Missing Charging Port Part?

[Mrbrock]

I can’t tell if I am missing a pin or just a cover to a pin but it seems to be charging fine. Is this something I should have fixed ASAP? Also noticed my charge door is running paint off the fender…

 

[Rocky_H]

It's just a little plastic cap piece, and it's not too important, except the ends are a little bit angled to kind of "guide" the plug holes onto those pins. On the Tesla parts lists, they are called "deadfronts", I believe. So no, it's not urgent, and Tesla techs can fix those in a few minutes. And if it has broken off from there in your charging port, it's likely lodged in a charging handle somewhere, so look into your charging cable at home to see if you need to get it out.

 

[Mrbrock]

It is not in any of the 3 I use regularly but maybe I should check my J1772 adapter.

If it was lodged somewhere would it prevent someone from using that particular handle?

 

[Rocky_H]

It is not in any of the 3 I use regularly but maybe I should check my J1772 adapter.

If it was lodged somewhere would it prevent someone from using that particular handle?

Yes it would. I've had that happen to me at a Supercharger in Indiana. That little piece had gotten broken off of someone else's car and stuck in the handle, but then my car still has those pieces in my charge port. So with the plastic both on my port, and in the handle, they hit each other, and you can't plug in far enough to get it to latch. So I moved to another stall.

 

[MP3Mike]

There is a TSB for this issue: https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2019/MC-10153431-9999.pdf

On certain Model 3 vehicles, the charge port power terminals have insulator pins that might become dislodged from the terminals, causing the charge handle to not fully connect to the vehicle and therefore preventing the High Voltage (HV) battery from charging.

But it seems like your Model 3 is newer and shouldn't be impacted by that bulletin.