Melted plug and charging issues with my e-tron

[Chris]

Hi, I am not sure if this is the right section to post this. I've been charging my e-tron using a 3-pin socket in the garage for the past two months without any problems. But last night, it suddenly stopped charging. When I went to check the plug, I noticed it had melted around the live pin, it was pretty alarming to see.

I haven’t had any issues with charging until now, so this was completely unexpected. Has anyone else run into something similar? I contacted Audi, and they’ve advised me to take the car to my dealer to get it checked out. Hopefully, they can figure out what went wrong, but it’s definitely shaken my confidence in home charging for the moment.

 

[Rochelle]

Hi, I am not sure if this is the right section to post this. I've been charging my e-tron using a 3-pin socket in the garage for the past two months without any problems. But last night, it suddenly stopped charging. When I went to check the plug, I noticed it had melted around the live pin, it was pretty alarming to see.

I haven’t had any issues with charging until now, so this was completely unexpected. Has anyone else run into something similar? I contacted Audi, and they’ve advised me to take the car to my dealer to get it checked out. Hopefully, they can figure out what went wrong, but it’s definitely shaken my confidence in home charging for the moment.

This is a pretty common issue with 3-pin EVSE equipment, if the socket you were using wasn't in great condition or had tarnished contacts, that could cause overheating and even melting, especially around the live pin. It’s also possible that the wiring behind the socket wasn't securely connected, which can lead to these kinds of problems. It's a good idea to have your charging setup checked out, especially since you’ve been using it without issues for a while, hopefully, the dealer can get to the bottom of it.

 

[dlinkA3]

Hi, I am not sure if this is the right section to post this. I've been charging my e-tron using a 3-pin socket in the garage for the past two months without any problems. But last night, it suddenly stopped charging. When I went to check the plug, I noticed it had melted around the live pin, it was pretty alarming to see.

I haven’t had any issues with charging until now, so this was completely unexpected. Has anyone else run into something similar? I contacted Audi, and they’ve advised me to take the car to my dealer to get it checked out. Hopefully, they can figure out what went wrong, but it’s definitely shaken my confidence in home charging for the moment.

We had this issue with our 2017 A3 Sportback e-tron within the first couple months of ownership. Our old GE EVSE had failed, so we had to use the portable unit that came with our Audi. The plug on the portable EVSE also started melting. It turned out that the portable EVSE was compromised and was replaced under warranty. It was claimed by Audi that an extension cord should never be used with the portable EVSE, but that was NOT mentioned in our manual at all. By the way, we only used 12 gauge extension cords to protect the power coming to the EVSE and the extension cord was not damaged—only the EVSE plug was. Chevy Volts had this same issue and it turned out to be a manufacturing issue. Audi replaced our EVSE and we have not had a repeat of this problem for the past 7 years.

 

[Chris]

This is a pretty common issue with 3-pin EVSE equipment, if the socket you were using wasn't in great condition or had tarnished contacts, that could cause overheating and even melting, especially around the live pin. It’s also possible that the wiring behind the socket wasn't securely connected, which can lead to these kinds of problems. It's a good idea to have your charging setup checked out, especially since you’ve been using it without issues for a while, hopefully, the dealer can get to the bottom of it.

Yeah makes a lot of sense to me, especially since the socket had been in use for a while. I’ll definitely have the entire setup checked to avoid any future issues.

 

[Chris]

We had this issue with our 2017 A3 Sportback e-tron within the first couple months of ownership. Our old GE EVSE had failed, so we had to use the portable unit that came with our Audi. The plug on the portable EVSE also started melting. It turned out that the portable EVSE was compromised and was replaced under warranty. It was claimed by Audi that an extension cord should never be used with the portable EVSE, but that was NOT mentioned in our manual at all. By the way, we only used 12 gauge extension cords to protect the power coming to the EVSE and the extension cord was not damaged—only the EVSE plug was. Chevy Volts had this same issue and it turned out to be a manufacturing issue. Audi replaced our EVSE and we have not had a repeat of this problem for the past 7 years.

It’s interesting to hear that Audi replaced your EVSE under warranty. I'll be sure to check my setup thoroughly, especially since extension cords can complicate things..