Charger door won't open

If the engineers knew their stuff, this kind of workaround to open the all-important charge door wouldn't be necessary.

 

lol. That might be more down to the designers but yes see your point

 

I never had an issue opening my charging door. Sometimes the car would be locked and all I had to do was unlock the car and the charging door would then open. I could leave the car unlocked for days and open the charging door at anytime. NOW - for some reason I've tried just about everything and it won't open. So, something has changed, whatever that may be. HOWEVER, I just went to the car and it was locked. I had my key fob in my pocket so I unlocked the car using the small black push button in the handle and then opened the driver's door. I left the door open and then went to open the charging door; it opened flawlessly and very easily. So, not sure what is going on. I saw a post about having to open a driver's door and leave it open for 15 sec (which I'm sure I never had to do previously) and I didn't wait 15 sec in this instance either. I've had several software updates, although nothing recently. So, perhaps some charge door settings got 'altered'; hopefully for better. I'm posting just to state I now have had 2 instances, last two chargings, where I've had difficulty opening the charge door. My 2019 Kona is always parked in the garage and currently the temp is in the 80's. Any and all information is appreciated. I haven't read all posts in this thread, but will spend some time doing so.

 

Given that there's been a longstanding service bulletin about the charge door not opening (and a corresponding standard fix)I wouldn't discount the possibility that, after 4 years of normal use, your door has just intermittently decided it's not going to open and that the other behaviour might just be coincidental and unrelated. You might want to bring it up with your dealer and specifically mention the service bulletin. Good luck with it.

 

I’ve had this same problem with my 2019 SEL occasionally also, maybe 5-10 times in total. I’ve tried various combinations of all suggested remedies here on this forum and it doesn’t seem that any single method consistently works. But one approach has worked a few times: Doing nothing.

I say this because it happened again last night after the car sat unused for 7 days, though I’ve gone that long without charging bed. No pounding, rapping, locking, unlocking, door open/closing, praying, or swearing did anything. I gave up and went to bed, remembering that in the past the charge door would just open in the morning. Sure enough, 8 hours later, I pressed lock on the fob once, then unlock, and opened the charge door like normal as if nothing had happened.

The plunger latch moves smoothly and there’s no debris in there. I’m wondering if there’s a software glitch that resets when the 12V battery auto-charges? That’s the only thing I can think that would have happened overnight. Regardless, it’s an unpredictable problem that’s potentially serious and needs fixing.

BTW this is August in the US—no snow or ice

 

We’ll, forget that theory. It just happened again. I waited overnight and this morning it still won’t open.

That’s 3 times in as many weeks. Off to the dealership…


Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs

 

Wisdom from an ancient version of Microsoft Word:

 

Thank you, insightman, wise words indeed!

To update, I traveled out of town for 4 days , and upon return the charger door remained stubbornly shut.

I located the charger door fuses in the engine compartment, pulled and replaced them, no change.

I noticed that the door lock/unlock clicking sound is “stronger” when doing so using the switch in the driver door rather than the key fob. So I had my wife sit in the car and repeatedly press unlock (maybe a few locks mixed in) as I pressed and pounded on the charger door outside. And voila—it opened!

Coincidence? Magic? Workaround? You decide. I’m just putting it out there for any fellow Kona test driver who gets stuck in a similar bind someday.

 

Noting that the door lock has been designed (in my opinion) by a different group than the CCS port, but is equally important to the driver’s “safety” in being able to charge when needed, it’s disappointing that a similar emergency release has not been provided.
On those terms I think an argument could be made to NHTSA that this is a safety-related defect.

 

IMHO since this is a known and potentially serious problem, Hyundai should have issued a recall and fixed it for everyone. Much as I love my Kona, I do not have warm feelings about Hyundai.

 

I've had this problem randomly in the past, and searched the forum and found this thread, because I've had to fight it the last two times I went to charge the vehicle. I tried a little WD-40, but the plunger seems clear and operates smoothly. Good to know there is an SB. I'll take it in.

 

The electric lock inside the charge door latch cycles when you lock/unlock all the doors, so that’s a good way to exercise it.

 

I've been having this issue with our 2019 now. Anyone know how to disable the electrical lock? I really don't think we need it.

 

When the electrical unlock is inoperative, a temporary solution is to cut off the plastic lock head.
https://www.speakev.com/threads/kona-charging-door-wont-open-any-suggestions.152442/page-3#post-3398980

 

A couple days ago I had this happen for the 1st time. I was at 20 miles remaining & REALLY needed to charge. After searching on this forum, I found the solution that worked for me this time -- I powered up the car and pressed the LOCK/UNLOCK doors button about 5 times. Powered off. The charge door opened. Whew. But this is an unfortunate issue that seems to be happening. I would think that Hyundai should provide a permanent fix for this. It would really suck to be stuck on the road in the middle of nowhere just because we can't open our charging door to recharge. Maybe we should be filing a complaint somewhere???

 

I found an email address for HYUNDAI Corporate. I think it is in all of our interest to log a formal complaint explaining this issue. Maybe a RECALL of some sort is necessary .. e.g., a PULL Rope to unlock the door or something??? I just emailed them at :

[email protected]

 

I've been looking at this for a while. This is an engineering issue. I think it has something to do with pressure on the mechanism preventing normal rotation or release somewhere. Try pulling up (like lift the car a little) on the bumper cover at the bottom underneath the door, then hit the lock button. Also pressing your knee on the bumper cover at the hinge side of the door. (Yes, sad) The SB adds a couple of pads to keep the housing farther away from the door, I think something somewhere in the mech is rubbing just enough to prevent the door latch lock from dis-engaging. Just not quite annoying enough (yet) to pull the bumper cover and check it out more thoroughly.

 

This seems to be a common enough problem -- and serious enough, if you really need a charge -- that there should have been a recall some time ago.

 

Back in March this year in the thread " Help! Charging door won't open!" #11 I recorded "I had this issue on the 2018 build Kona. Eventually I thumped the door really hard after going through the lock/unlock routine. The door opened. Now it latches shut but does not lock any more and I’m not going to get it fixed. "

A couple of weeks ago though the door had locked again, and was stubbornly refusing to be opened. After a combination of operating the armrest door unlock switch and thumping, the charge door did open.
I charged the car to stay mobile, but could not reopen the charge door after unlocking the car, so I took it to the dealer. The technician explained that there had been a number of instances of the "Push Opener" worm actuator failing and they ordered me a new one (part 81560-G7001). Then he jimmied open the charge door using two plastic wedges (didn't do any damage) so that I could keep using the car while waiting for the part.
The door does not close completely flush but it doesn't flap around, although there is an annoying chime and an alert when speeding up from stop or low speed.
Today the actuator was replaced - this involved removing the bumper, and normal operation has been restored. I asked to keep the old actuator and here is a picture, with the rotating locking lug at the top right. At some point I'll take it apart - it has a myriad of plastic lugs to pry up - to see what sort of mechanism is inside.
Cost - NZ$240 for the actuator and NZ$320 for the labour.

 

Thanks for the detailed report on that John, we haven't heard from you in a while!

What was the story with the 5 years? Our warranty is three but did they imply they might have covered it under goodwill before 5? It's such a common defect that I would have hoped they would cover it under the consumer guarantees act. They are covering the gear reducer replacement on a 2019 in one case I'm following.

I'd love to carry out a forensic analysis on that if you don't have the time to do that yourself.