Electric whine / noise when the car is asleep

Is this your first rodeo?

Normal homie

This baby's electrical! -Doc Brown

first Tesla, yes.

Yes, but this baby also doesnt seem to make noises when its parked outside at my shop, so im curious if being in its home location / plugged in is keeping the car in an alert state.

When its parked at my work (away from "home") and not plugged in, it doesnt make this noise. Im wondering if there's any active processes keeping the car alive at "home" or plugged in seeing as the car has a few home specific settings that make it behave differently, such as not autolock

Just normal Tesla things. Walking into my garage, the car will be silent and asleep, but if I walk too close to it with my phone key, it can wake the car and you will hear things turn on. Also just normal for it to do stuff that regulates the battery temps. You will hear fans and pumps seemingly turn on and off randomly. All totally normal.

Ok, the manual has all kinds of sounds in it, find it and it will help you out. Shits normal things. Don't worry or stress walk away and let it do it's thing.

thanks. I probably had my phone on nearby, this may be why it wakes the car every time i get close..

im not stressing about it. i work on cars every day. I am simply seeking to understand how the systems logic works in standby. You may not know and thats OK, waiting for the person who does to pop up and explain.

Like I said rtfm, instead you make a video of the car lol you people are weird. Haha

I was going to ask if it was plugged in. It'll usually be doing something when plugged in like balancing the battery or warming it up. Both model 3s I've had did. Our Chevy Bolt is worse. It's always clicking or humming.

This is the answer

Dont have one.

good to know. thanks

Did you check the glovebox? https://www.tesla.com/ownersmanual/model3/en_cn/GUID-AA58ED67-9C93-4EE6-8B19-9FDABE018787.html

Yes. This is an auction car. Anything not bolted down grows legs, it was cleaned out completely. This is a support sub intended for discussion, i dont understand why you're here with the thoughts that its weird people might ask a question. There's plenty of subs where questions arent allowed you could go hang out in

To add paranoia….if it gets loud and you get random system errors you might be out of coolant - which can happen if rodents chew the lines.

Yeah normal for me in cooler temps. Maybe mines even louder. Only when plugged in tho. I think it uses shore power to keep battery warm. Part of the reason why a plugged in tesla is a happy tesla.

Mines completely quiet when the app says its asleep, however if it says parked it will make noise.

Very normal. The hum, AFAIK, is the battery's heater keeping the battery pack at a healthy temp (i think around 70-80ish degrees). Makes sense you hear it at home on the charger; the car is using the chargers power to keep the battery "ready" while the car sleeps. Makes even more sense you cant hear it at work unplugged because the car chooses to let the battery cold soak over using power all day to keep it "ready".

And the stainless steel construction helps the flux dispersal process (for cybertruck that is).

I believe 45 degrees is around 30 degrees below optimal temperature. So as most folks are saying, the car heats the battery to accept a charge. Also, it makes a low white noise when the maintain climate control is on. I’m hearing lots more noise this winter (Florida cold snap in the 20s).

Yep. And you’ll hear the contactors boot which sounds like a “kerCHUNK”.

The noise can be a combination of things. The Thermal system is trying to keep the HV battery in an optimal temp range for efficiency and performance, especially if you have it on a precondition temp schedule. Charging the car will also initiate the thermal system. One of the modes is called heat scavenging which will induce 2 out of 3 phases on the electric motor to generate some heat byproduct so that can be routed to the battery. It’s not enough to move the car, but enough to generate some heat! Pretty genius stuff.

Very good to know the distinction. i will take a look under both statuses.

ha. That's how I got the car. I bought it as a damaged car with undercarriage damage, and it was out of coolant from the previous owner hitting a racoon and breaking some stuff.

ah, i see. That's a huge upside actually, I will hop in and check the battery temps in service mode to see what temps they are. If they're higher than ambient temps, then activity is OK!

Thanks. This is the most logical explanation i've gotten so far. l'll def check battery temps now that its been unplugged, plug it in tonight and check temps in the morning. thank you! edit: Looked into it. The autopilot computer was 10c above garage temps. I had the summon feature turned on so the car was keeping the FSD computer active to be ready to respond to a summon command.

Thanks. That makes sense, and i appreciate the explanation.

Looked into it. The autopilot computer was 10c above garage temps. I had the summon feature turned on so the car was keeping the FSD computer active to be ready to respond to a summon command.

Completely normal, the car will actively regulate battery temperatures to keep it at ideal idle and operating temps, even while “asleep”, nothing to worry about here. Uses very little charge to do this as well if that’s a concern. My 2018 model 3 has been sitting at a collision center for over a week and lost 2 miles of range, temps outside have gone from 20° to 80°

Plug it in while it preheating and it’ll pop an icon in the app and say “heating battery for optimal performance” I’ve actually been using the climate precondition this winter. It’s flippin cold down here this year. I believe it only does that under 45f but I’m not certain.

I’ve come to absolutely love that sound and listen for it anytime in near. I’ve been working on aftermarket stereo upgrades and that noise lets me know everything is still ok. No clunk = no bass:(

Any update on the temperature?

The FSD computer was on and 10c above everything else, i assume thats what was requesting coolant. The summon feature keeps the FSD computer alive and alert. It was on without me being aware. I turned it off, the car is now sleeping peacefully without the coolant pumps circulating anything as the temps are all ambient

It’s scanning your house and giving information to Optimus..

Dreaming 🤪

lol. Like my dog moving her legs and making grumbling noises when she sleeps

There’s a lot of things teslas wake up for. Could be charging the low voltage battery, warming the battery when temps are sub optimal, drying the condenser etc..

Good to know, thank you!