Charging door closing immediately after opening

[morningstar]

I'm having a little issue that I wonder if anyone else has experienced. After returning home from running errands and picking up kids I decided to plug in to charge. We are only using the trickle charger until we have the wall charger and install it so I plug in when it gets to 50% since it takes so long on 110. Anyway, today I got home, and pressed the open charge door on my touchscreen and it opened and then closed right away. I realized sentry mode was on so I turned that off on my app and used the app to open the charger door again and again it closed right away. I tried pressing on the door to open it and it wouldn't open at all that way. Since I just picked it up 2 days ago, I called my delivery specialist and asked him about it. He had me try a hard reset so I did that then tried again, but again it opened and closed right away. He told me to call the service center and tell them what was going on and then head over there so they could look at it. I guess not being able to charge gets you put in the front of the line! Anyway I was sitting there waiting for someone to pick up at the service center when I decided to try again and this time the door stayed open and the car said ready to charge so I plugged in and it's charging, though it's charging far slower than it did last night when I plugged it in. Maybe that's because it's still day time. I have no idea why it decided to stay open. I called my delivery specialist back to let him know and he thought maybe the reset wasn't completely done when I tried it right after doing the reset and by the time I tried again it was completed. At any rate, he's made a note of it in my account and told me if it happens again to just call the service center and go in. Has anyone else had something like this happen? Do you know what's causing it or how to fix it if the hard reset isn't the fix? Thanks in advance for any advice anyone has!

 

[morningstar]

Well, my charging issues are getting worse. After only an hour or so at a very slow trickle, my daughter got invited to a friend's house so I unplugged and took her over. Stayed to chat for a bit and got home to plug back in and now my charge port door won't open at all! I can hear it trying, but then it gives up. I remember being told there is a manual release in the trunk to force it open, but I also remember it is only for dire emergencies and that I don't want to use it unless I have no other options. I'll read up on this feature in the manual, but I have enough juice to get to the service center tomorrow so I may not use this emergency option this time. I just wish I knew what happened to cause all these issues!

 

[davewill]

Definitely something wrong. The SC will have to look at that. BTW, the thing to do when you have slow charging like that isn't to wait until you get to 50% to plug in, but to plug in every single chance you get to maximize your charging time.

 

[morningstar]

Yeah, that's what I was hoping to do, but now I can't charge at all.

 

[AlanSubie4Life]

I remember being told there is a manual release in the trunk to force it open, but I also remember it is only for dire emergencies and that I don't want to use it unless I have no other options.

It's fine to use this manual release, but I think it's only to release the lock on the connector that is plugged into the charge port. I'm not sure if it has any effect on the charge port door position. You can try - it's quite easy to access from the trunk, just pull gently. (In the manual it just tells you not to use it continuously and it also says it is for removing the charge cable manually (not for opening the door).) I doubt it will help your situation.

If you do manage to get the door open, I'd make sure to jam the J-1772 adapter in there just to keep it propped until you can get a Tesla connector into the port. And obviously at this point a service center visit is needed.

You could check tor the presence of the little magnet in the corner of the charge port door (if you manage to get it to open), but your symptoms don't seem to match that being missing. It just seems like there is excess resistance to the door opening or something. I imagine they'll replace the entire thing.

 

[morningstar]

Thanks, I realized after looking at the manual the release lever in the trunk probably wouldn't help. I decided to call the service center again before they closed to set up a time to go over tomorrow and while I was on hold my husband got home and the dang door opened just fine! It's charging now. I am really at a loss for what is going on. It seems to be jammed up when I first get out of the car and try to plug it in, but if I wait a while, it will operate normally. The other thing I've noticed is that when I plug in the charging cable, the green T blinks as it should, but when I went back into the garage to get something I noticed there was no T lit up at all, but the touchscreen still says charging and my app still says charging and it's showing 4 more miles than it did half an hour ago so it must be charging. Nobody ever answered the phone at the service center so I'm just going to show up there tomorrow and bug them about all this. Thanks for all the hand-holding!!

 

[fr100]

Can you post a screenshot of the charging screen from your phone? Also, the charging light does turn off after a few minutes of charging. That is normal and expected.

 

[morningstar]

Thank you for confirmation that the light turns off while charging. It doesn't mention that in the manual. Here's a pic of the charging screen on my phone. It is only plugged in to a 110 outlet so I know it will be very slow. Seems to be charging fine since I got the door open. I just think it's odd that the door doesn't want to open right after I've driven the car. It works fine if I wait half an hour before trying.

 

[AlanSubie4Life]

It seems broken.

Watch the video in this thread really quickly. If it doesn’t apply to you (or even if it does), then tell Tesla to fix your car. It’s probably not going to go away.

A Charge Port Issue (video)

 

[morningstar]

Well today is a new day and my car decided to function correctly! I've been able to open the charge port multiple times as I come and go taking my kids various places. Maybe I was doing something wrong yesterday when I tried to open it, though it is pretty intuitive. We're just going to keep an eye on it for now.
@AlanSubie4Life thanks for that video! I was having a different issue than he did, but it was so similar that it's good to have that information.

 

[ph0ton]

So no one has a resolution to this problem? My car started doing this after a trip. I can get it charging no problem but the door keeps trying to snap shut.

 

[morningstar]

No, I never got an answer on it, but mine never did that again either. Have you tried to do a reset yet? I would start there if you haven't. Then, you could do the schedule service thing through the app. They seem to diagnose things remotely as much as they can so they'll see that it keeps doing that and might even be able to fix it remotely.

 

[Kevy Baby]

Can you open the charger door my pressing the button on the wand? That way you can insert quickly, hopefully before the door closes.

 

[dets]

..Anyway, today I got home, and pressed the open charge door on my touchscreen and it opened and then closed right away. .. Has anyone else had something like this happen? Do you know what's causing it or how to fix it if the hard reset isn't the fix? Thanks in advance for any advice anyone has!

I have the same issue starting just today. Tried the hard reset but this doesn't fix the issue. I just have 0.2 seconds to plug the power in (my home charging speed is still OK 47 m/h = 75km/h) I have already an appointment scheduled for next Wednesday to replace a cracked rear glass. Hopefully they can have a look at this technical gremlin as well as they can have the car the whole day. Will post an update after my visit.

 

[dets]

After changing my password and logon via the app the issue solved it self. Now the charge door stays open again.

 

[DetroitBlinky]

Just had this issue occur with my car as well. Also just updated my phone to iOS 14 so can’t rule that out as a possible cause. Will wait overnight to see if my car changes it’s mind on this issue, and if not will try changing my Tesla account password as suggested by @dets. Will respond if something I do fixes it or if it resolves itself.

 

[FalconFour]

I had this happen to my car as well. I also solved it.

The door would open, but then immediately close again while the charge light remained in its "ready" state... and more perplexing, I was still able to charge and Supercharge while it was trying to eat the cord constantly. I really didn't want this to continue and actually break something...

Since I was already well-immersed in tinkering with the car, I had the routine to do a complete shutdown/reset down to a science at this point. So that's what I did.

This is how you do a complete shutdown/reset. The "two-button reboot" does absolutely nothing for anything unrelated to the MCU, as it just reboots the screen. This, though, completely restarts all the car systems:
1) Open the frunk.
2) Lift the big plastic panel around the windshield wipers out of the way. It just snaps out, so just lift.
3) Get a 10mm socket or wrench, and loosen the negative terminal of the 12v battery quite a bit, so it'll loosely slide off - but more importantly, so it'll fully seat back on the post when you come back later. (Note, don't remove the cable from the connector - that's the other bolt - but rather loosen the clamp that holds it to the post on the battery)
4) Lift the negative terminal off the battery post. Swing the cable out of the way and hook it on something so it doesn't flop back onto the battery. Or have someone hold it.
5) Walk to the passenger side rear door, and give a confused look as you open the door and the car is still powered up? Wuh? Yeah, the 12v battery isn't actually used for anything while the car is awake (idle/not in sleep mode). The entire car and all its accessories are powered by the PCS (power conversion system) built into the main battery, which you need to unplug next. Digest this information and pass it on to anyone that says "Sentry wears out the 12v battery"
6) There's a little rotating plastic latch under the lower lip of the rear seat on each side. You can lift both and remove the seat, or (more simply) just lift the passenger side of the seat, revealing a dense grey Styrofoam-like block.
7) Lift that block out of the way, noting which way it came out, so you can return it again in a few seconds.
8) There's a grey/black data connector there. Attack! To unplug it, there's a lever on the side. This lever should press/rotate outward and down towards the battery/floor to disengage it. When you unplug it, you'll hear a "clunk" as the car powers off.
9) Great, now push the top of that grey/black plug to reconnect it and lock the lever back where you found it.
10) Replace that foam block and click the seat back into place.
11) Take a few seconds to think how cool that is. Swear you'll tell at least 5 people that the 12v battery doesn't actually power anything, and they can be slightly more educated on electricity (it powers the car when it's totally asleep, but other than that, all the 12v stuff is driven by the main battery and the PCS!)
12) Go back to the front and plug the 12v battery negative terminal back in. Make sure it's fully seated.
13) Screw it back tight again with that 10mm tool.
14) Replace the plastic shield, snap it down all around the edges so there's no gaps sticking out.
15) Close the frunk and hop back in the car so you can watch it boot back up.
16) Et voila, a complete reboot.

Really wish Tesla would just implement a "reboot the darn car" button, like they do during updates...!

But with this, my weird charging flap problem was fixed, and hasn't recurred since then.

 

[ceejay44]

I've been having this problem of the charge port opening when I push the sensor / charging cable button and then the door closes again after about half a second. I have to then wait 5 to 10 seconds to try again and the flap will stay open so that I can charge on the second go. Tesla wants to charge me for a replacement charge flap, which suggests that this is not a software / reboot issue

 

[69mustang]

Mine just recently started doing it too. If I tap the open door button on the screen it opens and closes. If I wait a second and try again it will open and stay open. I'm thinking it's software.

 

[Gasaraki]

Talked to my tech Ranger and he looked at the fix notes for this issue and it's going to be in the 44.x patch. I'm on 40.6 and this bug appeared in the tree.