Personally no way I would stick anything 8n there. Call Tesla, not dying for a car... You never know
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piece of plastic stuck in charger plug
- Thread starter dethman
- Start date
For #1, that's not how that works. There is no live 240V electricity at those pins all the time. That doesn't happen until it gets a chance to communicate with a car and for the car to signal it to start sending electricity.
But for #2, people obviously shut off the breaker before messing with this anyway just in case. So yes, you do know.
I am with you. Seems better to call Mobile service and let them handle it.
Given that this has happened before, they may have some sort of internal instructions for how to get the pieces out and adjust the unit so it does not happen again.
davewill
Active Member
There's really no danger. The plug is absolutely not live when it's not connected to the car...that's what the EVSE is all about. If you also turn off the circuit breaker, then you don't even have to worry about trusting the EVSE.
You can try a small stick with a dot of superglue on it, or a pin or needle that could be pushed into the plastic. Use two so that you can pull up on opposite sides.
You can try a small stick with a dot of superglue on it, or a pin or needle that could be pushed into the plastic. Use two so that you can pull up on opposite sides.
I agree I could try that. But I can make a mobile appointment and get someone that has done it before, and brings spare parts in case the unit is beyond repair, in a couple of days, so that would be my preference. But, knock on wood, everything is working find with my HPWC.
And that's because the HPWC is absolutely 100.0000000% reliable. They never ever fail! The contactor is a special design whose contacts cannot weld. Ever. Ah, were all contactors thus.
Now that's more like it. Open the disconnect and then check with a NCV tester or voltmeter.
While I understand where you are coming from, contact welding is usually the result of activation into a short/ overload. Unless the vehicle charger failed without the car diagnostic noticing, the contactors only activate into a no load condition. Opening would arc, but likely not weld. Additionally, the HPWC is also the GFCI, so should be better than the average switch. Perhaps double contacts per pole...
gnuarm
Model X 100 with 72 amp chargers
The other day I found this problem with a Supercharger. This location is very busy and often all 12 stalls are occupied. I had to leave this stall and grab the otherwise last one. I had tied the cable in a knot to indicate it was broken. Of course someone pulled up with kids who had no clue and untied it. lol
Seems this broken connector thing is not totally uncommon.
I just had this problem crop up today. I turned off the circuit and tried tapping, needle nose pliers, and “hitting” with no luck. I then used my garage wet/dry vac to suck it out and it worked like a charm!
So for those that've had this problem, once you've got the plastic out, did you worry about getting the damaged part replaced? Or is it generally considered fine for the charger to have slightly more uninsulated metal? I would guess that in most cases it's harmless, since the contactors will disengage when it's not in use, but it could be more hazardous in the unlikely event that other things go wrong like the contactors failing or a miscommunication.
It's interesting to revisit this thread because my deadfront piece of plastic just broke off of one of the pins in my charge port a few weeks ago. And interestingly, one of my earlier pronouncements turned out to not be quite true.
The big deadfront piece apparently broke off in a Supercharger handle somewhere on a recent trip I took, and I didn't notice, so it was not in my plug at home. But at home, I found there was a small shard of the plastic that had fallen down into a little crack at the bottom of the charge port below the pin. It was sticking up just enough to barely block my mobile connector from going in, so I couldn't plug in at home. I struggled a bit trying to get it out and finally got it with the trick of a little dab of super glue on a toothpick, where I let it rest on there for several seconds, and then it pulled up out of there.
I don't think it has anything to do with safety issues at all. It's just more of a convenience to physically guide them together smoothly. With both sides having flat sharp edges, if you don't have them perfectly lined up, the edges can catch on each other, and it can take a couple of tries to get them to line up and fit together.
I am not going to have it replaced, but it's not the safety issue. I filed a service request, but then saw that the estimate was $732 and decided I am not going to do that when I am planning to replace this car in less than a year. And yesterday my driver's door handle stopped working, so that's fun. I am not going to get that fixed either.
After a day of having to crawl in from the passenger side to open my driver's door, I am changing my mind on how annoying that is. I will get that one fixed.
davewill
Active Member
I though they were able to replace just the little plastic doohickey without doing the whole port. Or maybe that's just in later models? Wouldn't hurt to ask.
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