2015 egolf chargeport collapsed/pushed-in, EVSU can't charge

[fullmetaladdict]

So, tonight, the charging port on my 2015 e-golf finally broke. I've been expecting this to happen for months, tried to explain the issue to the local dealership, but none of the staff understands what I'm trying to say.

Since I drove this car off the lot, the charge port has been very tight, requiring significant effort to push the plug in far enough to get the 'click' sound that locks the plug into the vehicle. It is also very hard to get the plug out once you push it far enough in. I don't have super human strength, but none of my family/friends have ever plugged/unplugged the car on their first try.

A few months ago I heard a 'crunch' sound, like something that supports the plug port broke, or collapsed in. I brought it to the dealership, they said it was fine, I said I'll be back when it gets worse.

A couple days ago I heard another 'crunch', and this time the left side of the port definitely lost some push-back. Now that the port was weak enough I could use my finger to prove to the dealership that something is wrong, I made an appointment.

Well tonight the whole plug port collapsed into the car. I'll try to take a picture in the daylight tomorrow.

I have about ~9000 miles on this e-golf on a 10k a year lease (lease stared in May 2015).

In case there is any confusion, this is the part of the car I'm talking about:
http://the-gadgeteer.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/vw07.jpg

If anyone has any advice for dealing with the dealership, I'd appreciate it. It will be interesting to see how long it takes to resolve this problem. After I go to work tomorrow, the only place this e-golf is going is to the repair shop until they fix the plug.

 

[JoulesThief]

Just take it in to a good , high volume e-Golf dealership in a larger city, and tell the service writer your car will not recharge due to the charge port being broken and unsupported around where it mounts. Visually and actually demonstrate it for him at the charger station at the dealership.

A picture or a video of it failing on your smart phone is worth 10,000 words. Make a video real quick of it failing, from your smart phone. Play it back for the service advisor.


I'd take your car in in the morning, or on your lunch break, and make other transportation arrangements. They should issue you a loaner in the interim. Ask for one.

 

[fullmetaladdict]

I'm in Los Angeles. I'm sure they'll do something about it this time since it is seriously broken now. Hopefully there is no internal damage, and it is simply the plastic mount. I'm not sure how they can make the plug hole less tight.

See: http://imgur.com/0ApHpfz

If they offer a loner I'll consider it, but the e-golf isn't my only vehicle.

 

[miimura]

Wow. That's crazy. What model charging station do you use? The charging handle on my Jesla (with Dostar J1772 handle) has quite a bit of friction going in and out, but it doesn't require a lot of force. The Leviton handle on my other station goes in smoothly.

 

[f1geek]

In recounting your story, you said "the plug" was very hard to push onto the vehicle inlet. Do you mean the J1772 plug on your home charging station or any J1772 or CCS plug you have tried to use?

I have experienced this myself a few time but only at public charging stations with a J1772 plug. I believe both times it was at a Chargepoint Level 2 station that used a Yazaki J1772 plug.

Here is a link to a picture of the plug: http://charge.yazaki-group.com/english/product/normal_outlet.html

I looked inside the connector portion of the Chargepoint public plugs and saw that the green (or orange) colored gasket (I think it's referred to as "lip packing" in the manual) was deformed or out of place. See page 9 of the manual for instructions to insert the plug "straightly" (gotta love the translation!) into the vehicle inlet. I must say I like the term "lip packing".

Here is a link to the manual:

http://charge.yazaki-group.com/english/pdf/YPES-15-1198.pdf

I found that when I took a pen and pushed the lip packing back into place, I was able to much more easily insert the public plug in my e-Golf.

I also called Chargepoint about this problem after done with charging and they indicated it was caused by certain cars not "exactly" following the J1772 vehicle inlet design (they didn't say which cars) and/or people pushing too hard to get the plug onto the car.


You might want to take a look at your home station plug and verify the condition of the lip packing.

I have examined the lip packing at my home Clipper Creek station (has a Delphi J1172 plug) and it looks fine. I have no trouble with plug insertion at home.

Good luck!

 

[forbin404]

In recounting your story, you said "the plug" was very hard to push onto the vehicle inlet. Do you mean the J1772 plug on your home charging station or any J1772 or CCS plug you have tried to use?

I have experienced this myself a few time but only at public charging stations with a J1772 plug. I believe both times it was at a Chargepoint Level 2 station that used a Yazaki J1772 plug.

Here is a link to a picture of the plug: http://charge.yazaki-group.com/english/product/normal_outlet.html

I looked inside the connector portion of the Chargepoint public plugs and saw that the green (or orange) colored gasket (I think it's referred to as "lip packing" in the manual) was deformed or out of place. See page 9 of the manual for instructions to insert the plug "straightly" (gotta love the translation!) into the vehicle inlet. I must say I like the term "lip packing".

Here is a link to the manual:

http://charge.yazaki-group.com/english/pdf/YPES-15-1198.pdf

I found that when I took a pen and pushed the lip packing back into place, I was able to much more easily insert the public plug in my e-Golf.

I also called Chargepoint about this problem after done with charging and they indicated it was caused by certain cars not "exactly" following the J1772 vehicle inlet design (they didn't say which cars) and/or people pushing too hard to get the plug onto the car.


You might want to take a look at your home station plug and verify the condition of the lip packing.

I have examined the lip packing at my home Clipper Creek station (has a Delphi J1172 plug) and it looks fine. I have no trouble with plug insertion at home.

Good luck!

You put a pen into a 240V outlet? Wow you are brave.

 

[fullmetaladdict]

Basically every plug I've ever connected to this e-golf has been tight. If no one else has experienced that, then maybe this car is simply at one of the ends of the manufacturing specification tolerances

My home EVSU is a "Bosch EL-51254 Power Max 30 Amp" which uses a standard J1772 connector.

A parts diagram of everything under an e-golf "gas cover" would sure make it easier to describe all the stuff in there.

 

[fullmetaladdict]

*UPDATE* turns out the dealership photographed my car and is in the process of submitting some kind of claim to VW of America for review, which is probably not a good sign. Looks like they don't want to just fix it under warranty/'normal use'.

They're making me feel like they think I'm some kind of idiot who sabotaged his car.. what do they think I've been doing. I plug the car in to charge it. The plug is tight. I push the plug in far enough to make a connection and charge the battery. It eventually broke. It is like they want me to blame me for actually using and driving the car I'm paying them for..

~9000 miles, ~11 months, 5 charges a week on average, we're looking at ~240 'hard plug-ins'. How is this a surprise?

...

Side story from the mechanic that drove me home. His one e-golf story was about how he and another guy were fighting over how to unplug an e-golf in the shop. Eventually the other guy just pulled 'really hard' to get it out. The guy telling the story has shoulder problems. Brute force shouldn't be the answer, but in this case, it is.

 

[miimura]

Typical stealership behavior.... and the National Automobile Dealer's Association has the nerve to say that the dealerships protect us from the big bad automakers. Sheesh.

 

[user 795]

Typical stealership behavior.... and the National Automobile Dealer's Association has the nerve to say that the dealerships protect us from the big bad automakers. Sheesh.

I'm not sure I understand what you are referring to as "Typical stealership behavior".

As I cannot speak for all dealers practices, I can speak on procedures for repairs that VW requires. VW requires the techs to call them for any high voltage repair (at the time of this posting). Partly for approval, partly to document what is going on in the field.

Sending pictures to VW its a VERY common practice for a damaged part, and unless there is blatant outside influence they will repair the car.

 

[miimura]

Typical stealership behavior.... and the National Automobile Dealer's Association has the nerve to say that the dealerships protect us from the big bad automakers. Sheesh.

I'm not sure I understand what you are referring to as "Typical stealership behavior".

As I cannot speak for all dealers practices, I can speak on procedures for repairs that VW requires. VW requires the techs to call them for any high voltage repair (at the time of this posting). Partly for approval, partly to document what is going on in the field.

Sending pictures to VW its a VERY common practice for a damaged part, and unless there is blatant outside influence they will repair the car.

The fact that they are documenting the repair and getting the authorization is not the problem. This is the problem:

They're making me feel like they think I'm some kind of idiot who sabotaged his car.. what do they think I've been doing?

If they need to keep the car and get approval for the repair, they don't have to make the owner feel bad about it. All they have to say is that it is not a routine repair and it will take time to get approval and get the parts. This owner had taken the car in before and the service department did not address his issue. He had no alternative but to keep using the car until it broke and the problem was so blatantly obvious that they could no longer dismiss it.

Clearly there are good people that work at dealerships and have good customer service skills, but there are certainly a lot that are not and don't.

 

[user 795]

If they need to keep the car and get approval for the repair, they don't have to make the owner feel bad about it. All they have to say is that it is not a routine repair and it will take time to get approval and get the parts. This owner had taken the car in before and the service department did not address his issue. He had no alternative but to keep using the car until it broke and the problem was so blatantly obvious that they could no longer dismiss it.

Clearly there are good people that work at dealerships and have good customer service skills, but there are certainly a lot that are not and don't.

I missed that part in the original posts. It is unfortunate when the customer is made to feel bad.. I would hope that no service writer would do that on purpose.

 

[fullmetaladdict]

*LATEST UPDATE* So I dropped off the car last Tuesday. Late that Thursday I got a call from the service tech that the dealership would fix everything under the warranty, but they had to special order some kind of part-cover outside their normal parts delivery process. Maybe it would be fixed and ready by Saturday.

Friday I get a call that the part didn't make it in time, maybe they'll finish by Monday.

Today I got a call that they can't figure out how to charge the car even after 'resetting the charger settings' and they need to wait for some kind of shop foreman (probably a guy who knows what he is doing) to come review & charge up the car. I have a feeling the guys working on this car don't know what the buttons next to the charge port do...

I'm curious what kind of settings they think they need to reset. They are probably undoing everything I did with the VW car.net app.

Side note about the e-golf: when I agreed to pay for the car, I was told it included three years of the car.net app software to remotely manage the battery. Turns out that ended after 6 months because car.net and the battery management features are separate. I have to keep paying for all the other car.net features to keep using car.net to manage the e-golf battery.

So, since the car.net app turned off, I can't change the battery management location/time charger settings anymore. That means if they actually 'reset the charger settings', they're probably undoing the work I did to teach the car when and where to charge (off-peak hours at home, etc.) and I won't be able to set it all up again.

It will also be interesting to see how the dealership reacts when I explain that it has taken them so long to fix the car, I can't actually pick it up 'til next Monday because I'm going on vacation... now

 

[miimura]

Side note about the e-golf: when I agreed to pay for the car, I was told it included three years of the car.net app software to remotely manage the battery. Turns out that ended after 6 months because car.net and the battery management features are separate. I have to keep paying for all the other car.net features to keep using car.net to manage the e-golf battery.

So, since the car.net app turned off, I can't change the battery management location/time charger settings anymore. That means if they actually 'reset the charger settings', they're probably undoing the work I did to teach the car when and where to charge (off-peak hours at home, etc.) and I won't be able to set it all up again.

We did not pay anything to keep CarNet working on our 2015 LE and I still have full access to the battery level, charge timers, remote climate, etc. both on the web site and the iOS App. The Vehicle Health, Speed Alert, and Boundary Alert did stop working and are grayed out on the web site. If your EV functions stop working after 6 months, it's a mistake and CarNet or VW Customer Service needs to fix it.

 

[mvolta]

just want to say im glad you were able to get this covered under warranty. I had a friend who had the same thing happen to his Fiat. The part costs 8000$.

 

[fullmetaladdict]

Sorry about the delayed, final followup.

The VW dealership did eventually fix everything free of charge, under warranty. It effectively took them 2 weeks to fix the car. While they had the car, they never actually charged it up... so the day I picked it up, I had to limp home, and drive my other car to work, instead of just going to work. It did charge up just fine that night.

The plug is still very tight. I'm trying my best to gently pressure the plug into the 'click point', but it is much harder to do this slowly than quickly (which is why it will break again eventually, in another 9k miles).

Last week, VW of America started trying to reach out to me, but they keep calling during work hours and I haven't had a chance to call them back.

...

When I bring the car in for the 10k miles service check, I'll mention the CarNet situation to the dealer and see if they care. I've already talked with the VW Customer Service. They're the ones who told me I have to pay to keep using the EV App features.

 

[JoulesThief]

If it's still tight, your charging handle might be defective or damaged. Mine slides on and off with little effort at all, if aligned properly. It slides off quite easily also, once I push the remote button twice within 1 second, to unlock the charger handle.

Try some different charger handles at public chargers to try to narrow down the problem, or recharge at the VW dealership to test if the charge handle slides on and off quite easily.

Otherwise it is possible indeed, that it is operator error.

 

[miimura]

The charge port on our 2015 LE is also a snug fit with both my Leviton EVB40 (J plug handle made by Leviton) and the Jesla which uses a Chinese Dostar handle. However, it does not require enough force that I would ever expect it to damage anything.

 

[SJCyclist]

The charger port on my Juicebox 40 is kind of tight. Not to the point where I feel like it will break something, just snug. I just assumed this is how all EVSEs felt?

 

[madsegolf]

Just happened to me too. 2019 e-golf SEL. My charging port completely collapsed into the socket, plastic snapped and I cannot make the connection to charge. VW says the port snapped due to excessive force and the repair is $1,600 + $240 for the examination. Not covered under warranty. Will figure out some kind of my own repair if this cannot be worked out. The VW QC rep said no way it's covered under warranty. Anyone had success negotiating?