Why a charging cable gets stuck in a Pod Point charger
A charging cable is meant to lock. While a session is running, the connector is held in place at both ends so nobody can pull it out mid charge, and that lock only releases when the session properly ends.
So a stuck cable is nearly always a session that has not closed cleanly rather than anything mechanically jammed. The charger still believes it is charging, so it keeps the cable where it is.
This is the important thing to know before you pull. The lock is doing what it was designed to do. Force will not persuade it, and it will break something that currently works.
The car end and the charger end are different problems
Work out which end is actually stuck before you start, because the fix differs.
On most cars the car controls the lock at its own inlet. If the cable will not come out of the car, that is the car’s lock, not the charger’s, and the answer is in the car’s handbook as often as in any charger guide. Most cars have a manual release, usually a cord or lever near the boot or under the bonnet, meant for exactly this.
If the cable comes out of the car but not out of the charger, that is the charger end, and the steps below are the ones to follow.
How to release a stuck cable
Take these in order and do not skip the first one, because it is the one people miss.
- Plug the cable fully back into the charger, if it is not still connected. The release sequence will not work on a cable that is half out.
- Press unlock, then lock, on your car key fob several times. About five is usually enough. End on unlock. This tells the charger the session has finished.
- Take the cable out of the car first.
- Then take it out of the charger. Pushing the plug gently towards the socket before pulling it back and upwards often frees it.
- Repeat the whole sequence if it does not work first time. It frequently takes two or three goes.
If that has not worked on a Solo home charger, switch the charger off at its breaker on the fuse board and try again with the power off. That is a legitimate step rather than a last resort, and it releases a good number of them.
This is one we are happy to talk through on the phone, and there is no charge for that call. It is quicker than typing it at somebody, and most of the time the car is released before we have finished the conversation.
What not to do
Short list, and each one comes from somebody making an expensive situation worse.
- Do not pull hard. You will damage the connector, the cable, or the socket in the charger, and none of those is covered as a fault.
- Do not lever it with a screwdriver. The plastic around the pins is thinner than it looks.
- Do not cut the cable. It sounds obvious. It happens, usually to somebody who needs the car in ten minutes. A cut cable is a dangerous object and a much larger bill than a stuck one.
- Do not keep switching the breaker on and off. Once with the power off is a test. Ten times is wear on the breaker.
If you are at a public charger rather than at home, an emergency stop button will release a cable, but it stops everybody else charging too. Only touch it if you are the only car there.
When the lock has actually failed
Some do fail. The lock is a small motorised mechanism and it wears like anything else, particularly on older units that have done thousands of cycles.
The tell is repetition. A cable that has stuck once, in cold weather, after an interrupted session, is a session that did not close. A cable that sticks most weeks has a mechanism on the way out, and it will eventually stick for good.
When we look at one of these, the first thing we want to know is whether it releases with the power off. A lock that frees the moment the charger is dead is a mechanism that still works and a session that did not end. A lock that stays shut with no power to the unit is a mechanism that has jammed, and that is a different job. You can do that test yourself before you call anybody, and it tells us more than any description of the noise it makes.
Inside the warranty that is Pod’s to fix. Outside it, it is a repairable fault on most units rather than a reason to replace the whole charger, and it is worth getting to before the day it traps the car properly.
