Seen plenty of posts on getting the plastic ring (eye/teat) of the M3 charging port replaced, but what are your suggestions and hacks for getting that lodged piece out of the head of the charging port without damaging the contacts (sorry I don’t have a picture of this end, but the black plastic ring is stuck pressed into the charging head)
Plastic eye from charging port stuck in charger
- Thread starter awat
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AlanSubie4Life
Efficiency Obsessed Member
There's a thread around here where someone was able to use a Ultra-fine tip Sharpie pen, as I recall, to remove the broken charge port deadfront.
Also, Mobile Service will be able to come out and fix this for you on the car side. It's a recall item and it takes about 10-15 minutes. They may fix (remove the piece) from your charge handle too, who knows.
EDIT:
Fix for plastic charge pin insulator stuck in charger handle
Procedure is to take an Ultra Fine Point Sharpie and remove the end plug. Then use that. You are using it to press apart (gently) the metal finger contacts and allow room for the broken deadfront to drop past those. So the Sharpie doesn't have to be inserted too far - just enough to allow that to happen.
I guess carrying around one of these pens is probably a good idea for road trips so you can fix the plugged up Superchargers if you find any (though it's pretty rare - the Supercharger maintenance guys are frequently removing these things).
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I've seen about four methods of getting that out from other threads on this:
1. Sometimes you can tap the plug head face down on a solid floor, and it may be loose enough to drop out.
2. The Sharpie method mentioned above to make it loose enough to fall out
3. Someone mentioned holding a needle with a pair of pliers and heating it up with a lighter flame, and then sticking that into the little ring of plastic so the plastic melts around it, and the needle sticks in there. Then you may be able to pull it out.
4. Similar--drill a small hole in it. Then get a toothpick and put a dab of superglue on the tip and stick that in the hole and let it dry. And then try to pull it out with that.
1. Sometimes you can tap the plug head face down on a solid floor, and it may be loose enough to drop out.
2. The Sharpie method mentioned above to make it loose enough to fall out
3. Someone mentioned holding a needle with a pair of pliers and heating it up with a lighter flame, and then sticking that into the little ring of plastic so the plastic melts around it, and the needle sticks in there. Then you may be able to pull it out.
4. Similar--drill a small hole in it. Then get a toothpick and put a dab of superglue on the tip and stick that in the hole and let it dry. And then try to pull it out with that.
Turn of the circuit breaker, of course.
I didn't have a problem getting my X's plastic charge pin tip out of the connector handle. I think a small screw driver was enough to coax it out. The Sharpie sounds like a good idea if it is really wedged in there.
I didn't have a problem getting my X's plastic charge pin tip out of the connector handle. I think a small screw driver was enough to coax it out. The Sharpie sounds like a good idea if it is really wedged in there.
swaltner
Active Member
There's a service bulletin out from Tesla to proactively "Replace Charge Port Pin Deadfronts". If your vehicle has had a service appointment within the last year, this should have been addressed. Mine were replaced in July 2019 while it was in the shop for an unrelated issue. I know of 2 local owners that had the same work performed by a Mobile Service technician, also on an unrelated service call.
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