Broken DC Flap Causes Bad Charging Day

[kwanyu]

@DerekS Since your little flap seems to be intact, do you think the piece of plastic that prevented charing came from the previous person who tried that dock?

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[DerekS]

@DerekS Since your little flap seems to be intact, do you think the piece of plastic that prevented charing came from the previous person who tried that dock?

No, it was from my flap for sure. The flap used to click into a down position and stay there, and no longer does.

 

[Capt Mike]

TLDR: Be careful not to break your DC flap inserting the Magic Dock (or any other CCS charger)

I decided to drive to Fort Worth this morning to try out the Magic Dock Supercharger.

I arrived with pretty low SoC and was a bit stressed, but hey these things work great right?

The app and dock worked, but charging immediately halted with an error.

I tried several times and it would not work. I also tried another stall.

At this point I am experiencing range panic for the first time. I limp to nearby Kroger with a Blink AC charger to find one stall can’t scan my card and the other just didn’t dispense any power.

I’m currently waiting for a tow to get it home and hopefully charge there before I assess further.

if that doesn’t work then I’ll have it towed to the dealer Monday morning.

I’m sorry I tried this.

EDIT: What I think happened here is I broke the DC flap while plugging in the Magic Dock, which put some plastic debris in the channel around the DC pins preventing a solid connection. Car is fine both AC/DC working as expected. I'll try it again one day but with more overhead for contingencies.

I can foresee some law suits coming up for the Magic Dock if it keeps destroying charging ports on EVs.

 

[bsclywilly]

I can foresee some law suits coming up for the Magic Dock if it keeps destroying charging ports on EVs.

This isn’t a magic dock problem. I broke mine on an EA charger but the charger isn’t the problem, it’s the flap design… or maybe the user.

 

[DerekS]

This isn’t a magic dock problem. I broke mine on an EA charger but the charger isn’t the problem, it’s the flap design… or maybe the user.

That design looks made to break, since it's making direct contact with the CCS connector body.

 

[simcity]

Both CCS2 and NACS could not have had this problem - it's impossible due to simpler design with fewer moving parts.

We’ve got the silly little flap on our CCS2 equipped Taycans here, but as we don’t have any need for any third party adaptors at Tesla sites like magic dock here, I guess we don’t have any potential for an issue like this.

Not all CC2 cars have the little flap by the way. Tesla vehicles ironically are good example. Just the main cover is all that’s needed:

It’s just an over-engineering step too far and clearly just something else to break eventually.

 

[Jonathan S.]

For the silly flap award, our i4 (but not the new i5 I checked out) has flaps over both the AC and DC ports.
Even though if you're flipping open the main cover (which on the i4 is the same as on the ICE 4 series) what could you possibly be doing besides accessing at least the AC port?

 

[whitex]

For the silly flap award, our i4 (but not the new i5 I checked out) has flaps over both the AC and DC ports.
Even though if you're flipping open the main cover (which on the i4 is the same as on the ICE 4 series) what could you possibly be doing besides accessing at least the AC port?

Perhaps main cover is not water tight (I know I've come across ICE cars with fuel door not sealed) and it was cheaper to add a flap than redesign, then manufacture and stock a new version of the ICE fuel door/cover?

 

[Jonathan S.]

Ah hah, you're right: I checked our i4 just now, and it indeed lacks the rubber gasket that both caps have on our Taycan (and which I remember that the i5 has, which explains it lack of a flap over the AC-only part of the port).

 

[simcity]

Perhaps main cover is not water tight (I know I've come across ICE cars with fuel door not sealed) and it was cheaper to add a flap than redesign, then manufacture and stock a new version of the ICE fuel door/cover?

I’ve just been reading a thread on TMC about gasket failure on model 3’s which can result in water ingress through the DC part - typically when AC charging in our maritime climate where the DC pins are otherwise exposed to the elements.

The symptom of charger port gasket failure on the M3 is an error message for an inability to DC charge.

The little flap over the DC pins on the Taycan is no doubt there to keep unwanted rainwater etc out.

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