LI charger stuck

[barrychan]

First time happens since own car from April.....
Unlock with key fob, charger won't come out....stuck, lock it again and unlock.....not stuck, why??

 

[jadnashuanh]

This has happened to me a few times. I've found that a shot of WD40 on the locking pin occasionally, helps. If it gets bad, and can be repeated, the dealer will replace the solenoid.

Most times, locking and unlocking the door a few times will release it. For those times when it won't, the emergency release cable has worked. It's located at the bottom of the right-hand rear door on the rear panel.

 

[barrychan]

Thank you sir....i'll look for that cable.

 

[barrychan]

Can you post a pic where the emergency cable is?

 

[jadnashuanh]

It's in the manual, both the version IN the car, and the printed copy. Open both passenger side doors, look at the bottom towards the back...pull the foam plastic plug out.

 

[Stevei3]

Hi guys,

coincidence or not, both our REx and our good friends BEV charging plug locking pin refused to unlock within two weeks of each other. While my pin suffered relapses for about four weeks prior to failure, which was not totally unexpected if inconvenient, his pin worked fine until breakdown. Both of our cars are from early production batches, so nearly two years old.

Fact of the matter is that it seems that the manual release will cause a definitive end-of-life of the solenoid, our agent told us. At least on our european spec cars, which have a different charging port compared to US models. Without a locking pin, charging is impossible. So it may be a good idea to check the servicability of the solenoid directly after using the manual release by trying to reconnect to the charger while you're still standing next to it and while you may have some juice left to get your i3 to an agent... I had to use the REx, so no real emergency, but our friend arrived with <3 miles on his BEV.

Strangely, not one word of warning is mentioned about this in our (Dutch) manual. Also: be prepared that you really have to hassle the release from its hole....

Regards, Steven