Home charging cable plug melt down

[uncleman]

I have a nearly 3 year old MG4 bought from new. I do very low mileage and have only charged the car from home with the cable lead that came with the car. Yesterday when I noticed my car stopped charging at 94%, we could smell smoke in our living room. I then noticed the 3 pin plug that goes into the socket had melted down. This is only the 3rd time in the 3 years that I tried to charge my car 100% as I was going on a 300 mile return journey trip. I normally charge my car 20/80. Like I said I do low mileage and charge my car roughly every 6 weeks, on average. I'm wondering has anyone else had a similar incident, if not please be aware and not leave the car charging over night from inside your home socket. Maybe it's something that happens over time, I don't know but I never had charging issues before.

 

[Jomarkh]

Hi, it is not uncommon for the fuse holder in the plug to fail which looks like the cause in your case. How often do you charge up and is the granny EVSE left plugged in?

 

[Tight Git]

Yikes - that could have gone very badly and shows why granny chargers are only meant for emergency use.

It looks like the fuse hasn't been making a good contact in its holder and has caused the overheating. However I'm surprised that the thermal cutout didn't trip it.

Just be aware that you cannot just chop the plug off and connect a new one as there are thermistors in the plug (or at least there should be!)

 

[Everest]

I'm wondering has anyone else had a similar incident, if not please be aware and not leave the car charging over night from inside your home socket. Maybe it's something that happens over time, I don't know but I never had charging issues before.

Yes - happened to a few already and posted on here (for example with @Yorkshire Hillbilly)

Thanks for sharing the detail - out of interest what rate were you charging at? Regular (i.e. non BS1363-2 EV rated) plugs and sockets are not recommended for continual charging over 8A.

The connection of a BS1363 plug's fuse is a particular weak point, due to limited contact area, as I mentioned in my posting of just 2 weeks ago...

Post in thread 'MG4 - charging from a 13A socket'

Nov 13, 2025

re comments from @tsedge and @Fogey.

The main concern with using a regular (rather than EV-rated) 13A plug+socket is that they are not designed for or tested against continual high loads or disconnection of inductive circuits under load.

The weak points are:-

a) the contact of the live and neutral pins which, being square, rely on a small surface area of contact. The resistance of which will increase due to tarnishing on the brass pins and weakness over time of the spring of the socket's connection and

b) the limited contact area and quality of the connection of where...

• Everest

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