"Phantom Drain" causes and solutions

[GPinzone]

I seemed to have fixed all my phantom or vampire drains. Here's what I found (so far) that contributes to battery drain while the vehicle is "off."

1. Overheat protection - This was set to A/C. I turned it off completely. I haven't tried the "No A/C" option. I don't live in a southern state with oppressive heat, so I'm assuming the car's electronics can survive the heat of a Northeastern summer day.
2. Tesla app connecting by Bluetooth - I turned off Bluetooth on my phone and noticed the drain became less. I don't bother disabling Bluetooth when I'm at work since the phone's Bluetooth range can't reach the car.
3. Waking up the car with the Tesla app - Even if Bluetooth is disabled, every time you check on your car's status with the app expends battery energy. I was checking battery status every hour. Even with items one and two already implemented, I'd lose about 1 mile every 1-2 hours. Then, I stopped checking every hour and instead checked over a 12 hour period. I only lost 1 mile over that period.

Any other tips?

 

[seattlite2004]

Not sure if you consider the following "Phantom Drain" or not...but you will still get some loss when he vehicle is "off" beyond what you mentioned in your post:

 

[JasJ]

#3 is the worst offender. The car will never go into sleep mode.

#1 is bad in Texas now. The car was cooling while in my garage for a good part of August. The overheat seems to be mostly a circulation fan as long as outside temps are below a 100. Much worse if parked outside in the sun (lose 1-2% an hour).

If you use non Tesla apps, make sure they are also not endlessly polling the Car. I use Teslafi for logging and after tweaking the sleep setting in that, it has a negligible affect.

 

[kodek]

I haven't checked the car at all for almost a week, our overheat protection is set to "No A/C", and our phones are relatively far away from the car (though not always out of range).

I'm currently seeing 14 miles per day of phantom drain! For comparison, our Model S is seeing less than 1 mile per day of loss.

Both cars are monitored by the same custom software that avoids waking up the car as much as possible.

Model 3 RWD LR on 2018.32.2. VIN #1380

 

[DR61]

Our car with 600 miles on it, v. 32.3, overheat OFF, unlocked in garage, bluetooth on for iPhones, no checking the Tesla app, no non-Tesla apps, is loosing 2 mi indicated range in 24 hours.

 

[Krazaak]

I haven't checked the car at all for almost a week, our overheat protection is set to "No A/C", and our phones are relatively far away from the car (though not always out of range).

I'm currently seeing 14 miles per day of phantom drain! For comparison, our Model S is seeing less than 1 mile per day of loss.

Both cars are monitored by the same custom software that avoids waking up the car as much as possible.

Model 3 RWD LR on 2018.32.2. VIN #1380

View attachment 333776

Do you have the BMS update yet?

 

[brandonee916]

New M3 owner here.... not seeing any loss of range over night. Software version 34.1. I've heard people that use TeslaFi or various other systems that ping the car are waking it up frequently attributing to the loss... in addition to checking the mobile app also wakes up the car.

 

[fyresoul]

So is this a normal amount of drain for the car just being parked outside on a summer day? I took the first screenshot after dropping my ME off for wrapping, and didn't touch my app until I looked at it again in the 2nd photo... According to the math I'm losing a bit over 5mi/hr in charge just sitting

 

[DR61]

So is this a normal amount of drain for the car just being parked outside on a summer day? I took the first screenshot after dropping my ME off for wrapping, and didn't touch my app until I looked at it again in the 2nd photo... According to the math I'm losing a bit over 5mi/hr in charge just sitting
View attachment 335891

Did you turn off the climate control? The shop may have a door open, which runs climate control. Always turn off climate when you take the car to a shop. Also turn off overheat protection.

 

[narayan]

Lost 40 miles of range in 18 hrs. Lost 37 miles in the first 6 hours after charging going from 248 miles to 211 miles. Then about 2 miles in the next 12 hours. This is excessive. I had Tesla diagnose remotely a few weeks back when I lost about half this in a day, but they said everything looked normal. I have cabin heat off, bluetooth off and checked range via app about 4 times in this time period. Looks like I have to have them look at the car again in more detail. 2018.32.2 s/w, AWD perf LR.

 

[fyresoul]

Did you turn off the climate control? The shop may have a door open, which runs climate control. Always turn off climate when you take the car to a shop. Also turn off overheat protection.

I didn't. I'll stop by tomorrow morning and do those things.

 

[invalid]

Not sure if it was the cause, but using Teslafi as well, with all the recommended sleep settings. One day noticed the car wasn't going to sleep and I had used the Tesla app a few hours earlier on my iPhone. I was wondering if the Tesla app was still in the background and preventing it, so force closed it, and it seemed to go to sleep a little while after that.

 

[Stulobby]

I just checked my model 3 after not driving it for four hours, It lost 10 miles Since I turned it off. I noticed I had lost about 30 miles in three days when it was parked and not plugged in. I have climate control off, any suggestions?

 

[jjrandorin]

I just checked my model 3 after not driving it for four hours, It lost 10 miles Since I turned it off. I noticed I had lost about 30 miles in three days when it was parked and not plugged in. I have climate control off, any suggestions?

The stuff in this thread is a decent start.

Number 1 would be uninstall ANY app that "checks" on the car. I dont care if it says it has minimal drain, I dont care if it (as someone else posted above) "its a custom app designed to minimize drain"... if you are concerned about vampire drain and seeing X miles an hour, item number 1 should be to stop using any app that interacts with your car other than the official app (and changing the password on your tesla account to invalidate any token those apps may have.

Second would be turning off overheat protection, keep climate on, etc

Third would be not only "checking" on your car 1-2 times a day.

FWIW, when I got my Model 3 P, I checked on the car a few times a day.. no charging at home at the time. I lost 2-3 miles a day. After a few days I got a very popular smartphone app to log more data. Immediately, I saw 6-8 miles a day lost. Not a large amount, but "3 times as much". I uninstalled the app, changed my password, and my mileage lost per day went back to 1-3 miles.

TL ; DR

Dont use any app that checks on the car, regardless of if it says it reports on vampire drain, or has minimal drain, etc. If you are trying to figure out whats happening, stop using those apps and see if anything changes.

Turn off cabin overheat protection

Stop checking on the car in tesla app.

Do the above for 3-4 days and check your car 1 time per day, and see if the results are any different using only your eyes to look in the car or checking the tesla app 1 time per day, no other app poling etc. Tesla itself is not going to care if you say "teslafi is reporting I have vampire drain of XXX"

If someone is still losing a mile an hour with the above settings, I think it should be checked by tesla.

 

[Pit44]

To "3. Waking up the car with the Tesla app - Even if Bluetooth is disabled, every time you check on your car's status with the app expends battery energy. I was checking battery status every hour. Even with items one and two already implemented, I'd lose about 1 mile every 1-2 hours. Then, I stopped checking every hour and instead checked over a 12 hour period. I only lost 1 mile over that period."
just another supplement. If the widget of the Tesla app or a 3rd app is installed at iOS, your Tesla will be woken up every time the widget page is opened, e.g. if you want to watch the Tesla stock price via widgets. Therefore deactivate all widgets if the loss is too high.
The same is true for widgets on the Apple Watch. If the battery status is included there as a complication, the TESLA is permanently woken up.

The same is also true for Android, widgets and display on the Gear cause Phantom Drain.

Hope this helps as well
Pit, Switzerland

 

[AlanSubie4Life]

If the widget of the Tesla app or a 3rd app is installed at iOS, your Tesla will be woken up every time the widget page is opened, e.g. if you want to watch the Tesla stock price via widgets. Therefore deactivate all widgets if the loss is too high.
The same is true for widgets on the Apple Watch. If the battery status is included there as a complication, the TESLA is permanently woken up.

As a general statement for iOS devices, this is no longer true. It may have once been true, but opening up the widget page in iOS does not wake up the car. You can see it says the car is asleep. It does not wake it up unless you request it. This is true for the Tesla App widget, and the Stats App widget.

I haven't checked the widgets on the Apple Watch recently. I've had the Stats app installed on my watch and never had any problem

 

[darth_vad3r]

As a general statement for iOS devices, this is no longer true. It may have once been true, but opening up the widget page in iOS does not wake up the car. You can see it says the car is asleep. It does not wake it up unless you request it. This is true for the Tesla App widget, and the Stats App widget.

I haven't checked the widgets on the Apple Watch recently. I've had the Stats app installed on my watch and never had any problem

I think this might depend on if the app is open in the background or not.

 

[AlanSubie4Life]

I think this might depend on if the app is open in the background or not.

I have not found it to matter on iOS devices. For the two apps mentioned, you can run them in the background just fine with no apparent impact. Obviously I have tried disabling them as well. In any case, pretty sure normally-behaving apps have no impact. Not saying it cannot be a problem in some cases for some apps and some can be configured improperly.

 

[rpicklum]

For me it all depends on Sentry mode, which seems to take (on a 3) 200-250 watts; with Sentry mode off and TeslaFi properly configured, the vampire drain in sleep mode seems to be on the order of 30 watts. This in a mild climate with no need for overheat protection.

 

[darth_vad3r]

I have not found it to matter on iOS devices. For the two apps mentioned, you can run them in the background just fine with no apparent impact. Obviously I have tried disabling them as well. In any case, pretty sure normally-behaving apps have no impact. Not saying it cannot be a problem in some cases for some apps and some can be configured improperly.

Specifically I was referring to the widget. I seem to recall the widget not waking the car up. I normally force close the app. One time I hadn't, and the car was asleep but the app was still open in the background ... the widget refreshed rather quickly which surprised me... I chalked it up to the app being 'open'. I haven't done any testing on this ... I was just bringing it up as a possibility. It could have just been some other coincidence.

In general I don't think the app being open in the background affects anything because the rare occasions I don't force close it, it always/usually says "waking up" when first re-entering the app, so I assume the car can sleep just fine with a backgrounded app.

Anyways, to clarify ... I was only talking about the widget waking the car or not POSSIBLY depending on if the app is force-closed or just in the background.