I have heard about this issue a little bit, but tonight I saw it first hand.
First off, this is NOT my Model 3. This is my boss's Model 3, who I helped convince was a good idea to buy.
Anyway, what happened tonight is at the end of the day Steve (my boss) was leaving work but was seemingly unable to get his car unplugged. Temperatures were about 20 degrees F. Cold but was otherwise dry, no rain or snow recently. He parks his car in a garage at home during the night. He asked for help getting his car unplugged and I took a look myself but I couldn't get it to unlock either. I showed him how to reboot the computer screen, no effect. Unplugging and re-plugging in the UMC did not help. The car would not unplug and he was stranded. By this time the charge port light was stuck on red, and there were error messages on the screen about unplugging and re-plugging in the car to get it to charge. We just wanted to get it to unplug. We called Tesla roadside service but was put on hold due to high call volume. While he was on hold, I researched the issue. I found a youtube video describing the manual charge port release. So we took a look. I tried to do it, but it still wouldn't unlock. It felt like the cable was resisting any movement when trying to manually release it. So, I told him I didn't want to break it by pulling the release too hard, so he took a go at it. Yep, snap. Broken. The manual release cable is now pulled out and sitting there limp. Will no longer retract. The charge port is still stuck. So we give up and another co-worker who lives near him gives him a ride home.
Starting this thread because I see related threads about cold weather problems, but not specifically about this issue. Mods, merge this thread if there already is a thread on this.
I would like to understand what the root cause of this problem is. My fiancee currently drives our Model 3. I don't want her to get stranded like this. What is Tesla doing about this? Are they going to revise the charge port design?
I have 136K miles on my old 2013 Model S and have never seen an issue like this. Weird.
First off, this is NOT my Model 3. This is my boss's Model 3, who I helped convince was a good idea to buy.
Anyway, what happened tonight is at the end of the day Steve (my boss) was leaving work but was seemingly unable to get his car unplugged. Temperatures were about 20 degrees F. Cold but was otherwise dry, no rain or snow recently. He parks his car in a garage at home during the night. He asked for help getting his car unplugged and I took a look myself but I couldn't get it to unlock either. I showed him how to reboot the computer screen, no effect. Unplugging and re-plugging in the UMC did not help. The car would not unplug and he was stranded. By this time the charge port light was stuck on red, and there were error messages on the screen about unplugging and re-plugging in the car to get it to charge. We just wanted to get it to unplug. We called Tesla roadside service but was put on hold due to high call volume. While he was on hold, I researched the issue. I found a youtube video describing the manual charge port release. So we took a look. I tried to do it, but it still wouldn't unlock. It felt like the cable was resisting any movement when trying to manually release it. So, I told him I didn't want to break it by pulling the release too hard, so he took a go at it. Yep, snap. Broken. The manual release cable is now pulled out and sitting there limp. Will no longer retract. The charge port is still stuck. So we give up and another co-worker who lives near him gives him a ride home.
Starting this thread because I see related threads about cold weather problems, but not specifically about this issue. Mods, merge this thread if there already is a thread on this.
I would like to understand what the root cause of this problem is. My fiancee currently drives our Model 3. I don't want her to get stranded like this. What is Tesla doing about this? Are they going to revise the charge port design?
I have 136K miles on my old 2013 Model S and have never seen an issue like this. Weird.