This past weekend I rented a car which not only used flex fuel but did not come with a fuel cap. Is this something new? I thought cars had to have gas caps?
Ford’s doing this now (no gas cap).
How is it stopping the Gas Vapors from entering the atmosphere (which is regulated by the EPA).
Very interesting.
The fuel filler door has a rubber layre on the inside that seals against the filler. How this maintains a good seal without a locking mechanism (there is no door release) is a good question. I’ll look at it when I go home tonight.
It’s spring loaded. In my opinion, it’s a dumb move. When your gas cap stops sealing, you get a replacement for $10. How much is it going to cost to replace this thing, considering you’ll have to do at least a partial disassembly of the filler neck?
A spring loaded fuel door with no latch?
It might be a good idea. I have an aging ladyfriend that is unable to open her current “push & twist” standard fuel cap due to arthritis. I made a special “T-handle wrench” (for lack of a better nomenclature) out of PVC piping to enable her to remove and install her cap without pain. Perhaps a design that doesn;t require the herculean efforts that many fuel caps demand is a good idea in our aging population.
Did they at least put something in the hole to absorb spillage, like a rag?
jk. Don’t ever do that.
It seems to me that the cap-in-door is not a bad idea.
I went looking for a phot to post. Coudn;t find one. Anybody out there have one?
I agree with Elly for the reasons in my post, but it’d be interesting to hear what others think.
Thanks for the photo.
I like the idea, but would like it better if the swing arm were metal and able to “collapse” if bumped and pop back out and be functional, and if I nkew there were some system to prevent driving away with the fuel door open. I see lots of that.
Fuel cap with a trap door;
Nevada, I like that one too. Thanks for the tip. I’m going to see if they sell those to fit my friend’s Corolla.
IMO Ford should have just offered something like what Nevada pictured, for 3 reasons:
No need to modify the filler design.
Customers have a choice of “capless” or conventional.
Much easier to replace than the built-in version.
Exactly, circuitsmith.
What scares me is, I am currently chasing a small evap leak in one of my cars. A pinhole as small as 0.040" will cause this error. In the near future, they propose to increase sensitivity to EVAP leaks to a pinhole as small as 0.020" !
The 2003 Camry is notorious for fuel neck rusting and causing EVAP issues. Unfortunately, this time around that is not my problem. However, a new fuel neck is fairly expensive and so I share the concerns about this type of thing being integrated into the fuel neck assembly.
When I was shown it by the rental car agent, I thought to myself, what the hell, with no way to secure this you are just asking for some punk to pour suger or something into your tank…
True, it’s no different than other cars without a locking door or cap. But I do wish there was an inside release for the door…