Frozen Charging Port - Solutions?

[Vijay]

I guess with all the cold and wet weather it was due to happen at some time.

-3c @6.45am and the wife complains that she cannot unhook the cable charger from the car.

Turns out its frozen solid!

After half a kettle of room temperature water being dumped over the connection, we managed to free the plug and get on our way.

I read somewhere that someone was spraying WD40 into the plug ... would this be the solution to stop this happening again?

Or is there something else I should be doing as part of the basic day to day maintenance?

 

[NightPHEVer]

Maybe wrap some bubble wrap around the connector to keep the frost off. I didn't know it got that cold in Bedford - although it's not often I'm around at 6.45am.

 

[TheDavid]

-40º C, with the wind chill, here and the plug is frozen to the charge port... this after freezing rain, then snow... then the deep freeze. <sigh> Have tried several sessions with a heat gun - no luck - the ice re-freezes as soon as I can get it to melt. "Only" -12ºC ambient tomorrow morning, -19ºC with the wind chill, so kettle of water it is! Unless someone else has a better solution in mind...

 

[kpetrov]

Use something to cover the port and all bay area. There are special sleeves sold or you can do something by yourself. I am using big piece of foam that goes over the door and plug handle. Easier to remove the solid piece after an freezing rain event happening often in my area.

 

[TheDavid]

Just an update - did the hot water thing, got the plug disconnected and she started up right after. Let her heat up for about 20 minutes and then we were off for the day. Going to 5ºC ambient tomorrow, so hopefully we can begin to defrost a little around here; tonnes of ice, everywhere, so I'll battle that when it is a little warmer. =)

 

[MMauricio]

Hair dryer

 

[BobK]

I had a lot of problems with the charging door not opening and had the latch mechanism replaced twice by the dealer. Ultimately, the technician suggested I spray the shaft occasionally with silicon libricant and this seems to have improved things a lot. Wonder if it is slightly out of alignment.
The charge door still freezes up a bit on exceptionally frosty, cold wet days. But so far a good bash on the door seems to open it. Had to pry open the cover of the level 2 charging port this morning, because my wife hadn't been able to access it last night. So far have always been able to disconnect the charging cable (though sometimes had difficulty getting it to lock when plugging in). I expect I may have to use the hot water solution next time we get freezing rain.