Stuck Charge Port

chucks said:

While parked at a Supercharger location during a recent 8-day trip, my charge port refused to open. I could hear it unlatch, but it stayed closed. I was able to push it open via the access hole in the trunk. It has been OK since that one occurrence. Has anyone had a similar experience?

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Yes, I get that sometimes in the winter. I didn't know there was a spot to push from the trunk though....I usually slide a credit card in and pry it open from the outside.

hingisfan said:

Yes, I get that sometimes in the winter. I didn't know there was a spot to push from the trunk though....I usually slide a credit card in and pry it open from the outside.

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Ditto. I ruined my ChargePoint keychain RFID tag last winter because it was my "go-to" pry tool for popping the door. Man, I'm really getting bummed about the impending arrival of winter :scared:

mknox said:

Ditto. I ruined my ChargePoint keychain RFID tag last winter because it was my "go-to" pry tool for popping the door. Man, I'm really getting bummed about the impending arrival of winter :scared:

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The same exact thing happened to me. Since my chargepoint card is already dead, I just continue to use that if the chargeport door gets stuck.

Wouldn't it also mess up a credit card? I wouldn't recommend the use of a credit card.

loganss said:

The same exact thing happened to me. Since my chargepoint card is already dead, I just continue to use that if the chargeport door gets stuck.

Wouldn't it also mess up a credit card? I wouldn't recommend the use of a credit card.

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My ChargePoint card remains on my keyring as my pry tool too. It seems to have come unlaminated and you could see the RFID chip between the layers. I just taped it back together. A credit card is usually a solid piece of plastic and so probably wouldn't suffer the same fate, but I agree with you and might not want to chance it.

Give the port a karate chop on the back edge of the charge port (behind the hinge) and it'll pop open. This is the method I was shown by the guy in charge of the service center.

Agree with the last post except karate chop not required just push the back hinge side. Also tech support told me it's because the magnet mechanism is dirty so just wipe it off, both faces.

Make sure there is no water or moisture on the black gasket on the part that extends. Mine got stuck once - and i dried off the gasket and all was well. The moisture doesn't allow the gasket to break the seal and it remains stuck....

I'm having problems, too, but is not moisture or cold related here in sunny Arizona. I can here it release, but the door does not always open. If I try again, you an hear a faint click and the door seems to twitch. It seems like the magnet releases and re-energized so fast that the door does not have time to open. I can hook my thumbnail under the 'point' and then do it again. When I feel it twitch I pull and it will open most of the time. I can live with it until my next visit to the service center.

Had a bit of a scare a few minutes ago. I drove away from home for a day, and need to charge to get home. Parked and opened the charge port, but just could not get the cord in to it for the life of me, had dropped the cord end in the snow, but even after I thought I had it all cleaned off the cord simply would not plug in, port flashed yellow, and I couldn't get the cord in all the way. tried a dozen or more times.
Waited 20 minutes and everything worked fine. Not sure what happened, but glad it's working.

On an unrelated side note, my "quick 240" adapter that I just created doesn't seem to be working I'll have to try that one again...

green1 said:

Parked and opened the charge port, but just could not get the cord in to it for the life of me...

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On a couple of very rare occasions, I've had the port "lock" on me with the flap open. When this happens, the locking pin that normally holds the cable in place extends and you can't plug the handle in. What I do is close the flap, get in the car, tap the brake to turn it on, then start over opening the port again. For me, that's happened maybe twice in almost 3 years.

mknox said:

On a couple of very rare occasions, I've had the port "lock" on me with the flap open. When this happens, the locking pin that normally holds the cable in place extends and you can't plug the handle in. What I do is close the flap, get in the car, tap the brake to turn it on, then start over opening the port again. For me, that's happened maybe twice in almost 3 years.

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I suspected the same, the weird part was when I looked in the port with a flashlight, the pin was retracted, but I could hear it engage each time while plugging in the cord, it was almost like it was engaging too early.

ok, here's the wild guess part:
I dropped the end of the cord in the snow, so when I tried the first time it got everything wet. because things were wet, the car was seeing electricity on the pins, conducted by the water, earlier than normal (while only plastic was touching, instead of all metal. As a result, it locked as soon as it saw power, which was before the cable was in far enough to properly do so. By waiting 20 minutes and coming back to it, things had dried out a bit and this wasn't a problem. </wild guess>

mknox said:

On a couple of very rare occasions, I've had the port "lock" on me with the flap open. When this happens, the locking pin that normally holds the cable in place extends and you can't plug the handle in. What I do is close the flap, get in the car, tap the brake to turn it on, then start over opening the port again. For me, that's happened maybe twice in almost 3 years.

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I had this happen to me tonight where the door would open but the cable lock wouldn't release. I heard a clicking every couple seconds, but the lock never released. I unplugged the power cable from the wall and it finally released. When I got back home from my drive, however, I couldn't get the charge cable to go back in. It was because the locking mechanism was sticking in the closed position. I gently pressed on the locking mechanism on the bottom of the charge port and it released, and allowed me to plug in the charge cable again. I then sprayed a little dry lock silicone spray into the hole where the locking mechanism comes out and it completely eliminated my problem. So, the locking pin mechanism was just dried out (I have a 2013 Model S), which was causing it to stick. A little lubrication did the job and saved me a call to the service center!