Welcome to Tesla Motors Club
Discuss Tesla's Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, Cybertruck, Roadster and More.
Register

Trading in car in 2 days…Mobile Connector won’t fully plug-in to Model 3

This site may earn commission on affiliate links.
Anyone run into this before?

Having an issue where my mobile charger won’t fully plug into my Model 3’s port. Charger only seems to go about half way in and not far enough for car to recognize it.

I’ve unplugged and re-plugged the mobile connector to its 240v outlet, and the Tesla lights on the charger itself are all green. Light on car (to left of charge port) is solid blue.

The button on the charger used to open the charge port also will not work. Pressing the button next to the car and nothing happens.

We did get significant snow the other day and thought maybe the snow bent something in either the cable/port (car was plugged in during snow storm) but everything looks straight. It also wouldn’t explain why the button to open the charge port isn’t working from the mobile connector.

I’m at 34% and am trading the car in in 2 days. I’m afraid to drive to a Supercharger and risk that not working either, leaving me with little to no battery to get home and Tesla’s Service department seems to be closed today (Sunday).

Any help or insight here would be greatly appreciated!!
 
I've not had any problems connecting to any charger with my 2018 Model 3. I would suggest the following:
  • Closely inspect the car's charge port and see if there's any difference between the two large sockets as outlined here: Charge port damage: How serious?
  • Assuming no damage, then try inserting your J1772 adapter (you do have one, yes?). If there's some internal damage to your car's charge port you may have to release the J1772 adapter using the emergency pull cord inside the trunk
  • Assuming you can plug / unplug the J1772 adapter, then you will have a secondary source of charging from local Level 2 chargers to see if the problem is with your mobile connector or the car
  • If you know somebody else with a Tesla, ask them if you can try your mobile connector with their car or try their mobile connector with your car
 
Upvote 0
Odd that your mobile cord's button isn't opening the door though.

Try and answer all of these - it'll help us all diagnose what's going on.
  • RayK's list above (as you're able)
  • Does your J1772 adapter fit in the port?
  • Is there part of a broken plastic tip perhaps stuck in/around one of the big pins of your mobile cord?
Really weird that the button doesn't open the door though. That's got some alarm bells ringing to me... 🤔 If you're able to plug it in somehow, the car ought to show more info about why the UMC is unhappy, on the car screen...
 
Upvote 0
Can you plug *anything* in? That sounds very much like a frozen latch. What year is your Model 3?

Heating the port up with a hairdryer for a while might help. You can also run the "Defrost Car" cycle for 2-3 hours (yes, that long!) and it may unfreeze it. Go into the Tesla App, then Climate -> Pull up from the bottom and choose "Defrost Car" ... let that soak for an hour, then try plugging the mobile connector in again. If no good, do it again for another hour, try again. Then maybe the 3rd hour.

The key is to get the car warmed up. Unfortunately earlier revisions of Model 3 had an issue with this ... I actually have a service appointment setup for mine to get it hopefully replaced with the new latch - it's become untenable.

Good luck -- but that very much sounds like the frozen latch issue.

As an alternative, you can pull the charging port manual release cable inside the trunk and see if that un-freezes the latch. Here's a quick video (I hate YouTube but this is a 15-second clip) on how to do so:

Best of luck!!
 
Upvote 0
Sometimes people have part of a inlet break off and stay stuck in their plug. It works fine as long as they keep using the broken plug and inlet together, but when they try the plug in a different car, the broken part gets in the way. I once couldn't plug in at a supercharger because part of someone's inlet was stuck in the plug. Was your mobile connector used in a different car? If you look in the plug you might be able to see the obstruction.
 
Upvote 0