Wiring 4 cables to a plug

The same applies to disable badge holders spots, and resident only parking spots.

When my father-in-law died we knew we would need to sell his house, and that was where we kept our caravan and often also one car. So we moved, it was not what we wanted to do, but we needed some where to store our cars and caravan, on the street OK for visitors, but residents really should have off road parking.

However there are so many houses in this country where the only way to provide off road parking would be to demolish a house in the row. Maybe with a block of council owned houses this is an option, but unless we can park on the street many of our houses would become unsellable.

However people parking on the street can also be like a virus spreading from house to house, where occupants can't use their drive for fear of being blocked in.

Councils are not slow in making money when people need to park on the street, selling resident permits so only residents can park on the street.

However non of this really helps, the guy needs to charge his car, yes a agree he don't pay road tax, but neither do cyclist, we all have to live together and we should all have the same rights.

It does annoy me when I can't drive into Chester to pick up my wife, but a taxi driver can, I see he has a right to park in taxi rank and I don't, but why can he use roads I am not allowed to use, buses OK they are carrying many, but once a taxi picks up his fare he can't pick up anyone else.

The rules are not equal and not fair, but we just have to grin and bare it, so when I carried my mother in a wheel chair I would park where I could access wheel chair, if the bay was labelled mother and children tough I was the child she was my mother. Today I have to now give others the best parking spot, That's life. Where it all seemed wrong was in one place I always used mother and children's bay because some one had put posts at back of disabled bay so I could not open door and put down ramp. However they could not use bay marked for me.
 
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how do you charge it ATM ?

leave your front door ajar ?

Run a cable out the basement of the house currently.

I've had EVs for over 10 years now. In previous properties I used to do things like run the lead out of a window or even the letterbox :)
 
I don't think anybody here apart from the OP has any idea whether he is referring to the BS 1363 plug on one end of the cable or the whatever-connector-it-is on the other end.

And I don't think anybody here including the OP has any idea why, once the appropriate replacement BS 1363 or whatever-it-is has been acquired, it should not simply be wired the same as the old one was.

The plug has been ruined through over-heating/partial melting. It couldn't be unscrewed to open it up, so I had to cut the cables/rip them out. I'm therefore not clear on what went where inside it - specifically, where the 4th thinner (middle-blue colour) cable should be attached.
 
The only problem with BS1363 plugs is the fuse in the plug, which will heat up in normal use and could cause damage to the plug and socket if it was used at full load for an extended period.
Same as FCUs which melt and disintegrate when people use them to connect immersion heaters and storage heaters.

This is exactly what happened to the plug on my EV charging cable.
 
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Thanks everyone for the comments. Though I'm still unclear as to what the 4th (thinner, blue) cable is for in the charging lead !

To clarify - an electric vehicle is just like a large toaster. You can plug them into a normal domestic household socket and charge from there via a lead. That is what I do, and the plug at the end of that lead has partially melted over time. As a result - I couldn't unscrew and open the plug as normal. Hence why I don't know what wires go where (specifically, the extra thinner blue wire).

I'm just going to try putting insulating tape on that thin wire and then wiring the plug up as standard via the 3 other wires to see what happens.
 
I would try as hard as possible to check what is going on inside the original plug. Smash it with a happer if needs be.
 
Do you still have the old plug and the remains of the wire sticking out of it ? If so, then using a multimeter/continuity tester it should be possible to work out which wire is connected to where.
Otherwise, call the manufacturer helpline and ask them. If they won't help, name and shame them here and tell us what they said :evil:

If there's a smaller wire in the cable then it's most likely a pilot and/or coding connection. It may be that the car won't charge without it connected, or it might charge at the wrong rate. It would be inadvisable to just wire them up at random till something happens - it would be rather more expensive than just a new cable if you managed to let the magic smoke* out of the car charging circuit :eek:

* "Let the magic smoke out" is a euphemism, amongst electronics engineers in particular, for blowing something up so it emits smoke and stops working - as though the operation of a circuit is reliant on "magic smoke" trapped within a component :mrgreen:
 
Do you still have the old plug and the remains of the wire sticking out of it ? If so, then using a multimeter/continuity tester it should be possible to work out which wire is connected to where.
Otherwise, call the manufacturer helpline and ask them. If they won't help, name and shame them here and tell us what they said :evil:

If there's a smaller wire in the cable then it's most likely a pilot and/or coding connection. It may be that the car won't charge without it connected, or it might charge at the wrong rate. It would be inadvisable to just wire them up at random till something happens - it would be rather more expensive than just a new cable if you managed to let the magic smoke* out of the car charging circuit :eek:

* "Let the magic smoke out" is a euphemism, amongst electronics engineers in particular, for blowing something up so it emits smoke and stops working - as though the operation of a circuit is reliant on "magic smoke" trapped within a component :mrgreen:

I pulled a few of the wires out of the plug, and cut a couple of the others. From the old plug it's obvious what the 3 normal wires were doing and where they went, but the 4th one remains a mystery. There was no bend in it, for example, as you'd expect if it was connected to anything.

I rang my local dealer of Mitsubishi - who make the car. They rang the technical team at their UK Head Office, who's only response was 'you're not supposed to open the plug'. They said they can't supply a technical manual or any technical details for it, so I'm none the wiser after that either :(.
 
Ah well, in that case try calling the PR department at Mitsubishi and ask them if they've any comment to add to an article you're about to send out to the national press and TV about dangerous Mitsubishi charging cables overheating the 13A plug and them refusing to provide any information on how to wire a replacement plug :mrgreen:
As an alternative, look for another Mitsubishi EV and ask the owner if they'll let you look to see what's connected to where - assuming the plug can be opened by just unscrewing the cover.
Funnily enough, I think every bit of equipment I can remember comes with a 13A plug fitted (legal requirement in the UK) but ALSO a big label with information on how to wire the cable into a plug. Does anyone know if this is a specific regulation - providing cable wiring information ? If it is, then Mitsubishi is in the wrong here :whistle:
 
As Simon has mentioned, if you still have the old plug, the best thing to do is going to be to use a continuity tester to determine which wire goes to which pin on the plug. If any?

Regarding the issue that caused it, I would suggest if you are going to continue to charge using an extension lead, that you make one up that shouldn't overheat and will be suitable for use outside.

As previously mentioned, use 2.5mm blue arctic cable with 16a ceeform connectors. eg:
https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/GW240slash16slash3P.html -- goes in place of your failed 13a plug
https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/SK424010.html -- goes in your basement
https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/CA2dot5ART3Bslash50.html with https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/GW240slash16slash3P.html & https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/GW240slash16slash3C.html at each end connects them together.

If it's all done properly, the only bit here that is at risk of over heating is the 13a plug on the adaptor, which you could get around by having a proper 16a ceeform and isolator etc installed in your basement too.


edit - or you could just buy most of it ready made here, depending on the cable length you need:
https://www.toolstation.com/extension-lead-16a/p12236
https://www.toolstation.com/fly-lead-socket-convertor/p47166
 
If you have a multimeter, can you go to a local dealer and "borrow" a cable for a bit?
You might be able to figure out by measuring resistance/continuity between the 3 pin plug and the other end what the cables are doing.
 
Just a thought ...
Did you buy (or it come with the car) the cable new from a dealer? If So, how long ago ?
If the answers are yes & within the last 6 years the go back to where you bought it as tell them it's failed and clearly wasn't "reasonably durable" as defined in consumer protection legislation, and that you want a repair or replacement foc.
Give then (say) 14 days before you buy a new one and take action in the county court to recover the cost from them. That will probably get a new one provided as neither the dealer nor Mitsubishi will want the bad press ;)
 
Except CEEforms are not shuttered and therefore not suitable for domestic premises.:whistle::sleep:
But a 15A BS 546 would be, and would provide a much better connection than a 1363.

Although personally I'd consider an interlocked 60309 to be perfectly justifiable as an exception which provided equivalent safety.
 

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