Model 3 won’t charge - broken port

[Vines]

Found the perfect tool, lol Ultra fine point Sharpie pen, the felt tipped one.

 

[KenC]

My Tesla Model 3 is 11 months old and I haven’t had many problems until today. I tried to charge at a supercharger and I couldn’t get the charging cable to latch properly. I inserted the charger into the port, heard lots of clicking noises and then the charge light went from blue to yellow and charging stopped. I thought it was the charger and so moved to another charger. Same problem. Drove to a different supercharging location. Same problem. Plugged in at home. Same problem. It was a Friday night after 6pm and so I called roadside assistance. They suggested I drive it to a Tesla service center and leave it there until Monday morning and then someone “might” be able to help me. I called and a representative told me I could get a service appointment in 12 days! Why no service for critical maintenance on weekends? Meanwhile I was without a working car. The car had just 22 miles of charge left and I had 100 miles of driving to do over the weekend. The roadside assistance representative had suggested over chat that I see if something was lodged in the charge port. Sure enough, I found this...

View attachment 465132

It looks like a plastic piece of the left charging pin broke and got wedged into the charge port, which blocked the charger from being fully inserted. After reviewing some posts on this site, and desperate to be able to drive over the weekend, I got a small screwdriver and dislodged the plastic from the charge port, without being electrocuted. After that, I was able to plug in and charge. I will definitely be taking the car in for service on Monday morning. It seems crazy to me that Tesla doesn’t have service over the weekend, especially for critical/safety issues like this. Anyone else been stuck over the weekend with a disabled Tesla? What did you do? Rent a car? I didn’t think I needed a second “back-up” car, until today.

My first inclination would be to use something non-metal, like wood or plastic chopsticks.

 

[apearson]

Found the perfect tool, lol Ultra fine point Sharpie pen, the felt tipped one.
View attachment 468234

@Vines This worked for me! Thank you!

 

[Vines]

So glad to hear!

 

[adayley]

I had the problem of the guide tip wedged in my port. I discovered it when attempting to charge at home, last Friday, the 18th.

Broken guide tip jammed in charge port

• adayley
• Dec 22, 2020

The plastic tip of the charge port pin had broken off. It was jammed in the bottom of the port.

• I immediately requested service in the app
• The app schedule an appointment for the 28th
• 10 days without charging a low battery was not a good plan
• I used the message feature in the service appointment in the app to describe the charging issue further
• An automated reply came back
• I replied again, asking for “a human to read my previous message”
• With in 30 minutes I got a reply and the appointment was set for the morning of next day, Saturday the 19th
• The mobile technician arrived a bit after 9:00 AM and replaced the charge port pin within 20 minutes

 

[rrolsbe]

Thanks all. Just a follow-up. I took my car into Tesla service on Monday (without an appointment) and they replaced the plastic tips of both pins in the charge port. It took about 20 minutes and there is no charge. I was told there is a Service Bulletin (as others on this thread reported) for this problem, meaning it’s a known issue and will be fixed for free. I would recommend that anyone with a November 2018 vintage Model 3 or thereabouts take their car in proactively for this fix, so you aren’t stranded, like I was. I was also told by the service techs that it was a BAD idea to try to dislodge the plastic piece from the charge port myself. BTW, a Tesla Roadside service rep was the one who recommended that I try this via text, so beware what they recommend!! The service tech at the dealership said that if another part of my hand had touched the other pin, while I had a screwdriver in the port retrieving the broken part, I could have been seriously injured, if not worse. That’s different from things I read on this forum, so just sharing what he told me.

I could be wrong but until the wand is plugged in, lock pin in place and negotiation is complete there should be no voltage on the two large charge pins in question. There is a set of contactors, located in the penthouse, that must close to allow DC fast charging charging. Level 1/2 AC charging would not use the two large pins ie.. no voltage due to DC contactors NOT closed. If there were some malformation, anything could be possible. Maybe someone with the proper meter, designed to safely measures voltages over 400VDC and with the proper training, could verify this?