PIP charging cable won't click into the car

welcome to priuschat! it's a pretty simple mechanism. when you press the button down with your thumb, it lifts the latch at the plug end. when the latch passes over the hook in the female recepticle in the car, it makes the clicking sound. does the latch spring back when you press it down?

 

It could very well be check and see if the o-ring is in the right place.

 

there was another thread about this recently, with a simple fix.

 

As a first aid for the problem: spray some WD-40 on the wand black plastic and the latch mechanism and make sure it doesn't drip any lubricant. Then insert the wand into the J-1772 receptacle a couple of times.
A better lubricant would be anything based on liquid silicone, will last longer. I do it every month.

 

is it charging? some have said that gasket can become dislodged and needs to be reseated.

 

could there be ice inside? do you charge outdoors in harsh weather?

 

O-rings and cold often don't play nice, vis. Space Shuttle solid rocket motor joints.

 

The orange "O" inside the tip of my blue charge handle has come partially out of it's seat 2x now and makes it difficult to "lock on" to the car's charge port. Once I reseat the "O" ring the handle locks on normally again.

I think it's going to be an ongoing issue

 

i wonder if you can put a bit of adhesive behind it? mine has never moved, and i charge in the cold/weather 5 nites a week.

 

How bad would this suck if it were a Volt or even worse a Leaf?

 

True! But I think, take a small plunt probe and carefully check the orange o-ring to make sure it is in it's place, may take care of the problem.

 

Let us know how this works out for you.

 

I don't really know, but I would think maybe it is a moisture seal. My best guess.

 

My orange "O" ring has partially dislodged twice now. This time I re-seated it and applied some waterproof grease around the inside of the "O" ring. It seems much easier to attach to the charge socket on the car now. I think the friction of inserting the handle into the socket was pulling the "O" ring out of it's seat and caused the poor fit. Hopefully the light coating of waterproof grease will remedy the situation for good.

 

I do not see any orange or other color o-ring inside the black plastic end of my charge handle. There is an orange 'stop' that the silver plastic lever rests on, but it is no where near the plug interior. I wonder if plugs don't have this o-ring?
On the I.D. towards the back of the black plastic there is an ≈ 3/16" wide groove, but way too wide for an o-ring, unless this o-ring is pretty thick/big/beefy.