As many are aware, the East coast experienced a significant snow event in the past 48 hours. Last night was no exception in Rhode Island. At 5:30AM I was awakened to the sound of a snow blower starting up. I was not expecting them so early and I had an immediate mental flash of the blower hitting my charge cable. I dashed out of bed, into some clothes and ran down the stairs to intercept it. I unfortunately missed the last step and ended up on the floor on my back....
In spite of my age, I got to my feet in record time and ran to the back door to warn the snow blower off. Too late!...Damage done. Stupid me for not anticipating this earlier.
Result: Yellow warning light when cable plugged into vehicle. The GFI breakers had NOT popped however. My quick look on the TM website confirmed the $650 replacement cost which considerably dampened my spirits on a day when our N.E. Patriots are playing in Denver for the AFC championship.
Since the cable wasn't working anyway, I decided that I might as well open it up to see what was going on. Using an Xacto knife I removed the outer cover in the 4 areas that appeared to have damage. No broken wires except for a small amount of the twisted braid shield wires. I did notice two wires in different places that had very small nicks that showed conductor that might have been exposed to the braid. I insulated these two areas and did a careful inspection of all of the remaining wires.
Wrapped up the four opened areas with duct tape for a temporary bandage....went outside, connected everything up and voila!, car started charging normally....whew!...Now just have to come up with a better bandage given the weather in these parts.
Won't make this mistake again!
In spite of my age, I got to my feet in record time and ran to the back door to warn the snow blower off. Too late!...Damage done. Stupid me for not anticipating this earlier.
Result: Yellow warning light when cable plugged into vehicle. The GFI breakers had NOT popped however. My quick look on the TM website confirmed the $650 replacement cost which considerably dampened my spirits on a day when our N.E. Patriots are playing in Denver for the AFC championship.
Since the cable wasn't working anyway, I decided that I might as well open it up to see what was going on. Using an Xacto knife I removed the outer cover in the 4 areas that appeared to have damage. No broken wires except for a small amount of the twisted braid shield wires. I did notice two wires in different places that had very small nicks that showed conductor that might have been exposed to the braid. I insulated these two areas and did a careful inspection of all of the remaining wires.
Wrapped up the four opened areas with duct tape for a temporary bandage....went outside, connected everything up and voila!, car started charging normally....whew!...Now just have to come up with a better bandage given the weather in these parts.
Won't make this mistake again!
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