[corfam]

@ID.Furkan...in your recent YouTube video entitled "5 things I hate and love about the ID.4 | VW ID.4 1st Max" you mentioned that your Charge Port Door got damaged and you needed to get it replaced. It would probably be helpful for the community if you could please comment more on the issue, especially since it appears to have happened easily. It seems that you walked into the door when you were charging the car and bent the door backwards, but I'm still hoping to get more detail on the damage and ultimate replacement. Here are the questions I'm thinking of:

1. Do you have any photos of the damaged door? ...maybe also another photo showing piece of door that remained attached to vehicle?
2. Where on the door arms did it break?
3. Did it ultimately bend back to the point where it hit the car body and could have scratched the body paint?
4. Was it difficult for the dealer to replace the door?
   • Could you have easily replaced the door yourself if you had the spare door?
   • Did your dealer have to send out a bare door to a paint shop to get painted? or does VW stock painted replacement charge doors?
   • How much was the replacement door cost?

Given that you already flagged the problem, I'm thinking it's something that can be avoided with attention, but it would be good to hear as much about your experience as possible. It's never too early to learn in case one of us suffers the same fate.

Thanks!

 

[corfam]

This photo that @Andy at Ross-Tech.com posted on his new car makes it fairly obvious how the charging door could be easily swiped by anyone walking by your car while it's charging.

@ID.Furkan, I'm still hoping to get more detail about your problem. I'm thinking how I would try to prevent this type of thing while I'm not around my car and I've left it charging. My current thought is to possibly add a temporary strap between charging plug and charge port door to provide a strain relief (just while charging unattended in public). I'll evaluate once I have my car to see if I really think it's necessary.

 

[ID.Furkan]

Video is coming, but to dont keep you hanging

1. Where on the door arms did it break? At the hinge + All holders from covercap
2. Did it ultimately bend back to the point where it hit the car body and could have scratched the body paint? didnt scratch, it dented the plate
3. Was it difficult for the dealer to replace the door? No
   • Could you have easily replaced the door yourself if you had the spare door? Cover 100%, the hinge not so sure
   • Did your dealer have to send out a bare door to a paint shop to get painted? Yup or does VW stock painted replacement charge doors? It comes blank
   • How much was the replacement door cost? 450€ to fix everything back as new

My current thought is to possibly add a temporary strap between charging plug and charge port door to provide a strain relief (just while charging unattended in public).

An elastic band would keep the port door close to the charger and will have some slack. so yeah thats the only way I can see how I can prevent this again.

 

[corfam]

Video is coming

Great. Thank you. Looking forward to it!

 

[corfam]

Oh. I had missed your answers to my question since they were shown embedded in the quote. I'll relist the questions and your responses in bold below, just to make sure no one else misses them.

1. Where on the door arms did it break? At the hinge + All holders from covercap
2. Did it ultimately bend back to the point where it hit the car body and could have scratched the body paint? didnt scratch, it dented the plate
3. Was it difficult for the dealer to replace the door? No
   • Could you have easily replaced the door yourself if you had the spare door? Cover 100%, the hinge not so sure
   • Did your dealer have to send out a bare door to a paint shop to get painted? Yup or does VW stock painted replacement charge doors? It comes blank
   • How much was the replacement door cost? 450€ to fix everything back as new

I don't know your meaning of "plate" that got dented (car side panel?), but your video will probably cover that. With such a high cost, it's definitely a good problem to know about. Thank you!

 

[sethpo]

This is definitely a poor design choice. You see much better solutions on other EVs and I'm guessing there will be a lot of these replaced before they come up with a better plan. It's definitely something to keep in mind when charging in public places and frankly, I'm a bit worried about it in my home garage.

 

[ID.Furkan]

I hope this answers your questions

 

[corfam]

I hope this answers your questions

It sure does. I had no idea that it was someone else that ran into your charge port door. You have a good attitude @ID.Furkan and much more calm than I probably would have been if someone did that to my car.

Since your first comment of the failure mode, I had been thinking of adding a velcro strap around the outside of the door and the charger plug, but your idea is cleaner. I only worry about the rubber band not being attached to the actual cover that tore off, but limiting motion should help that anyway. I'm sure VW could have seen this coming too.

Thanks again for being our test subject and all the effort with documentation. In this video and all others too!

 

[ID.Furkan]

Since your first comment of the failure mode, I had been thinking of adding a velcro strap around the outside of the door and the charger plug, but your idea is cleaner. I only worry about the rubber band not being attached to the actual cover that tore off, but limiting motion should help that anyway. I'm sure VW could have seen this coming too.

wrapping around the cover would work too, but the first point of failure is the charge port cover, second one is the hinge. Depending how it gets hit with velcro around it can still break the hinge instead of the coverholder plastic points. Time will tell

 

[ErickF]

Some things never go out of style. From the 1960's:

 

[Andy at Ross-Tech.com]

I have played with the charging ports in the Taycan, both the electric one that has the sharkfin you swipe to make the port cover disappear inside the body, and the regular mechanical kind like our ID.4's. I always thought the powered one was a needless extravagance: "Electric opening and closing of charge port cover for charge ports on driver and front passenger side. The charge port cover can be operated via the center console or a sensor right next to the charge port door. The charge port cover retracts behind the fenders to ensure optimum access to the charge ports and closes automatically when the charging plug is removed. $640". It probably pays for itself with one cover breakage!

 

[HenryWin]

Greetings ID club,

This is my first post since I just got my ID.4 last week. Usually first post contains beautiful shots of my car but....

Cut to the chase.. I broke my charge port cover along with the outside skin cover when I removed the charge plug and forgot to close the door. Backed out of my garage and smacked a trash bin.

All the tabs on the skin cover broke (Super glued them back). The black attachment plate with the swing arm also broke.

My question to this awesome forum is how to remove the black shroud surrounding the charge port? ID4 does not have the one screw under the lock mechanism like the video I saw. There are no screws.... Maybe there are just hidden clips.

Here is what I am looking to accomplish.

Any help or tips on removing the black shroud. Photos to follow.

 

[corfam]

Greetings ID club,

This is my first post since I just got my ID.4 last week. Usually first post contains beautiful shots of my car but....

Cut to the chase.. I broke my charge port cover along with the outside skin cover when I removed the charge plug and forgot to close the door. Backed out of my garage and smacked a trash bin.

All the tabs on the skin cover broke (Super glued them back). The black attachment plate with the swing arm also broke.

My question to this awesome forum is how to remove the black shroud surrounding the charge port? ID4 does not have the one screw under the lock mechanism like the video I saw. There are no screws.... Maybe there are just hidden clips.

Here is what I am looking to accomplish.

Any help or tips on removing the black shroud. Photos to follow.

@ID.Furkan documented his experience here, which is same video he posted earlier in this thread. I think watching that video will help.

I'm sorry for your issue.

 

[HenryWin]

@ID.Furkan documented his experience here, which is same video he posted earlier in this thread. I think watching that video will help.

I'm sorry for your issue.

Thanks! I saw his video already. He brought it to the dealership for repair so he did not documents the tear down process. I guess I will try to figure it out and take pictures of my attempt to tear in to the charge port shroud.

 

[corfam]

Thanks! I saw his video already. He brought it to the dealership for repair so he did not documents the tear down process. I guess I will try to figure it out and take pictures of my attempt to tear in to the charge port shroud.

Hmm. Ok, sorry. I thought I remembered him showing more. You might want to message him directly if he doesn't see this here. He may know more than was included in video.

 

[ID.Furkan]

Dealer said they use a "special" holder to keep the chargeport free/safe when removed. New door and cover replaced. still working since then. No complaints here.
Erwin shop manual should give you the insight you need to change this.

 

[Nai3t]

Arrived home tonight and saw my wife left the charging door open looking like Dumbo's ear sticking out into the street

Recalled this thread from early on plus one other (Charge door broke plastic clips) and remember thinking uh-oh, this is going to be a problem.

But since then it's been quiet. Spate of bad luck early on? Any other busted charging doors?

 

[Spin]

Reading through this thread again has me worried about leaving my car charging at EA where someone could accidentally walk by and damage the charging door. I'm thinking a traffic cone would help prevent this.

 

[Huey52]

Now we have to add spare tires and traffic cones? I've already got a roll of caution tape. 😉

We could regularly set up a complete "quarantine perimeter" as some dealerships have done with ID.4's awaiting main battery service.

Reading through this thread again has me worried about leaving my car charging at EA where someone could accidentally walk by and damage the charging door. I'm thinking a traffic cone would help prevent this.

 

[Spin]

We could regularly set up a complete "quarantine perimeter" as some dealerships have done with ID.4's awaiting main battery service.

Great idea! I'm on my way to get a roll of caution tape