The first hinge on my fuel door broke maybe a year ago or so, and today the final one finally gave up. I’m at the point, where I still want to get a good amount years out of the car (if possible) and am only worried about functional issues, or issues that can become functional issues.
It would seem that I can continue driving around without a fuel door. But I’m wondering if I have to worry about sabotage of my fuel system? Anybody can now go up to this car, take off the fuel cap, and pour whatever they want into the tank. I don’t think I really have to worry about somebody doing this, and I’m not sure if this is a common thing that occurs for cars without fuel doors? Should I be worried about it?
The hinges appear to be just bent pieces of metal onto a metal rod, it doesn’t look there are any brass bushings, no zerk fittings. Probably the reason they broke off on me, metal rubbing against metal. Maybe there was grease when it was built nearly 20 years ago. If I were to replace it, any ideas on how I can grease it to prevent it from braking off again? Just a needle grease gun adapter? I couldn’t find aftermarket fuel doors, with zerk fittings.
Your old one lasted 20 years without grease zerks and much, if any lubrication. This is not a problem you need to worry about. Yeah, I know, you DO worry about such things but in the life of this car, it isn’t a worry. If you want to spray a little lithium grease on the hinges or a new (or junkyard) part, do it every oil change.
This happened to us on a 11 year old Venza. When I went to the dealer to buy a new fuel door, the parts person said they sell a lot of fuel doors, for exactly this reason.
You can get aftermarket fuel doors, from companies like Dorman, or you can get a junkyard part. If you get one from the junkyard, bring a drill, as you’ll need to drill out the rivets holding the door hinge in place.
As Mustangman noted above, he suggested squirting a bit of oil or grease on the hinges periodically (like every oil change).
The old hinge is held in place with rivets. You need drill them out and mount the new hinge with new rivets. The rivets are 1/4", which means the normal household rivet tool is too small to handle them. You can buy a rivet tool at Harbor Freight for under $20 that will handle a 1/4" rivet.
There’s a youtube video that shows you how you can use bolts instead of rivets, with a little more work to access the mount holes from the rear.
Visit your local hardware store, see if they have a metal rod available of the same thickness. You can bend it into the required shape yourself. There may have been some spring-action in that oem version of the part; you’ll have to make-do without that. Look in the electrical dept, wire-sold-by-the foot section, probably less expensive to be a short length there. Copper isn’t as stiff but easier to shape & won’t corrode. I lube all the hinges in my vehicles on every oil & filter change – doors, trunk, hood, hood latch, even the gas fill door. I use a half & half mix of acetone & ATF fluid, sparingly , don’t want it to drip on other painted surfaces.
I think you’ll be better off long-run by getting that door working again. Otherwise rain water is going to puddle in that area and further corrode stuff.
Thanks. So I saw some videos where they bend back the giant rubber piece around the filler neck, and just plain simple nut and bolts. Looks kind of finky. The rivet solution would likely be easier.
But anyways, I was wondering, instead of using pop-rivets, wouldn’t rivet nuts be better in this application? I can then use bolts and allow for nearly unlimited fastening and unfastening of the joint. Don’t have to worry about dropping actual nuts behind the quarter panel or not being able to unfasten the joint in the future without drilling out rivets. Could just unfasten the bolt if needed in the future.
I don’t really see the point in pop-rivets in this application. But I guess if it was a joint that was expected to last a very long time, then why bother with rivet nuts? I know that it is very unlikely at the rate I’m going and driving, that I will ever have to unfasten the joint again. But I think I might get a junkyard one, and who knows how long that one will last. If I’m not able to fix the original one from my car, which I don’t think I will be able to.
Yoshi, how long do you intend on keeping this rust-bucket on the road? In my opinion, even ten minutes spent on fixing this issue is wasted. Just take the fuel door off and throw it away.
