There is a common failure where the plastic piece from a charge port pin is breaking off inside charger handles, and causing either the supercharger or the UMC to become unusable.
It often happens with earlier build cars, and especially with rough treatment of inserting the charger handle, or torque on it sideways from being too far away from the supercharger, or tripping on a UMC wire.
Sometimes you can just rap the supercharger handle on your shoe, and the plastic piece will come out.
Here is unsung hero Brian showing off the same broken piece at the Buttonwillow supercharger, while cars were lining up during Tesla Corsa for a charge and there was one down due to this issue, He fixed it on the spot.
Sometimes your pin is already broken, but you don't realize it because its your broken piece stuck in your UMC handle, so it doesn't show itself until you go to supercharge, or someone else uses your UMC.
There is a service bulletin for model 3 at least, mine was replaced under warranty. However service never looked inside my UMC so I had no idea that when I went to go plug in, I would be stuck, unable to charge. When i most needed the trickle charge at home, I was stuck without enough miles to get to work or another charger...
So what I did was start looking through my pens for a plastic tube of the perfect diameter to slide inside the charger handle, to spring open the metal spring connector just enough to allow the plastic piece to come free
Tried Bic first, that was too small. Tried to wrap bic with electrical tape to make it larger but that didn't work great.
What worked perfect was the sharpie i'm showing with a removable butt end. Its the ultra fine felt tipped point, with the black end opposite the business end. Remove that black plastic plug.
Then you can carefully slide it inside the charger handle, its a tight fit, and no guarantee your pen is the perfect size so don't force it too much.
This tube for me was a perfect diameter to spread the metal spring connection outward, and allow the plastic piece to come free.
Hope this helps others too
It often happens with earlier build cars, and especially with rough treatment of inserting the charger handle, or torque on it sideways from being too far away from the supercharger, or tripping on a UMC wire.
Sometimes you can just rap the supercharger handle on your shoe, and the plastic piece will come out.
Here is unsung hero Brian showing off the same broken piece at the Buttonwillow supercharger, while cars were lining up during Tesla Corsa for a charge and there was one down due to this issue, He fixed it on the spot.
Sometimes your pin is already broken, but you don't realize it because its your broken piece stuck in your UMC handle, so it doesn't show itself until you go to supercharge, or someone else uses your UMC.
There is a service bulletin for model 3 at least, mine was replaced under warranty. However service never looked inside my UMC so I had no idea that when I went to go plug in, I would be stuck, unable to charge. When i most needed the trickle charge at home, I was stuck without enough miles to get to work or another charger...
So what I did was start looking through my pens for a plastic tube of the perfect diameter to slide inside the charger handle, to spring open the metal spring connector just enough to allow the plastic piece to come free
Tried Bic first, that was too small. Tried to wrap bic with electrical tape to make it larger but that didn't work great.
What worked perfect was the sharpie i'm showing with a removable butt end. Its the ultra fine felt tipped point, with the black end opposite the business end. Remove that black plastic plug.
Then you can carefully slide it inside the charger handle, its a tight fit, and no guarantee your pen is the perfect size so don't force it too much.
This tube for me was a perfect diameter to spread the metal spring connection outward, and allow the plastic piece to come free.
Hope this helps others too
