If you have a Tesla Model 3, the air conditioning system may start to smell like rotten feet. That probably means it’s time to replace some air filters and clean the AC coils. You can either pay Tesla around $150 to do it or get what you need from Amazon for about $35 (filters and spray). It was really easy by following this guide and only required one tool.
Look how dirty those filters were after 20 months.
I put in the $100 order just in case I want one.
Over my almost 7.5 day trip I left Sentry Mode active because my car was parked at the airport. The estimated range went from about 260 miles to 102! If I tried that in the winter I may not have enough juice to drive home.
A lot of people ask how far I can go in my car and it’s a hard question to answer. There are a lot of factors like season (the batteries are a lot less efficient in cold weather), type of miles, heat/AC use, etc. I decided to keep track of my trip up to Rogers City this weekend. When I got in the car the battery had been charged to an estimated 292 miles of range.
The trip is a total of 156 miles, with 47 of those on the freeway. When I arrived at Mom and Dad’s the battery was down to 101 miles of range.
So that’s 156 actual miles for 191 estimated miles of range. I have the bigger wheels which are supposed to use 10% of the range, so I’d say that’s pretty good efficiency. Below is the energy consumption over the trip.
Yesterday my heart rate got a little jacked on the drive to Rogers City. It’s awesome that the Model 3 always has a dashcam recording (when you have a USB stick plugged in) and you can save the clips. First, a deer ran across the road.
Of course this happened on the only stretch of highway where the speed limit is 65 mph, so I was cruising along at 70. You can’t really tell from the video, but I had to make a full slam on the brakes and everything on the back seat ended up on the floor.
I shit you not, less than a minute later…
An older woman made a move to pass with seemingly no speed. I saw it coming so I slowed down really early and moved over to the shoulder. The vehicle being passed slowed down quite a bit too and she still didn’t have much room to squeeze in. Fucking idiot!
Two weeks ago, I forgot my mobile charger on a trip up to Rogers City, where I charge with the same type of plug I have in my own garage. After 50 minutes on the road I turned, drove home to pick up the charger, and then had to stop in Bay City to supercharge because I’d already used over 100 miles of range. As I thought about it later that day, since the weather isn’t freezing anymore, I could have made it to my parents’ place with enough range to take a different route home, and supercharge in Gaylord.
Oh well, it was better to be safe than sorry. That night I told myself I wouldn’t let it happen again though, so I ordered a unit I could install in my garage. Then I could keep the mobile charger in the trunk where it belongs.
I also bought a new circuit breaker and wire in order to supply more current (amps) to the unit.
My total cost was just under $600 since I did the install myself. I’ve read on various Internet forums of people paying anywhere from $300 to over $2,000 for an electrician!
I found a good spot in my garage to mount the plate and ran the wire from there down to the electrical panel.
Installing a breaker and wiring it up can be scary and extremely dangerous, so a lot of people are smart to pay a professional. If you take your time and understand how the system works, it’s quite easy to do though. I turned off the main line and confirmed with a multimeter. The 30 amp 2-pole breaker in the lower right had been used for a hot tub several years ago and wasn’t even wired to anything anymore. I swapped it with the new 60 amp breaker. I closed everything up, turned on the main, flipped the breaker, and voila!
I love when everything works on the first try. Of course, I installed everything to code. 😉
My Model 3 was already charged to 90%, which is as high as you want to charge the car for normal daily driving. I bumped the limit for a quick test and plugged in the car. With a 60 amp breaker, the maximum output of the charging unit is 48 amps, so I was in business. According to Tesla’s documentation, this should charge at a rate up to 44 mi/hr of range. It showed 36 here, but in my experience it takes a few minutes to ramp up and the chargers tend to slow down as they approach the charging limit, so I’ll have to check again after a day of driving. With the mobile charger and a 240 volt 20 amp outlet, my previous charge rate was 14 mi/hr of range, so it’ll be nice to have this boost.
The entire installation took a little over 2 hours since I was working alone and went slow to avoid mistakes.
Betty got a boost with the latest software update.
It’s been 3 months since I took delivery of my Model 3, so I’ve had plenty of time with it. It’s an incredible vehicle and I couldn’t be happier with my decision to get one.
A few interesting things:
Some great things about the car:
A few things I don’t like:
I went all out and bought these 3D MAXpider KAGU Black All-Weather Floor Mats for my Model 3 to protect the floors during our ugly Michigan winters. They’re made specifically for the car so the fit is perfect and they look great. I love how they even cover the left foot rest on the driver’s side. I did black out the silver 3D logo with a Sharpie when I read other people had done the same.
Good timing with our first snowfall today.
Nick Momrik 