J1772 Adapter stuck, car won't charge

[thelastdeadmouse]

I charge at home with a J1772 EVSE with the Tesla adapter, and park outside, no garage. For the second time in two weeks I had to drive to work this morning with my adapter still in the charge port because the lock would not release. Last week it was warm enough that with intentionally parking so that the charge port faced the sun, it thawed out and I was able to remove it, but no such luck today.

To make matters worse now the car won't charge. When I plugged in after work it just gave me a red charge indicator, attempting to start charging from the app or screen does nothing, nor does unplugging and plugging in the J1772. Tesla support suggested running the heat on high for an hour, I already tried once eating up a lot of battery with no result. Trying it some more but I'm worried that if it doesn't work I won't be able to get to work and back tomorrow because I've been using up what I have left on heating.

Before I'm chastised for doing things wrong, I increase the charge limit and preheat the car every morning a half hour before leaving and this still happens. I've tried the emergency release in the trunk, and pulled the rubber tab right off the cable in the process. Now I get to carry needle nose pliers in the car.

Anyone have any advice on how to either get my car to charge again or release the adapter?

 

[duanra]

I am going to sound silly but have you tried to blow some heat with an hair dryer ?

 

[thelastdeadmouse]

I am going to sound silly but have you tried to blow some heat with an hair dryer ?

Just came inside from 20 minutes of blowing the wife's hair dryer on the adapter and it finally came out. Sure it worked, but this is not an acceptable solution. Am I expected to carry a hair drier, 110v inverter and a fully charged car battery around with me if this happens anywhere other than my own home? Its also 1 degree F here, -16 with wind chill, standing outside for 20 minutes huddled over the charge port hoping it'll release is not acceptable.

 

[ranss12]

So this exact same thing (except in my case it was unrelated to weather) happened to me here in Tucson this past weekend. I was trying to charge at a Blink station, didn't know what I was doing, pulled the J-1772 plug out of the adaptor that was still in the car. The blue T turned red and nothing I did would allow the car to release the adaptor. After doing a web search, I found the mechanical pull tab release (with a black triangular rubber finger grip) and after pulling it I was able to remove my adaptor. If you look in the trunk in the area where the charge port is located, you'll find a perforated section of the covering. There is one opening in this perforated section that is significantly larger that the rest of the perforations - the pull tab is located there. You will need a flashlight to find it. I later figured out how to use the Blink chargers in coordination with the Blink App. Most of the public level 2 chargers here are Blink and I decided I needed to know how to use them.

 

[thelastdeadmouse]

So this exact same thing (except in my case it was unrelated to weather) happened to me here in Tucson this past weekend. I was trying to charge at a Blink station, didn't know what I was doing, pulled the J-1772 plug out of the adaptor that was still in the car. The blue T turned red and nothing I did would allow the car to release the adaptor. After doing a web search, I found the mechanical pull tab release (with a black triangular rubber finger grip) and after pulling it I was able to remove my adaptor. If you look in the trunk in the area where the charge port is located, you'll find a perforated section of the covering. There is one opening in this perforated section that is significantly larger that the rest of the perforations - the pull tab is located there. You will need a flashlight to find it. I later figured out how to use the Blink chargers in coordination with the Blink App. Most of the public level 2 chargers here are Blink and I decided I needed to know how to use them.

Not only did I attempt to pull the tab to release the adapter, I pulled the tab right off the cable. I have to keep a pair of needle nose pliers in the trunk now.

 

[eprosenx]

I think Tesla has (or is coming up with) a replacement charging port to deal with some of these issues.

What a pain!

Lame as it is, I wonder if a temporary solution might be to put a heater inside the trunk overnight (or even an incandescent 100w lightbulb)? I guess you would have to leave a door or the trunk open though to do this.

 

[miimura]

I think the OP has a temperature problem with the charge port lock. In normal weather, pull the adapter out simultaneously with the J1772 handle so the port doesn't re-lock the adapter into the port. If that happens, you can clear the Red T by plugging the J1772 handle back in, letting it start charging again, then push the J1772 button to stop the charging and unlock the port. Then use both hands to pull the adapter out still attached to the J1772 handle.

 

[thelastdeadmouse]

Update: After I freed the adapter with the hair dryer last night I make sure the plug and socket were both as dry as I could get them before plugging back in, I plugged it in and it began charging.

This morning I wake up an hour before I need to leave, start the heat and up the charge limit to get it to charge again. The app just says "Charging stopped", nothing I can do from the app can get it to start charging again. Excited to see what happens when I try to pull the plug out today. There was no rain or snow of any kind overnight. Its currently -1 here, a very typical overnight low where I live (north of the Adirondacks, 14 days with lows below 0 this month).

 

[webdbbt]

It does sound like the OP has a temperature-related problem. But I charge with a J1772 in my garage and often have a similar problem where the car won't release the adapter. I figured out that if I stop charging using the charger's touchscreen the adapter will unlock. If the car is not already charging I turn on pre-heating, this restarts the charger, then I can release the adapter.

But it is definitely an annoyance.

 

[thelastdeadmouse]

As I expected, the adapter was stuck again this morning, and again I drove to work with it stuck in my charge port. When this happens the car won't charge until you close and reopen the charge door, and the charge door can't close because the adapter is stuck in the port, and you can't warm up the port without charging the car.

 

[Sophias_dad]

I'd just let the Tesla folks deal with it, but if they don't....


Keep heating the charge port until its truly dry. This step might take a while...

Spray a tiny bit of silicone (use a red tube!) on the moving parts of the latch. Might want to stuff the high voltage connections with paper towels or otherwise keep them from getting silicone'd. Once you are done, re-clean the ports, maybe with q-tips...

The silicone will keep water from getting into the mechanism, and you should have better luck.

I also have some spray Sailkote that I'd consider using. It applies and dries instantly to a super-fine powder that is said to be hydrophobic and won't attract dust and dirt like silicone....

MCLUBE SailKote High-Performance Dry Lubricant, 8 oz. | West Marine
https://smile.amazon.com/Mc-Lube-SA...=UTF8&qid=1548975999&sr=8-1&keywords=sailkote

 

[Impactwrench]

Coat the male and female with a silicone grease found commonly at your local swimming pool suplier and problem will be gone

 

[SMAlset]

Any chance one of those readi-heat packets for handwarming, back aches, etc might help out in the meantime to heat the area? If so something you could even keep stored in the car if away from home. Not ideal and hopefully fixed for cold weather areas and hopefully this polar vortex will be gone real soon.

 

[ord3r]

I had the same issue, but in sunny California.

Turns out, my charge port emergency release was defective, the cable wasn’t attached to anything on the other end!

Service center fixed the cable/charge port, and it is all good now. The cable feels way different now, you can feel it pull and release the lock.

 

[HyperionMark]

I'm having a similar experience where the adapter won't release from the car. Is there a specific sequence I need to be doing or do I just need to talk to service?

 

[johnnydee]

Looks like this is becoming a common problem as I too am having issues getting the lock to release.
Even the app is grayed out and not allowing it to unlock.

 

[AlanSubie4Life]

In general, for J-1772 charging, I recommend pressing down on the release button on the J-1772 firmly for a second or two before removing it. This adds a ~330 ohm resistor to ground per the J-1772 standard, and thus signals the car to stop the charge. When you hear the car release the lock and change the port T-logo color, that means it has stopped the charge, and THEN you can pull out the J-1772 (you may want to hang on to the adapter too so it doesn't fall on the ground inadvertently).

Otherwise, if you are fast, it is possible to pull the J-1772 while current is still flowing, and the car does NOT like that (it results in a red charge port light indicator and an adapter that is not released). It can also result in some interesting arcing behavior which is probably best to avoid.

This may not solve all the specific problems mentioned here (related to frozen adapters, at least partially), but it may solve some of them.

 

[GeorgeA]

Does Tesla still offer a cold weather package that includes something that will help? Go to the service center to see what tricks they have for cold weather charging and stuck J-1772 adapter.

Previous comment from AlanSubie4Life has spot on advice>. ...."pressing down on the release button on the J-1772 firmly for a second or two before removing it. When you hear the car release the lock and change the port T-logo color, that means it has stopped the charge, and THEN you can pull out the J-1772"...

The J-1772 adapter can even get stuck in warm FL if you don't unlock and then remove cable and adapter correctly. Worse case use inside trunk charger adapter release cable - it works. You might try to find a garage to charge at that will help guard against the really cold temps instead of being exposed outside freezing or icing making it difficult for you to connect/disconnect J-1772 at times. Some of the heating ideas mentioned may help meanwhile. I would also make an effort to use the stock NEMA 14-50 adapters (get a 40 or 50 amp circuit installed) instead of the J-1772 that may help.

 

[StellarRat]

There is a manual charge port release inside the trunk on the same side as the charge port. See instructions in other posts. I'm sure Tesla is working to eliminate this unexpected problem.

 

[HyperionMark]

I got an email from support saying the latest update I got should help alleviate this issue. Haven't had the chance to try it out yet.