Phantom / Vampire Drain on Model 3

[bartlettpsj]

I have had the wonderful model 3 for a month now and when I first got it it was usually losing 1 mile over night and 1 mile whilst at work - sometimes 2. Recently its much higher, sometimes much much higher. Looking at my stats, it went up on from 18th April to about 3 miles per night and now regularly 8 or 9 per night.

My suspicions are either Tesla updates (there's been a couple but not sure which dates) or battery getting worse (after 2 weeks?) or apps on my phone constantly waking up the car (I have TezLabs and the Tesla app) or else someone is driving my car at night and then resetting the odometer!

Anyone else experiencing similar?

 

[Warrentt]

Why is this still an issue for a model been out for at least 5 months. Especially if you didn’t had any issue in the beginning and now it is getting worse for you.

They need to resolve this soon

 

[dhu1]

I have had the wonderful model 3 for a month now and when I first got it it was usually losing 1 mile over night and 1 mile whilst at work - sometimes 2. Recently its much higher, sometimes much much higher. Looking at my stats, it went up on from 18th April to about 3 miles per night and now regularly 8 or 9 per night.there

My suspicions are either Tesla updates (there's been a couple but not sure which dates) or battery getting worse (after 2 weeks?) or apps on my phone constantly waking up the car (I have TezLabs and the Tesla app) or else someone is driving my car at night and then resetting the odometer!

Anyone else experiencing similar?

There are quite a few threads on this already. The latest software has reduced the drain for a lot folks already. For me, I am getting 6-7 miles drain overnight, but that is down from 10-12 miles prior to the update. There are some days where it is only 1-2 miles overnight.

My current hypothesis is that Tesla is doing some data dumps on an adhoc basis, hence certain cars have drain and others don’t. I truly believe at this point it is something that Tesla is doing on its server side. Quite notably when they had their outage a week or two ago, most peopl’s drain were reduced. Anyways, all speculation but it fits the same pattern with Mx where it used to drain 2% per night, but recently been reduced to 1%. So I really think it is Tesla accumulating data—not anything hardware or software related.

Also have found that a good hard reboot tends to help things once in a while.

 

[SageBrush]

apps on my phone constantly waking up the car (I have TezLabs and the Tesla app)

Straightforward to sort out the apps -- just turn them off/on/off for a few days, one at a time

 

[SageBrush]

So I really think it is Tesla accumulating data—not anything hardware or software related.

If true, wi-fi should help since data tx rates will improve for most people.

 

[fr100]

My car is waking up every ~15 minutes. Even when my phone key over 30 ft away. I will walk through the garage and hear it's clicks and clanks all day and night. Getting about 10 miles vampire drain a day on 2018.14.13.

 

[jsmay311]

Why is this still an issue for a model been out for at least 5 months.

It's just over 9 months now. The first production vehicles were delivered July 28, 2017.

Unfortunately this is Tesla's MO: Rush vehicles into production without finishing lots of basic software design and validation.

 

[bartlettpsj]

So I am experimenting to see. As I was home yesterday, I was literally watching the car lose 1 mile per hour. It probably made matters worse waking the car each hour to check. Anyways, enough was enough, I tried a power off and on, plus made sure my phone was turned off for the night - my wife's (who is currently out of the country) has Tesla app on her phone, but the app is closed. Last night I lost only 1 mile between 10:30pm and 6:00am. Lets see if it was the power down, or the phone off or else some random data dump like dhu1 mentioned.

 

[Twiglett]

So I am experimenting to see. As I was home yesterday, I was literally watching the car lose 1 mile per hour. It probably made matters worse waking the car each hour to check. Anyways, enough was enough, I tried a power off and on, plus made sure my phone was turned off for the night - my wife's (who is currently out of the country) has Tesla app on her phone, but the app is closed. Last night I lost only 1 mile between 10:30pm and 6:00am. Lets see if it was the power down, or the phone off or else some random data dump like dhu1 mentioned.

First rule of diagnosis, only change one thing at a time

 

[dhu1]

So I am experimenting to see. As I was home yesterday, I was literally watching the car lose 1 mile per hour. It probably made matters worse waking the car each hour to check. Anyways, enough was enough, I tried a power off and on, plus made sure my phone was turned off for the night - my wife's (who is currently out of the country) has Tesla app on her phone, but the app is closed. Last night I lost only 1 mile between 10:30pm and 6:00am. Lets see if it was the power down, or the phone off or else some random data dump like dhu1 mentioned.

Good luck in your analysis. I went down the same road, isolating out each factor (weather, software, app interaction, reboot, car power off, etc) and I had the benefit of using a control car (my wife's M3) and my own. At the end of the day, I simply gave up since the results were so random.

If you find a reproducible trigger, please share--I'm sure plenty of folks in the forum would love to know how to reduce the vampire drain.

 

[WileyTheMan]

What's the average vamp drain for an S or X? I see this happen as well in my 3 but it wasn't alarming to me considering all the stuff it's doing in the background.

 

[dhu1]

What's the average vamp drain for an S or X? I see this happen as well in my 3 but it wasn't alarming to me considering all the stuff it's doing in the background.

Surprisingly my 2016 MX 90D is now only draining 2-4 miles per day--use to be much higher (like 6-8 miles).

 

[bartlettpsj]

Well I thought I had it cracked after the hard reset and also a power off and also closing my apps on the phone and powering them off at night, but yet again I am witnessing 8-10 per day.

Maybe a bit weird, but I just sat next to the car for 20 minutes whilst locked and parked in the garage and every 1 minute it bangs and whirrs. I hadn't touched or driven it for 3 hours, so presumably not a post trip settling down. I assumed it would be fast asleep. I turned off my phone to make it wasn't affecting it, but the banging and whirring continues. It's weird and eerie.

I will check again in a few hours before hitting the hay to see if she is banging and whirring still.

I am in San Diego, California and it is about 70 degrees in the garage.

 

[desertrunner]

bartlettpsj, I am experiencing the exact same thing! - Just received my Tesla on Saturday, April 28th, and I too notice the phantom drain and the banging and whirrs (good description of it!) every 1-2 minutes in the silence of my garage. I called about it this morning to Tesla, they looked in their logs to see similar problems, but couldn't find any. She suggested if it persists or gets worse, bring it in for service. I think I will monitor it for a week and see what the situation is next week. I can;t help but think the 2 things are related, it takes energy to do the banging and whirrs, and that is where the phantom drain is going. About midnight I topped off at 235 miles, and now I am down to 232, about 11 hours later.

 

[North75]

Did you make an attempt to figure out what is making the noises? or what part of the car they are coming from?
I've seen reports that the radiator louvers were constantly cycling on some cars earlier.
I thought they had that sorted now, but maybe not.

 

[Daniel in SD]

The EPA should make Tesla refund all their customers money that they're waisting with vampire drain. It's very unfortunate that they don't account for it in MPGe. Teslas would look much less competitive if they did.

 

[TexasEV]

MPGe is a stupid idea that does nothing but confuse people in the thinking that EVs also have gasoline engines. The only number that matters when comparing EVs is the range. Of the dozens of people I know who own Teslas I doubt even one knows what MPGe is or have any idea of Tesla’s number, and of the hundreds of people who have asked about my Model S and Model 3 not one has ever asked what MPGe it gets. The only numbers they care about are the range and how long it takes to charge.

 

[Schowtyme]

Similar to many of you, just picked up my car yesterday and love everything about it! Except for the phantom drain...

I'm also losing about 1 mile per hour at work. Car is in a garage pretty far away and I have Bluetooth turned off.

I'll try the reset, see if it makes any difference.

 

[Daniel in SD]

MPGe is a stupid idea that does nothing but confuse people in the thinking that EVs also have gasoline engines. The only number that matters when comparing EVs is the range. Of the dozens of people I know who own Teslas I doubt even one knows what MPGe is or have any idea of Tesla’s number, and of the hundreds of people who have asked about my Model S and Model 3 not one has ever asked what MPGe it gets. The only numbers they care about are the range and how long it takes to charge.

I agree that MPGe is stupid. They should list kWh per 100 miles or something like that. I was just pointing out that the amount of vampire load should be listed on the window sticker too. Some people care about operating costs, not just range.

 

[liuping]

The only number that matters when comparing EVs is the range.

Efficiency is a very important characteristic of an EV, especially in areas with high electricity costs.

MPGe may not be the best way to show it, but comparing efficiency will become more an more important as more EVs are available.