Garage broke my J1772 charge port!

[bdman]

Ugh apparently my garage in Manhattan (Hippodrome) broke the housing around my J1772 port when they parked my car 2 spots over from the charger and an attendant backed another car into the space between the charger and my car running over the cable, breaking the Chargepoint box and cracking my port so the handle can't click into place. What's worse is they didn't tell me when this happened yesterday and by chance one of the other attendants told me the charger broke when attached to my car. Sure enough when I got home I discovered there was damage to my port and my L1 occasional use charger that came with the car won't lock into place. Luckily I have a Rex but man what a pain. Anyone have a similar issue? I'm curious as to repair time and parts availability. I called JMK and the service rep told me it sounds like a 1-2hr job but without seeing the issue couldn't speculate on parts availability. What a pain!

 

[alohart]

I called JMK and the service rep told me it sounds like a 1-2hr job but without seeing the issue couldn't speculate on parts availability.

I've read about at least one other i3 owner with a broken charging port. The parts were quite expensive, so I hope the parking garage will pay the repair cost.

 

[i3atl]

Here's a thread about it from last year on the Facebook group, if you're a member: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BMWi3/permalink/723032204437310/

Link to join the group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BMWi3/

Looks like the quote to repair a cracked port at the time came to $1700.

 

[Schnort]

Looks like the quote to repair a cracked port at the time came to $1700.

hole-e-****, pardon my french.

 

[bdman]

Just found out that its going to cost $2k and part has to be special made and won't be available until mid March! Now I don't have a car and will have to rent some crappy ICE thing. Really upset right now. What's really messed up is noone told me that it was damaged and if I hadn't casually asked an attendant what happened to the charger I wouldn't have discovered the issue until I needed to charge, which is the worst time to find out you can't charge your vehicle.

Ugh I would love to see the Facebook thread but there is no way I'm joining Facebook.

 

[Blue20]

Don't you wish it is Chamdeo not CCS, so that there are two ports for charging? :lol:

As for the part, I can understand why BMW won't stock any spare parts in NA, as i3 is a low volume product. However, they should have a logistic channel for i3 parts. This is 2016, why on earth it takes 1.5+ month to get a part from Germany into NA? Mind you, we are talking about a high margin sale, $2K for a piece of plastic. They should be able to afford overnight the damn thing in.

 

[user 2724]

Perhaps you can hook up a temporary plug - I purchased a J1772 extension cord which works great when you need the extra length from Electric Motor Werks and they have the corresponding male/female plugs on the extension cord. See https://www.emotorwerks.com/store-juicebox-ev-charging-stations/juicebox-accessories/185-j1772-extension-50a-20-foot-cable-for-our-juicebox-or-any-level-2-charging-station/category_pathway-37

Perhaps they can just sell you the car receiving end. Would not have CCS portion of the plug, but you could at least have Level 1 and 2 charging until BMW gets the part to you. A little bit of MacGivering but a possible solution; all be it a pain in the ass to have to go through some intermediate solution while waiting weeks for the replacement part. At the price BMW is quoting the technician should be hand delivering it to you from Germany!

 

[i3atl]

Can you post a photo of the damage?

 

[bdman]

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4xrzs9q75v1gv07/i3chargePortDamage.jpg?dl=0

 

[jadnashuanh]

While the plug won't latch in place, it does look like it still may work while you work out who's going to pay and the required part(s) arrive.

 

[alohart]

Fortunately, it doesn't look like the 6 individual electrical contacts are damaged, so it could be worse. Is the locking tab inside your charging port broken off? Will your EVSE's plug stay in place even if the plug won't lock to the port? You might need to support the charging cable so that it doesn't pull the plug out of the port.

I used to use a public charging station with a broken locking mechanism that continued to charge normally as long as one was careful to arrange the cable so that it didn't pull the plug out of the port.

 

[i3atl]

I agree - it appears that it should work, unless there's additional damage that's not visible.

 

[I33t]

Frankly, for that sort of money, I'd be looking for a plastic welding company.

Do you have the part that was broken off?

If not, you could buy one of these and have the welder dude cut the required piece from this holder:

https://www.jpson.com/product/sae-j1772-plug-holder-dock-for-ev-charging-station_p1060.html

 

[imolazhp]

Note to self: If charging is offered in the VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY odd chance I ever valet, kindly decline. Got it.