Dropping $973.36 for a new charge port tomorrow.

[JohnSnowNW]

See this is kind of tricky. His car has almost 100k miles on it, and the failure of this part renders his car almost undriveable (at least after the battery runs out of juice). On an ICE car, what will fail at 100k that will render your car undriveable? Should the charge port have a maintenance interval?

Quite a few engine components...I should think.

 

[dhanson865]

Does anybody know how complicated a "charge port" on a Model S is? I don't. Without knowing that, its hard to judge whether it is reasonable for it to fail at 100k miles. To me, it looks like Tesla should cover this via "goodwill". Why? Well because its mission in life is to get people to adopt electric vehicles - how much does it move that forward for the car's charge port to cost $1000? Its not a part that does anything while the car is moving. And it has no moving parts while the car is charging. But both Model S cars I've had have had their charge ports serviced. When I brought my 2015 home I could not open the port. Tesla told me to bang on it with the heel of my hand, which I did, and it finally opened.

I guess I just think of ALL the parts on the car they should have over-engineered to the point it would last literally forever, the charge port should have been near the top of the list. And Tesla should be humiliated and apologetic when one fails. But that's just how I see it. The OP has my total sympathy.

Think about the plastic housing of the charge port (exposed to the waste heat of supercharging making it brittle?). The moving parts for locking, unlocking, opening, closing (could a spring or latch break after thousands of motions due to the waste heat from supercharging shorting the life of that subcomponent?). The electrical parts, darn well should be good for the life of the car. I'd call it a clear design defect if you couldn't charge the car normally for well past the first 2 owners no matter the years or miles.

If I were Tesla and I'd improved that part in later years I'd comp some or all of the cost of replacing the part depending on how much less reliable the original part was. I sure don't think it's right to stick super high parts replacements to a used car owner such that people would start considering a used Tesla totaled because it'd be worth more to part it out than to keep driving it.

But no, I haven't taken the charge port apart. I don't know for sure if there is a defect or if the failure rate is just a fact of life that Tesla couldn't avoid.

 

[JohnSnowNW]

I guess I just think of ALL the parts on the car they should have over-engineered to the point it would last literally forever, the charge port should have been near the top of the list. And Tesla should be humiliated and apologetic when one fails.

But the charge port didn't fail, the locking mechanism inside the charge port failed. I prefer having the ability to keep someone from disconnecting the charge cable, with the possibility of failure, over the inability to do so.

 

[Canuck]

My 2012 Leaf has had >4900 charging events, that corresponds to about 2,000 to 2,500 plugging and unpluggings (the counter includes when the charge timer enables the charger not just the plugging in, tends to be nearly double the number of physical connections and disconnects of the J1772).

The Leaf lacks a locking pin. Another failure by Nissan but not quite as idiotic as no thermal battery cooling.

 

[whitex]

The “Teslas have less moving parts will need less maintenance” “ICE have hundreds of moving parts! So many failure points!” was a well designed marketing prompt. Although it does not hold true in reality.

My Model S has needed way more repairs and service center visits than any other car I ever owned.

Well, ICE stands for Internal Combustion Engine, and comparing ICE to an electric motor the above marketing statement is 100% true. With Tesla marketing you ALWAYS have to consider the literal and minimalist meaning - remember "the car is 691hp car because the motors can do it, but the battery limits it to 463hp in ideal conditions" ?

 

[Got-EMF]

For better or worse, there are a number of known common repairs for the early years. Many people are lucky enough to have them fail during warranty periods. My 2013 with 51,500 miles charge port started reading open even when closed just before my warranty ran out. Luckily a warranty repair. Just out of warranty my screen is now delaminating - showing the bubbles at the top - a $1000 fix. I'll pay to get it fixed while they do the recall replacement of the air bag. $1000 is still a lot cheaper than upgrading to a newer model. Sometimes I think Tesla's goodwill is related to their fiscal condition at the time - currently their expenditures are high and their income hasn't ramped as fast as planned. Just my thoughts. Best of luck to all of us!

P.S. I wouldn't recommend a D.I.Y. charge port replacement for most people. Those connections handle over 300 amps. If it isn't done correctly, SMOKIN' !

 

[Got-EMF]

See this is kind of tricky. His car has almost 100k miles on it, and the failure of this part renders his car almost undriveable (at least after the battery runs out of juice). On an ICE car, what will fail at 100k that will render your car undriveable? Should the charge port have a maintenance interval?

Not sure at what mileage, but somewhere along the way...

Fuel pump.
What ever type of ignition control module it has.
Timing belt.
Starter.
Water pump.

What did I miss?

 

[Got-EMF]

Just an after thought, might be too much of some kind of safety issue, but perhaps a call to Tesla and they could overide the error code "over the air".

I can see clearly now, I've got my beer goggles on!

 

[jaguar36]

If I make it to 100k miles and only have to spend $1k on repairs I would be thrilled.

 

[dennisvab]

Timing belt failure

Timing Belt can definitely go. But on many cars, it has a maintenance interval, say 75k miles. So if it fails at 100k that would be the individuals problem as he did not do the scheduled work for that interval.

 

[dennisvab]

Not sure at what mileage, but somewhere along the way...

Fuel pump.
What ever type of ignition control module it has.
Timing belt.
Starter.
Water pump.

What did I miss?

I just replied to another post about this regarding maintenance intervals. moral of my story, if the charge port will fail at some point, should it have an interval assigned to it, so that someone isn't stranded say on their road trip.

In my opinion, on most ICE cars, if you perform the scheduled maintenance, at the recommended intervals set by the manufacturer, you should not encounter unexpected repairs that will render your vehicle un-driveable.

 

[harry]

We have had charge ports replaced on our SIgnatures multiple times. They do have a limited life, for several reasons. The locking tab and the apparatus which operates it is not too robust, and strain is often put on the tab by trying to insert or remove the nozzle incorrectly. The current-carrying pins which mesh with the nozzles are subject to oxidation and -- well -- burning from (I believe) trying to carry too much current for their diameter. The pilot pins have tiny diameters, and while they carry hardly any current, they also oxidize and sometimes don't make a good connection.

We have started using contact cleaner spray and Q-tips to maintain the pins, and that has seemed to help. We are also more careful about inserting and removing nozzles at the correct angle, and only after we hear the locking pin click.

 

[emlombardo]

T

See this is kind of tricky. His car has almost 100k miles on it, and the failure of this part renders his car almost undriveable (at least after the battery runs out of juice). On an ICE car, what will fail at 100k that will render your car undriveable? Should the charge port have a maintenance interval?

The last GM vehicle that I bought had a transmission crap out at 80k. I guess that's not typical but I don't think the charge port issue is widespread either?

 

[DFibRL8R]

My 2013 charge port is still going strong at 104k miles. I agree with the posts about potential to save costs with DIY (I too did a door handle swap for $2 part plus my time after I paid full price for Tesla to replace one out of warranty). I wonder at what point will other local shops start offering service for Teslas? Many of these "repairs" are simple swaps of parts and don't seem too complicated. It would be nice if one of these charge ports went bad on a road trip that simply getting the part overnighted to a qualified non-Tesla local repair place could be sufficient.

 

[TexasEV]

Tesla offers an extended warranty. The OP chose not to buy it.

 

[SSedan]

$1000 for a charge port is ridiculous, if it were $400 you would see less complaining.
A timing belt might cost that or more to replace but those are a published maintenance interval up front and actually takes some effort to replace.

I would be surprised if it takes 30minutes to change a charge port.

 

[Zextraterrestrial]

After reading too many stories like this one ... I'm all in for the extended warranty in a few years

so you pay $4,100 (or whatever it costs now for the extended warranty) and an additional $200 to get it fixed. you surely could get a replacement for under $200 (putting it in yourself, not sure)
I would be paying a lot of $200's for things I could fix myself for less now. I kind of expect my door handles to all fail again at some point. delaminated screen sucks but I can live with it currently and $200 of the $1k cost (I've heard $800 also) is way too much for something that should be recalled on the '12 and '13s. how many screens have delaminated?? (that is one thing that is very irritating...not like you can show your car to anyone really, who would buy one if they saw that?)

 

[Buddyroe]

so you pay $4,100 (or whatever it costs now for the extended warranty) and an additional $200 to get it fixed. you surely could get a replacement for under $200 (putting it in yourself, not sure)
I would be paying a lot of $200's for things I could fix myself for less now. I kind of expect my door handles to all fail again at some point. delaminated screen sucks but I can live with it currently and $200 of the $1k cost (I've heard $800 also) is way too much for something that should be recalled on the '12 and '13s. how many screens have delaminated?? (that is one thing that is very irritating...not like you can show your car to anyone really, who would buy one if they saw that?)

I agree with your analysis on the extended warranty. I've read a lot of posters saying they are looking for a private owner Tesla so they can purchase the extended warranty. As an add-on, it is $4700 with a deductible of $100 or $200 (not sure on that). That's not a very good gamble in my mind when you consider that the battery and drive unit are still covered under warranty. I currently have 1 year and 7000 miles to go on my original warranty. I'd rather hold onto my $4700 (plus deductibles) because I can do a LOT of repairs for $4700+, and this car just seems to be very solid (knock on wood). I guess I will put $4700 in a separate account and call it my warranty. We'll see in 57k miles if I won or lost.

 

[Buddyroe]

After reading too many stories like this one ... I'm all in for the extended warranty in a few years

I'm not so sure about that. I'm almost willing to bet, even with this $973 repair, the OP probably hasn't spent over $4k on repairs that would have been covered by the extended warranty - plus he/she would have had to pay a deductible on the repair(s) also. With "almost 100k miles", the OP can easily look at his/her repair costs and determine if the warranty would have been a good idea or not. I'm not quite sure how a $973 repair makes people feel good about a $4300 warranty ($4200 plus at least a $100 deductible).

@BryanC - can you elaborate a little on just how much you have spent on repairs that would have been covered by the extended warranty (or potentially covered)?

 

[thegruf]

16,000 GBP for a replacement short Audi RS5 engine when the oil pump failed and no warning light was shown.
Audi totally disinterested in any goodwill.

I'm sorry for the OP and anyone this happens to, but stuff fails.

What might be a worthwhile thought is, that over time a pattern emerges of less reliable parts.
It likely wouldn't cost Tesla much to keep the cost of such parts low to engender goodwill with customers