and I will figure out if this is an issue.
- regardless of the wheel situation, I found on “AliExpress” to buy cheap TPMS for only $32 and the first one was under $27. They will take darn near a month to arrive though. Must be on a boat from China I guess. They got nearly $60 of my money. The time to deliver should give me time to work out that missing wheel above. I figure I’m safe paying with PayPal.

 

[mknmike]

Feel free to let me know what you think of these build quality issues on my M3 that has 250 miles after ~ 1 week.

Undercarriage plastic not connected (fixed myself):

And this is something I doubt anyone can fix without causing larger problems. So I guess I will just live with it.

Anything there you guys and gals see worth mentioning to Tesla? Or just live my life?

Thanks!
Mike

 

[mknmike]

Hankook Ventus S1 AS tires. Not all are the same. Some are the Sound Absorber ones that came on my M3, and some are not. Take note that the bottom one in this stack IS and includes foam on the inside to deaden the sounds. Neat and simple, eh? I will consider this “not a big deal” when buying <$60 used tires with plugs that I can use for burning up on the wrong version Tesla wheels (picked up for $120 each on eBay). Not sure if I mentioned it here, but I’m completing my two-spare wheel setup with some ~$30 “AliExpress” purchased Bluetooth TPMS that will take nearly a month to arrive. To use round numbers, here’s my total cost for the setup since I can mount and balance tires myself:
- wheels: $240 (for two)
- tires: <$120 (for two)
- TPMs <$60 (for two)
Total for two: <$420
That’s the most I’ve ever spent on the setup for just two wheels. And I guess before the incentives, this is the most I’ve ever paid for a car. So I guess that’s ok.

All this extra work is only ~$50% off what Tesla charges for a set of four wheels, which wheel covers I think. That really does make Tesla’s pricing not that bad. However, as more Teslas get scrapped, this stuff will be easier to come by.

Threads on wheel differences I’ve participated in/created:
Can’t link thread 1 - WTF? Ok.

Can’t link thread 2 - Yep. I have no authority to link to another thread in this forum, as if I’m trying to advertise another thread on this forum. wtF?

I tried to created a new thread on the “Build Quality Issues” of my 2013 M3RWD, but it looks like mods must have moved it or something minutes after it’s creation bc this thread would not post with a link to it. So this is a saved post that wouldn’t post.

But now tonight, just a few hours later two new frustrating Tesla-only issues came up:

1) MY phone key for some reason would not work. I have yet to get it working, but the latest guess is that Bluetooth somehow got turned off within the app. I went nuts trying to get moving when I was in a rush, I was a able to unlock the doors with the app, but the car would not go into drive. I had to go inside after several minutes wasted and go get the key card from the hook. I’m glad I made that plastic bag and was able to quickly find it on the hook nearly 10 minutes late tonight.

I believe there was a firmware update for the car last night at 12:15 am and wonder if this was the cause of the issue. Or was it that my wife used the car with her key card, and her phone was possibly in the kitchen within range? I don’t know. Or was it that my phone was in low power mode? Here I am doing tech support trouble shooting with my brand new car, and it’s making me late. Damnit. So frustrated.

2) then on the drive to get my son before my wife’s work holiday party, I’m driving, not FSD, and no navigation, when I pass a point on the road, the car freaks out and tells me to take control immediately. WTF was that! And then with my sons in the car, at approximately the same area on the same road going the opposite direction, it does the same thing. WTF? Do Tesla’s do this all the time to F with you?

Then there was the agreement to send all my info to Tesla on the screen multiple times tonight. “Yeah. Fine. Take my info, but get this damn crap off the screen and let my damn phone key work, would you?”

The phone key issue happened first around 5:30 when I needed to drive one of my younger son’s friends home. Show off the new Tesla that I can’t operate. Impressive!

My older son. The one I tried to leave to pickup around 6 pm noticed on our way home that my wife’s phone was connected around 6:13 pm, but my phone hadn’t been connected since about 3:30 pm, maybe about the time my phone battery died while I was pouring some concrete. So I don’t know if the root problem was with my phone, and it’s Bluetooth for the Tesla app somehow shutting off, but that’s my latest guess as to wtf happened with the phone key.

I have no idea what happed driving down the road in that spot that told me to take control of the vehicle immediately (when I was controlling the car). That may remain a mystery, but I wonder if I should drive out that way again to see if the issue o cuts again. Weird for sure.

 

[mknmike]

Seems that the car auto-unlocks and locks with my phone again. I have no idea how or why the Bluetooth INSIDE THE APP shutoff. Weird.

 

[pipestem]

Mike, I'm not an expert, but you might be just a little obsessive with this car. idk, just sayin.

I suggest going for a nice long Sunday morning drive on some nice roads. Its very theraputic.

Meanwhile, back to your early posts, no you do not want to sit at a SC and charge to 100%. The accepted charge rate drops rapidly at high charge levels for DC fast charging. At home it does not matter so much. You probably noticed this, its very obvious. SC up to like 80% and then scoot. While you can charge your LFP to 100%, you don't have to do it every day. Once a week, maybe month, is enough. The advice above to do fewer longer charges is good and starting when hot might be good from a lost charge perspective, but starting later to get a better rate is also ok.

Regarding relative efficiency, you can google maps of EV charge efficiency per state. In a heavy coal burning state like WV or WY, you might only be getting a carbon-equivilant rate of 70 mpg. In an energy progressive state like CA, or NY, you migt be getting a carbon-equivilant rate of 110 mpg. I don't know about Delaware. However the trend is towards more sustainable power generation, so your Tesla has the capability of getting better over time. Your 1980 240D does not.

 

[mknmike]

Mike, I'm not an expert, but you might be just a little obsessive with this car. idk, just sayin.

I suggest going for a nice long Sunday morning drive on some nice roads. Its very theraputic.

Meanwhile, back to your early posts, no you do not want to sit at a SC and charge to 100%. The accepted charge rate drops rapidly at high charge levels for DC fast charging. At home it does not matter so much. You probably noticed this, its very obvious. SC up to like 80% and then scoot. While you can charge your LFP to 100%, you don't have to do it every day. Once a week, maybe month, is enough. The advice above to do fewer longer charges is good and starting when hot might be good from a lost charge perspective, but starting later to get a better rate is also ok.

Regarding relative efficiency, you can google maps of EV charge efficiency per state. In a heavy coal burning state like WV or WY, you might only be getting a carbon-equivilant rate of 70 mpg. In an energy progressive state like CA, or NY, you migt be getting a carbon-equivilant rate of 110 mpg. I don't know about Delaware. However the trend is towards more sustainable power generation, so your Tesla has the capability of getting better over time. Your 1980 240D does not.

I totally agree with everything you say here. In an interest of seeing how “efficient” the car is with KWh it is fed, I’m hoping to see if I can get some sense of how many KWh it take over how many miles, I wonder if others have done similar “studies.”

Obsessive? Yeah, I guess so, but I enjoy it and enjoy sharing it with anyone cares. I’m sorry if I appear more annoyed than I actually am.

Right now the car says it’s got 83 miles of range left in it, and the odometer is at 378 miles. I think I last charged it as you say, up to 90% on the supercharger and finished it off at home. I think it was about 250 miles on the odometer at that time. So I’ve gotten about 130 miles out of this “charge” and have another ~83 left. So maybe I will end up getting over 200 miles from a charge. We will see.

Another nice thing about this charging method is not having to pay for electricity for the first 6 months.

 

[pipestem]

Over time the charge stats on your app will be really useful. Remember to enter your utility costs if they are not already accurate.

For consumption the energy app in the car is the final word. I can’t complement it enough.

I wish the app and car were equal in those abilities.

 

[mknmike]

Over time the charge stats on your app will be really useful. Remember to enter your utility costs if they are not already accurate.

For consumption the energy app in the car is the final word. I can’t complement it enough.

I wish the app and car were equal in those abilities.

I have yet to learn that energy app in the car. Thanks for the heads up.

Do you know if the energy app in the car tracks/records and differentiates things like:
- energy used to heat the battery during charging, never really getting saved, just burnt while charging?
- energy used for climate control, heated seats and steering wheel (the latter being what I try to use first myself, can’t speak for my wife).
- energy consumed for rolling down the road (used to propel the vehicle minus regenerative braking gains)
- energy used for idle time and Sentry Mode.

We can probably shape our behavior around some of those items to see if it makes much of a difference.

OT: I see the $4000-off discount really came today. Congrats to the ones that held out. I could have saved up to $1200 (plus 4.25% taxes, $1251) if I’d been patient enough to hold out 15 more days. Well, it probably would have taken more time for that max discount to show up in my area, maybe another week, so probably a full 3 weeks. I guess I can consider my time and family angst worth the potential $1251 in savings.

 

[mknmike]

I now see an identical car to mine for $800 less in a location that’s more convenient than the location I picked mine up. Lesson learned. The Tesla-Info site does say that the last month of any quarter is the best time to buy with steepest discounts. I simply wasn’t willing to wait anymore, and I can’t say I regret it. Yes, paying 2.5% or $1251 less (including my state taxes) would have been nice. I was afraid that maybe inventory would run out, or my family would run me out of the house for obsessively watching prices.


Now off to the supercharger with the vehicle that started giving warnings earlier today. And it IS getting colder.

That was a few hours ago. Will I have trouble making it to the supercharger and conditioning the battery on the way? Hmm… I guess I’m glad I have AAA. Not many new cars make you think about your AAA plan. LOL

 

[kpanda17]

I thought I’d start a thread where I collect and document my experience with our Model 3, items we purchase, charger installation, etc. This site has been so helpful. So I thought it might be nice to “give back” by sharing my information.

While there’s previous information mostly around purchasing and pricing that I’ve focused on up to now, I have finally switched to the ownership side and will hopefully be here for years to come (like it or not to members here, LOL).

I’m a vehicle enthusiast of sorts and have threads on most of my vehicles which are primarily VERY cheap old Mercedes Benz I enjoy working on when I get the time. I’m a bit of a gearhead with a best friend that literally lives at his 6000 square foot shop with a lift, lathe, milling machine, trans Jack, two loading docks, tire machines (for 18” and smaller wheels), etc. I think we are both middle-aged children. I e got a wife and kids of my own that fortunately are nearing self-sufficiency, but have some very expensive years ahead of me, and I am incredibly cheap, but also consider myself very fortunate. You may see me pinching Pennie’s in my topics, like purchasing. But every penny I save is one more we might either have for our own enjoyment, or perhaps to give to charity to help others.

So with that, I’m switching into purchasing “accessories.” Cheapest things I’ve decided I want because I think they will save me money:


- garage 100 amp sub-panel and coming 14-50 outlet. Smart to purchase/install first. Did trench and run wires to detached garage though.

- driveway 14-50 outlet attached to the house, so my wife doesn’t need to pull all the way up the driveway. These first two items are things I’ve spent a lot of time researching and planning for. My next step is to buy a few more small items before my Home Depot coupon expires 11/30/2023.

- mobile charger (provides charge rate as fast as my M3RWD will accept). Taking over a week to arrive. Probably should have purchased before the car.

- floor mats ($60 carpet) Taking over a week to arrive. Probably should have purchased before the car.

- Spare tire(s). Since my best friend is a drift-car driver, and because I want to be able to start hammering the pedals, and because I want a full-size spare, last night I purchased two gen1 18” Tesla wheels and some 8/32 read used tires that are identical to the ones on the car. As soon as I figure out the cheapest TPMS option, I will mount them up. The tires were under $60 each. I do this with all our vehicles grabbing cheap identical tires when I am due to replace one or two. It makes it so I never have to plunk down for a brand new set of tires. I can mount and balance myself at my friend’s shop. I consider myself fortunate because I believe I will have the ability to store these extra wheels. I also don’t anticipate anyone having the M3 too far from home where the spare would need to be in the vehicle. No compact spare needed (yet). I figure this spend I’ve put ~$340 into before TPMS will be justified in tire savings and also preventing the need to buy a brand new tire. (Tow would be covered by AAA.). On this topic, I learned difference between gen1 (2020 and earlier) and gen2 (2022-2023) wheels but that the wheel covers are interchangeable. So I just bought the cheapest, gen1. The cars are supposedly more efficient with the covers. So I’m going to keep them on.

- TPMS shopping. I’ve never had a car with Bluetooth TPMS.


Then there’s other “learning curve” stuff I’m learning as a new Owner.

- purchase and pickup experience. When to buy. What to buy ahead of time (charger and floor mats).

- Automatically resetting after time “circuit breakers” instead of fuses? Wow. Circuit breakers make sense, but automatically resetting is a weird one to me. Lighter powered vacuum seems like a no-no.

- supercharging (free for 6 months), and when to use it and when not to use it. Topping off to 100% sitting at Wawa seems like a real waste of time. That really requires a home charger I think. And Does high speed charging ruin the battery?

- FSD Full Self Driving that we also get for 3 months free with our referral. Take note as a new owner that this is “calibrating” or “learning” for the first few days or something. Maybe Tesla is just looking to learn from our driving habits or something. I have yet to even try the cruise control. This seems so far like something we have no use for (yet).

- location services and other app controls. Interesting that I can see exactly where my wife has the car. It’s also interesting that I can hit the horn and pop the trunk, etc. these are some reasons that you clearly want to be careful who you allow to control your vehicle. Our latest other vehicle is a 2007. Huge difference.

I plan to continue writing here, update the above with links to the other topics I’ve created, and generally document our ownership. Today is only Sunday, and we picked up on Wednesday.

Now to get off to work on things like that 14-50 installation and hooking up the new garage subpanel.

Thanks for all the help here!

Sincerely,
Mike

No charging risk with supercharging
RWD has LFP batteries, run the battery between 5 and 100%
For a planned long road trip, do and use a month subscription to FSD


Here is motörhead list:
--Soft leather quality head rest pillows
-3D mats plus Lazfit center console side protectors or Tuxmats full set of mats
-Magbak dual Display magsafe phone charging mount, they sell left, right and two port charger
-18 or 19” Uberturbine wheel covers, look great and protect the rims
Or
-Magbak Rimcases if you actually have Uberturbines wheels
-Front grill mesh protection
-Fanttik coreless USBC vacuum
-metal pedal racing covers
-Min front PPF bumper, fenders, hood, front pillars and mirrors, side rear quarter leading edges, rear bumper top edge, pro install only Xpel brand
-in trunk screw on book for securing bags
-window tint all including the front
-Windshield wiper fluid drop in Stainer
-All four door sill protectors, carbon fiber
-All four door pocket drop in protectors
-Rear seat pouch, clip on garbage bag
-Behind center console floor bin with cover
-center console and arm rest drop in trays, research current best brand
-rear pet seat cover if you have a pet or small children
-Four door stainless steel strike protectors
-Display protective tempered matte glass protector
-Behind display shelf
-Front and center console surface protective laminate
-Arm rest protective pad
-Ceramic entire vehicle outside, Pro treat Xpel
-Front and rear mud flaps
-Apple Watch Tesla app, BU key
-Under front seats, rear vent covers
-jack pads store in trunk
-Tesla tire repair kit
-CCS adpter
-CCS and J1772 case
-front drop in protective tray
-trunk mat
-center console drop in charging hub
-toll tag suction to windshield holder

Optional
-rear carbon fiber spoiler, have body shop install
-his and hers Tesla On the Road Vessels
-Under head rest hooks for hanging items
-Ceramic treat to protect interior seats, steering wheel, other vulnerable surfaces
-Inside PPF vulnerable surfaces
-Fronk motorized lid
-Display swivel mount
-Over steering HUD

I have the above list and some of the optional in our RWD
There are also many YouTube reviews of accessories

The M3RWD is an amazing vehicle
Enjoy

 

[mknmike]

Left for the supercharger with 38°F outside and 19% battery. Before getting on the highway the percentage was down to 17% with the battery preconditioning taking place. I also have the seat heater on high and steering wheel heat on and climate control too. I am not at all worried about wasting power on the way to the supercharger because I am interested in how much power can be lost on the way to the supercharger.

I keep the car in chill mode because it’s smoother and I assume it will be more efficient with the battery. it seems to me that I’m getting less regenerative braking than normal on this trip to the supercharger. I think I’m also going to hammer it as soon as I get on the highway. I see it is down to 16% now. I only need to go about two exits on the highway so I can’t imagine that I will have any problem making it there. The car says I have 45 miles left at 16%. And it seems to accelerate really well. It’s very interesting that the acceleration to get on the highway consumed 3 miles of range in about a quarter mile.

Arrived at the supercharger around 5:12 PM and charged until about 6:25 taking me all the way to 100% (including calibration) while I did stuff on my phone. Time went by faster than expected and seemed less painful that the first time we supercharged to 100%.

The supercharger automatically dropped my charge goal percent to 80% bc it said the supercharger site was busy. I was able to change it back to 100%, and all spaces were never full while I was there.

I left with 410 on the odometer, my third charge to 100%. I forgot to catch the total KWh used and KWh added to the battery, but it looked like it was about 2.5-3 more KWh used than added to the battery most of the time. I think I have a ~57.5 KWh battery.

 

[mknmike]

No charging risk with supercharging
RWD has LFP batteries, run the battery between 5 and 100%
For a planned long road trip, do and use a month subscription to FSD


Here is motörhead list:
--Soft leather quality head rest pillows
-3D mats plus Lazfit center console side protectors or Tuxmats full set of mats
-Magbak dual Display magsafe phone charging mount, they sell left, right and two port charger
-18 or 19” Uberturbine wheel covers, look great and protect the rims
Or
-Magbak Rimcases if you actually have Uberturbines wheels
-Front grill mesh protection
-Fanttik coreless USBC vacuum
-metal pedal racing covers
-Min front PPF bumper, fenders, hood, front pillars and mirrors, side rear quarter leading edges, rear bumper top edge, pro install only Xpel brand
-in trunk screw on book for securing bags
-window tint all including the front
-Windshield wiper fluid drop in Stainer
-All four door sill protectors, carbon fiber
-All four door pocket drop in protectors
-Rear seat pouch, clip on garbage bag
-Behind center console floor bin with cover
-center console and arm rest drop in trays, research current best brand
-rear pet seat cover if you have a pet or small children
-Four door stainless steel strike protectors
-Display protective tempered matte glass protector
-Behind display shelf
-Front and center console surface protective laminate
-Arm rest protective pad
-Ceramic entire vehicle outside, Pro treat Xpel
-Front and rear mud flaps
-Apple Watch Tesla app, BU key
-Under front seats, rear vent covers
-jack pads store in trunk
-Tesla tire repair kit
-CCS adpter
-CCS and J1772 case
-front drop in protective tray
-trunk mat
-center console drop in charging hub
-toll tag suction to windshield holder

Optional
-rear carbon fiber spoiler, have body shop install
-his and hers Tesla On the Road Vessels
-Under head rest hooks for hanging items
-Ceramic treat to protect interior seats, steering wheel, other vulnerable surfaces
-Inside PPF vulnerable surfaces
-Fronk motorized lid
-Display swivel mount
-Over steering HUD

I have the above list and some of the optional in our RWD
There are also many YouTube reviews of accessories

The M3RWD is an amazing vehicle
Enjoy

Wow! That’s one heck of a list! We are certainly enjoying it.

I will be interested if we ever get anywhere near the rated 272 mile range, but otherwise am very pleased.

I’m going to capitalize on as much of this 6 months of free supercharging as I can.