Supercharger handle stuck

[ohmman]

I’m currently at the Truckee Supercharger with my brand new X LR+. I have my Airstream unhitched and parked in the Safeway lot. I noticed that I was only getting 60kW charge rate on my LR+ and thought I’d move it to another pedestal. When I tried to unplug, I got a white ring but couldn’t remove the handle. The pin sounded like it was retracting but it wouldn’t budge.

I used the manual release pull in the trunk but it would turn the ring red, sound like the pin was retracting, and still not release.

Tesla Roadside Assistance suggested letting the car “sleep” for an hour without unlocking it, and said it would retract fine at that point.

Sitting in this parking lot in my camper, in the way of delivery semis and listening to a few drunk men screaming at the back of the lot isn’t ideal. My kids have school in the morning.

Suggestions/thoughts?

 

[Watts_Up]

I’m currently at the Truckee Supercharger with my brand new X LR+. I have my Airstream unhitched and parked in the Safeway lot. I noticed that I was only getting 60kW charge rate on my LR+ and thought I’d move it to another pedestal. When I tried to unplug, I got a white ring but couldn’t remove the handle. The pin sounded like it was retracting but it wouldn’t budge.

I used the manual release pull in the trunk but it would turn the ring red, sound like the pin was retracting, and still not release.

Tesla Roadside Assistance suggested letting the car “sleep” for an hour without unlocking it, and said it would retract fine at that point.

Sitting in this parking lot in my camper, in the way of delivery semis and listening to a few drunk men screaming at the back of the lot isn’t ideal. My kids have school in the morning.

Suggestions/thoughts?

In this kind of emergency situation, I would disconnect the plugs under back seat to see if this release the lock?

 

[P85_DA]

@ohmman this just happened to me at San Clemente SC last week spent 30min with tech support they told me same thing use the manual release unfortunately that caused the release cord to retract in and I can no longer get ..needless to say I waited a few minutes ..I bent the SC handle down slightly and did a strong pull and the handle came out ..so far don’t notice any damage to my port ..2018 XP

 

[ohmman]

@ohmman this just happened to me at San Clemente SC last week spent 30min with tech support they told me same thing use the manual release unfortunately that caused the release cord to retract in and I can no longer get ..needless to say I waited a few minutes ..I bent the SC handle down slightly and did a strong pull and the handle came out ..so far don’t notice any damage to my port ..2018 XP

Thanks. The hour wait trick did nothing so I just twisted and banged the hell out of the handle until it came free. Fury adrenaline came in handy, as did your experience. I appreciate it.

 

[redgt]

Glad you got it resolved

Personally I have had many issues at the Safeway truckee superchargers. The speeds are constantly low and I've seen the homeless crowd block the newer ones that seem to work.

Never had an issue at brockway

 

[P85_DA]

Glad u got it worked out and congrats on the new ride ..I appreciated reading your towing stories over the years and surprised u did that with a 90...as it is I struggle with range on the P100...safe travels !

 

[wk057]

Near the beginning of the buildout of the supercharger network, Tesla was way more on top of things regarding regular maintenance.

Lately, though, I've noticed that the cables/connectors on a lot of stations being filthy and beat to hell. Crud in connectors, in the locking pin spot, etc.

Unfortunately it doesn't take much to get the pin stuck on the newer style charge ports. The mechanism just isn't super powerful. Just having the handle a millimeter or so out while trying to remove it can cause it to stick. Or if something sticky gets into the lock pin receiver, you're in for a bad day. (Encountered this recently... er.)

The older connectors (2012-2014) used a pretty powerful solenoid to retract the pin. I'd be pretty surprised if that mechanism ever got stuck, outside of a full failure of some kind. (No manual release mechanism, either. Go figure.) Was disappointed when they replaced that with a much weaker mechanism later on with the release of the self-closing charge ports.

 

[Solarman004]

Thanks. The hour wait trick did nothing so I just twisted and banged the hell out of the handle until it came free. Fury adrenaline came in handy, as did your experience. I appreciate it.

So was the problem in the Supercharger handle, or in the car receptacle?
Glad to hear you got this resolved. Good luck with the wildfire situation and I hope you and your family stay safe.

 

[ohmman]

So was the problem in the Supercharger handle, or in the car receptacle?
Glad to hear you got this resolved. Good luck with the wildfire situation and I hope you and your family stay safe.

We made it most of the way across Nevada yesterday, charging in Reno, Lovelock, Winnemucca, and Elko, and had no issues at all. Same with overnight charging with my UMC. So I feel like it was the handle on pedestal 2A in Truckee (Donner Pass).

Thanks for the well wishes. We are making the best of it. When I get a moment I’ll update my towing thread, but the Raven is outperforming my expectations (under 550Wh/mi at 55mph on flat roads).

I should finally have a few minutes tomorrow as we take a break from long travel days.