Hello good afternoon! I’m in Kansas with weather being below 30 degrees F throughout the month of January. I have been trying to super charge but I keep on getting messages that the port latch is frozen so it won’t connect. I tried the hand warmer method then I tried it again and it didn’t work. Right now I am charging with level 2 charger and even then I am getting barley 3w while getting this message “Charge rate reduced - Charge port may be frozen” . Any tips I can do to fix this? I would say that the latch is probably broken or frozen because I don’t hear it latch to anything. Thank you!
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Frozen charge port, how to fix?
- Thread starter mtzks42
- Start date
I have not only because I have 5% right now and I’m trying to get the charge up a bit more. I tried putting a hand warmer in the port which seems to work for other people but didn’t for me.
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zoomer0056
Active Member
That sounds problematic. Water and high voltage ... dangerous. Water could freeze.
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Below 30 degrees, meaning the highest temperature will be 30 degrees Fahrenheit
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"Below 30 degrees", not "30 degrees below".
I would not hesitate to pour hot water on the charge port. In fact, I park mine outside and have had to use hot water myself a few times during winter.
The charge port isn't even sealed... it's not waterproof. And it doesn't need to be, because everything inside is designed to handle exposure to water.
I would not hesitate to pour hot water on the charge port. In fact, I park mine outside and have had to use hot water myself a few times during winter.
The charge port isn't even sealed... it's not waterproof. And it doesn't need to be, because everything inside is designed to handle exposure to water.
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This is pretty weird.
We get regular temps below freezing in NE, and I've never seen this message. If your car is under warranty, consider taking it to a SC.
Otherwise, your battery is cold, as witnessed by the blue snow-flake symbol next to 3% SOC icon. That, by itself, will restrict the charge rate.
Since that car is charging, just slowly, I would not worry about low SOC, and turn-on the Defrost most, as recommended!
I am not sure how much of your problem has to do with "cold" charge port vs. stone cold battery.
For the latter, the only remedy is to run the heater and warm-up the battery via the "defrost" mode.
If the cable is held in place firmly during charging (you can't pull it out without depressing the lever), then it's working properly.
I absolutely would NOT recommend pouring water into the charging port. That's lunacy.
You could pour hot water onto the surface of the car to remove ice from doors or charging port circumference, but pouring water into the electric terminals would be extremely ill-advised.
HTH,
a
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My warranty has expired already I have a 2019 base model 3. last winter I had troubles with my home charger being stuck and frozen so I had to do the manual release. Now I think the latch is frozen and doesn’t fully latch onto the supercharger or regular ev. I will be going to a friends shop to thaw it in better conditions and hopefully it is just frozen!
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OK, same here.
I do manual release about 10% of the time I need to unplug the charger.
That's just standard Tesla unreliable software behavior stuff. Unfortunately, we all just have to get used to living with poorly debugged Tesla software, on everything: charging doors, charging port locks, wipers, AP, etc, etc.
I still don't fully understand your failure scenario.
What exactly do you mean by "doesn't fully latch onto the supercharger or regular ev"?
If the car is charging, the connector HAS latched. There is no such thing as "partial" latch.
It may be charging slowly, because the battery is stone cold. And you know how to fix that.
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That's incorrect. The car will still charge even if it fails to latch, albeit at a slower rate. See below.
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This and check that you still have both of your dead fronts (the plastic tips on the two pins in your port). If one is missing (or stuck in your charging wand), it could result in that same message and reduced rate.
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The dead fronts do nothing. I’ve been missing one for almost 100,000 miles.
The problem is with the latch in the bottom of the charge port. It’s either frozen or bound up dirt or something.
If it’s frozen, try thawing it with a hair dryer. If it’s dirty, try cleaning the charge port. Apply a small amount of dry lubricant on the latch pin and exercise it a couple of times by cycling it. If that doesn’t work, make a service appointment and get it replaced.
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Perhaps it's a difference between our build dates/model versions because one of mine got pulled off by a supercharger and, every stop after that (regardless of temperature) resulted in the message in question. After I paid for replacement dead fronts, it worked fine until one of them got stuck in my mobile connector due to the fact that Tesla installed the wrong size dead fronts. After that, my home charging was cut in half but, as you say, I could AC charge elsewhere without the dead front but supercharging popped up the message.
As for the latch, I don't get the protocols they use for that. A few years ago, they made it so the latch wouldn't even engage under a certain ambient temperature threshold yet charging works just fine (except for the fact that strangers could just yank it out). But, then, under other circumstances, the frozen charge port message comes up. Maybe, rather than heating up the charge port, it would be better to put some dry ice near the ambient temperature sensor to disable the latch.
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Below 41F the charge port won't latch as a software change a while back to prevent frozen plugs. It still charges and defrosting car warms the port slowly as well. See winter operations in the manual.
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Additionally the windows drop about 1/4 inch to prevent freezing in place. You hear it when exiting the vehicle.
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