Battery drained to zero

[Forty_Two]

What would I do if I went on Spain for 3 months over the winter, left my car in the airport car park and the battery drained to zero; I come back and can’t get into the car?

Do we have a contingency plan for this scenario?

 

[MrBadger]

Do we have a contingency plan for this scenario?

A recovery service if you have a suitable one or public transport if you don’t.

I would think it’s unlikely to get to 0% unless you kept on checking on the car.

Only seems to lose a minimal amount if it’s just left untouched.

 

[Whyone]

Agreed....if you let the car 'sleep' it really shouldn't be an issue.

I've left my car for 6 weeks and it's only lost 3-4% charge and I suspect a chunk of that would have been in the first 24 hours.

Having said that, is leaving the car for 3 months in an airport carpark really the most financially efficient way of doing this?!

 

[carnutt]

Dont forget to turn off sentry, eats battery.

 

[MrBadger]

Dont forget to turn off sentry, eats battery.

Sentry turns itself off at 20%. It’s not actually sentry that uses the battery, it’s the car not sleeping that uses it and there are some other things that can prevent the car from sleeping which will drain the battery in the same way, such as summon standby or simply checking regularly on the car.

 

[carnutt]

Sentry turns itself off at 20%. It’s not actually sentry that uses the battery, it’s the car not sleeping that uses it and there are some other things that can prevent the car from sleeping which will drain the battery in the same way, such as summon standby or simply checking regularly on the car.

Didnt know about the 20%

 

[GeorgeSymonds]

I hope you’re not asking for a friend..

I think your worst case scenario is in a covered car park with tight radius ramps and recovery is required, hopefully you could avoid that.

I’ve see the odd advert for mobile charging vans and I guess that’s where I would go. You might need to access the 12v battery side first as that’s probably gone flat, and after you’ve got that to a point you can charge the main battery a van with a generator might add enough to get you to a proper charger. I think I’ve read that the charge rate when really really low is quite slow so don’t expect to add more than a handful of miles in an hour.

But I’m not sure 3 months in an airport car park is a great idea anyway as others have said

 

[UkNorthampton]

What would I do if I went on Spain for 3 months over the winter, left my car in the airport car park and the battery drained to zero; I come back and can’t get into the car?

Do we have a contingency plan for this scenario?

Can you go back to basics and check premises.

Why 3 months in a carpark?

What would happen to the 12 volt of an ICE car?


Why would the battery go down?

Top up 12 volt. Very minor, mostly the wake up/keep awake energy.

Sentry mode - switch off preferably or wait until car switches off when main battery low.

Keeping car awake, checking your app, third party apps talking to car. Ensure these are off, only check car infrequently or not at all.

Battery too low? Leave it at 50-70% perhaps.

 

[Durzel]

Can't you just not leave it in the airport car park and leave it at home instead, and get an UberX or something to/from the airport?

 

[M1tch]

Left my car for 3 months last year while I deployed overseas. The battery loss was negligible- don’t recall the exact figures but nothing to worry about. I left it around 70% and checked on it once or twice. Turn sentry off, and it will be fine. I’ve done this around 3 times now and have zero concerns leaving it for long periods. Got another coming up too

 

[MrT3]

The only scenario where I can see an issue is if the 12v aux battery develops a fault and cannot hold a charge. Then the car will wake often to recharge the 12v battery and eventually shut down completely when the main EV battery gets too low. You then would need recovery but this is an extremely unlikely situation.

Ideally just get to the airport with 45 to 55% charge (optimum charge level to store lithium ion batteries) and don’t worry about it. The most you should lose is 1% per week as the vehicle periodically wakes up to call home.

 

[Adopado]

If you’re a Tessie app user you can check the car’s sleep/wake periods without waking the car. This avoids using the Tesla app which is going to wake the car every time you open it.

 

[ATPMSD]

It depends on which Tesla you have. My Model SLRP lost 1% / day while my Model YLR losses 1% / week (assuming Sentry is off). Do a test over a long weekend and see what your actual loss is.

 

[gangzoom]

Drive to Spain? It'll take you at most 2 days, and you than have a car to use for that 3 months period. I'm pretty sure getting 90 days insurance wouldn't be that difficult or expensive.

 

[yessuz]

As I drove to Spain last summer, I would just drive to spain.
Financially makes so much sense.

And leaving car at airport for 3 months is just stupid imho.

P.s. topic naming a bit clickbait, uh?

 

[UncleCreepy]

Or, while you're gone, you could just disconnect the HV battery plug under the rear right seat and then the 12V battery. Once you're back, reconnect them in reverse order.
As @M1tch said, it shouldn't be a problem to jist park the car, but this way you can be sure the car won't stay awake due to a software bug or for other reasons.

 

[LiamPope]

Get an airport taxi.

 

[Adopado]

Or, while you're gone, you could just disconnect the HV battery plug under the rear right seat and then the 12V battery. Once you're back, reconnect them in reverse order.
As @M1tch said, it shouldn't be a problem to jist park the car, but this way you can be sure the car won't stay awake due to a software bug or for other reasons.

I am amused by the the use of the word "just" in this post!

 

[MidBaz]

Interesting discussion. We left our MYP (2023 model) at Gatwick for 3 days last week. it had 43% charge when we left (sentry 'on') and by the time we returned it was below 20% (I received a message on the app to say sentry had been switched off at 20%). So it lost something in the region of 7% charge per day. I don't use any app other than the Tesla one and I was checking a couple of times per day. According to responses above it seems that the checking was counter productive at best, but the main 'culprit' would be sentry.

Worth noting too that I used a 'meet and greet' service at Gatwick, so had the car in valet mode. Not sure that would have an impact either way but thought it worth mentioning.

 

[MrBadger]

I am amused by the the use of the word "just" in this post!

Nor knows the track record of the OP