Whenever I approach the car when it is parked in my garage, I hear the sound of an electric motor running in the front end. The manual mentions noise from the coolant pump, but it implies this should come and go depending on vehicle needs. However I have never heard the car being completely quiet. My garage is a constant 8-10C - what vehicle functions would need continuous operation of the pump (or whatever it is I am hearing)?
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What's the noise?
- Thread starter WattsappMTL
- Start date
Mike_TV
Active Member
It's most likely the heat pump as you mentioned. It can run, even after you've parked the car to move heat around (battery, motors, cabin). I've heard it running both in the summer and now winter. FWIW - I've heard it run for 20-30 minutes after a long drive on a hot day.
wattsappMTL: seriously, try walking up to the car w/o your phone. It's probably sensing a signal to "wake up."
I've walked by my car, in an unheated garaged (55f), and it's silent...unless I've got my phone.
I've also noticed that the car will NOT open for me unless I wait for the "wakeup" time to expire, maybe 10-12 seconds (after the car has been asleep). Each subsequent opening during the day is instant.
I've walked by my car, in an unheated garaged (55f), and it's silent...unless I've got my phone.
I've also noticed that the car will NOT open for me unless I wait for the "wakeup" time to expire, maybe 10-12 seconds (after the car has been asleep). Each subsequent opening during the day is instant.
No, I always change to "Garage" driver profile before parking it, so it never locks when it's inside. Therefore I don't have to take my phone into the garage any more. However I have to correct my observation - this morning I went in before the scheduled charging start and the car was in full hibernation so I guess there is a period during the night when it does fall silent. It just seemed that it was always making some form of noise, certainly for more than 30 minutes after parking.
BTW I have a different problem with the phone failing to wake the car any time of day. If it's in my pocket and the display isn't on, the car usually ignores it until I take it out and the display comes alive. I've starred in many Sentry Mode clips!
Two days ago I checked periodically during the evening, and after 3 hours the pump was still running. However, I realized that I might have been inadvertently waking the car up when I used the app to communicate with Tesla service about another issue. Last night, I avoided opening the app, and had TezLab notify me when the car fell asleep. I can't see a timestamp on the notification but it was definitely less than 3 hours.
This is the biggest reason to install the widget IMO. You can check on the car through the widget without waking it. It will report the last known SoC and the time so you know roughly when it went to sleep. I hated waking up the car just to check the SoC before I installed the widget.
There are a lot of noises, so we can only speculate without being there to hear it. There was one noise I kept hearing every 8 seconds and I couldn't figure it out until recently. It was the motorized louvers on the radiator opening adjusting the angle/opening size, trying to determine how much fresh air was needed for either the charging process or to push air through the HVAC to prevent mold buildup.
You definitely have a problem if it is running for 3 hours - however, it may not be a defect.
What is "probably" happening is that your car is charging, but it has barely enough power to heat the battery and charge at the same time. Since the battery is charging at such a low rate, it must be continually heated.
Even though the garage is 8-10C, your battery may be much colder.
The solution is to get an electrician to install a 14-50 outlet or wall connector. Keep in mind that this heating is expensive and will be running up your electric bill (ie. its probably worth doing the upgrade).
That's probably (among other factors) because the weather in Montreal is vastly different from that in Delaware. This week had a low of 6F, which is a good 28 degrees difference. And, of course, there are situations where you could probably get that result if it were colder.
The car itself has thermal mass, so if the temperature of the 4,000 lb car body is 17F, and the temp of the <1000 lb battery cells is 50F, then the ambient air temperature isn't even a big factor until several hours. Air does not transfer heat well, so the car may never even reach the ambient in the case of a very cold climate.
In any case, we know that the motors are running so that means that the car is heating the battery. The battery is only heated prior to departure and while charging, so this makes perfect sense as the well known issue in cold climates charging from a 120v outlet.
No, I'm charging from a Tesla Wall Connector on a 40A breaker, and in any case it isn't scheduled to start till the morning. I think what I was hearing was the coolant pump, and it's possible that the car was being woken up inadvertently so it was running longer than normal. TezLab is now confirming the car goes to sleep an hour or so after I get home and things are quiet when I go in the garage.
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