Charging cable pulled out when car started moving

kwsvictoria · Oct 2, 2014

I don't suppose there's anybody out there who has been so forgetful as to put the car in gear while still plugged in....? Yes, the car is parked on a downhill slope, so when in gear, it started moving, and pulled the charging cable right out, damaging the input socket.
Question: Can the plastic socket-cover be replaced without replacing the entire socket system?

PV1 · Oct 2, 2014

I always thought it was odd that the i-MiEV can be shifted out of park while plugged in, but I believe there was report of this happening.

The other night, I was in a hurry to move the car, and I don't know if I didn't go all the way to Start or was just too quick with the shifter, but I almost went down my driveway backwards. I caught it quickly enough, but it explained why the steering felt heavier :lol: .

I tried to leave the other morning, but my car wouldn't start. Here, I never unplugged it :lol: . It's level where I park so the car didn't roll, but what a shock when I couldn't get READY. I'm glad they put a plug light on the dash.

Which part needs replaced on your port? The whole thing on the car side, or just the plastic cover?

jray3 · Oct 2, 2014

Ouch- sorry to hear that, kws. You can see on this supplier's website how the wires and pins insert into a typical inlet.
http://www.tucsonev.com/index.html
I don't know who manufactured our inlet housing or if they're actually rebuildable. If your inlet/socket is broken enough to pull it away from the car body, then you might see how hard it would be to remove the wires and their pins.
IIRC, the inlet is only supplied through the Mitsubishi parts sytem with the wiring harness attached, which means opening up the charger to replace the AC side wiring.

kwsvictoria · Oct 2, 2014

PV1 said:
I always thought it was odd that the i-MiEV can be shifted out of park while plugged in, but I believe there was report of this happening.

The other night, I was in a hurry to move the car, and I don't know if I didn't go all the way to Start or was just too quick with the shifter, but I almost went down my driveway backwards. I caught it quickly enough, but it explained why the steering felt heavier :lol: .

I tried to leave the other morning, but my car wouldn't start. Here, I never unplugged it :lol: . It's level where I park so the car didn't roll, but what a shock when I couldn't get READY. I'm glad they put a plug light on the dash.

Which part needs replaced on your port? The whole thing on the car side, or just the plastic cover?

The plastic cover is the only thing I can see that's broken. The car will charge, but the plastic cover is gone. I would like to JUST replace the cover, but the dealer said that the whole bloody thing comes in one piece, and that you can't replace just the cap, as it might nullify the warranty. Sigh.......Still haven't decided what to do.

JoeS · Oct 2, 2014

kwsvictoria, sorry to hear you damaged the port cover. I'd be inclined to find a rubber or soft plastic cap to put over the the port and not worry about it. Is the broken port cover really not repairable?

Not that it's of any help, but here's a link to someone who damaged their plug and not the port itself in an incident similar to yours (but we never heard from him again): http://myimiev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=1655

Good luck with yours.

kwsvictoria · Oct 2, 2014

JoeS said:
kwsvictoria, sorry to hear you damaged the port cover. I'd be inclined to find a rubber or soft plastic cap to put over the the port and not worry about it. Is the broken port cover really not repairable?

Not that it's of any help, but here's a link to someone who damaged their plug and not the port itself in an incident similar to yours (but we never heard from him again): http://myimiev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=1655

Good luck with yours.

I'm with you. A soft plastic cover is what I'll probably decide on, and hope that the warranty will be honored by the dealer if it ever becomes necessary. Still waiting to hear what the dealer has to tell me, but I'm definitely leaning towards a quick/easy repair. The plastic cover looks like a lens cap, with one piece missing around the perimeter. I don't think it can be repaired, but I imagine I can rig something up.

The dealer was very surprised that the car can be moved when plugged in. His first response was "IMPOSSIBLE!". Yeah, I wish.......

sandange · Oct 3, 2014

Just throwing a thought out there.

I have been impressed with the new 3 d printing technology that was recently used to print an entire EV at an auto show .
Now I personally know nothing about this technology
I wonder how difficult it would be to replicate this plastic cap .

NeilBlanchard · Oct 3, 2014

My Dad has had several occasions when he coasted out of his driveway with the charging cord still attached. It is a gentle slope, but enough to let you do this without the accelerator.

He is almost 84 and he has short term memory problems. It may be getting close to the time when he has to stop driving by himself, anyway.

kwsvictoria · Oct 3, 2014

NeilBlanchard said:
My Dad has had several occasions when he coasted out of his driveway with the charging cord still attached. It is a gentle slope, but enough to let you do this without the accelerator.

He is almost 84 and he has short term memory problems. It may be getting close to the time when he has to stop driving by himself, anyway.

Thanks, Neil, for making me feel like my time has come!

Seriously, though, memory and "automatic pilot" are definitely a big part of the problem. My husband and I both have been guilty of forgetting to "unplug" our little IMIEV, so hopefully, we're not too old to form new habits!

jray3 · Oct 3, 2014

sandange said:
Just throwing a thought out there.
I have been impressed with the new 3 d printing technology that was recently used to print an entire EV at an auto show .
Now I personally know nothing about this technology
I wonder how difficult it would be to replicate this plastic cap .

Not hard at all, and here's just the guy for the job! I collaborated with Joel Clemens on developing his dummy inlets for J1772 handle storage.
joelclemens }at{ gmail [dot] com
http://erroneus.myevblog.com/buy-plastic-parts-here/

MLucas · Oct 6, 2014

Did the same thing this weekend, let the car roll with the plug still in the car. Fortunately, no damage - I had plenty of cord for slack. This is much like programming software, we try and put in all the code we can think of to prevent the users from breaking the system, but without fail someone always manages to come up with something we didn't think about.

PV1 · Oct 6, 2014

Though it's not exactly the same, quickchargepower.com has a J1772 inlet for $69.

http://shop.quickchargepower.com/J1772-Socket-JS50A.htm;jsessionid=B77526C3083A3C3A12E907CF03C39548.m1plqscsfapp04

sandange · Nov 17, 2014

OK

My turn to pull a blooper - sorry didn't get it on film

Jumped in the car, turned the key and shifted it out of park tooooo quickly and it started to roll down the drive way.
I heard a big bang as the pistol was jumping off of the car charge port.

I was lucky the only damage to the port was the severed plastic cap

The pistol took the most damage.
The white plastic housing cracked as the black connector center core jumped out from the retaining lip & the locking latch broke off.
Fortunately on the white plastic housing there was enough locking ridge lip left that I was able to repair it by splitting the housing, reinsert the black center connector core & sealing it with some silicone. There was no damage to the black core wire connections.

Link to photos slide show.
http://s211.photobucket.com/user/Sandange/slideshow/miev/Miev Charge port

My solution
for the port connector cap replacement was to use a 2 inch diameter soft rubber plumbing cap, from the hardware store.

I removed the hose clamp that came with the plumbing cap and cut away the slip on lip where it needed to clear the receiving connector port
I drilled small hole in the cap and a tie wrap acts a s a hinge

It fits nice and tight and the port door need a slight push to close making for a good seal between the cap and the charge port connector.

siai47 · Nov 17, 2014

Another solution to this problem would be to glue a piece of closed cell foam rubber to the inside of the access door. When you close the door, it would push the rubber piece against the connector body sealing it from any road crud. Worth a look anyway.

PV1 · Nov 17, 2014

siai47 said:
Another solution to this problem would be to glue a piece of closed cell foam rubber to the inside of the access door. When you close the door, it would push the rubber piece against the connector body sealing it from any road crud. Worth a look anyway.

The Volt and Tesla Roadster do this. I still don't quite understand having the ability to shift out of park while plugged in. Was it just an oversight, our were they going by the thought of being able to move the car if the plug happened to be stuck to the port?

jray3 · Nov 17, 2014

PV1 said:
siai47 said:

Another solution to this problem would be to glue a piece of closed cell foam rubber to the inside of the access door. When you close the door, it would push the rubber piece against the connector body sealing it from any road crud. Worth a look anyway.

Click to expand...

Thanks for mentioning the foam rubber option. I'd like to do it simply to make plugging in an easier one-handed operation.

Don · Nov 18, 2014

Make sure you use closed cell foam - Open cell foam is nothing more than a sponge, which will do the opposite of what you want . . . . attract and hold all sorts of water and dirt on your plug

Don

PeterC · Nov 20, 2014

PV1 said:
siai47 said:

Another solution to this problem would be to glue a piece of closed cell foam rubber to the inside of the access door. When you close the door, it would push the rubber piece against the connector body sealing it from any road crud. Worth a look anyway.

Click to expand...

The Volt and Tesla Roadster do this. I still don't quite understand having the ability to shift out of park while plugged in. Was it just an oversight, our were they going by the thought of being able to move the car if the plug happened to be stuck to the port?

I am amazed that the car can be driven plugged in. In my converted car I included a simple switch in the 'fuel' filler door. If the door is open, so probably plugged in, the car can not turn on. I could roll though.

sandange · Nov 20, 2014

The problem is you can shift it out of park and if you're on a hill it will roll with the pug still attached - but it will not start.

Don · Nov 20, 2014

If I regularly parked on a hill, I think I'd make it a habit to use the parking brake. We park in the garage where it's level, but the wife uses the parking brake every time she gets out of the car - Why doesn't the car creep back when I shift it into reverse? The darned parking brake is on!! Drives me NUTS!

But then again, if you are absent minded enough to get in the car before you unplug it, and absent minded enough to shift it out of Park before you get the 'Ready' light then you'd probably be absent minded enough to release the parking brake too. Old age isn't everything it's cracked up to be, is it? :lol:

Don

Charging cable pulled out when car started moving

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