Fuel Filler flap lock sticking

My 20 month old 22000 mile S80 D5 SE has been trouble free until I noticed this weekend a whirring sound from the area of the Fuel flap when activating or disabling the Remote Central locking. On inspection I noticed that with the doors and boot locked the flap remained unlocked and that the bolt remained retracted into the housing. By accessing the bolt and it's motor housing from inside the boot, I can manually close the bolt by pushing it forward and therefore secure the flap. However when unlocking the car the bolt retracts but remains retracted when the car is locked again.

Have any other owners experienced this problem?
If so is there an easy fix (e.g WD40 perhaps) or will I have to get a new bolt unit from Volvo?
Would this sort of thing be covered under the manufacturers Warranty?

Many thanks in anticipation.

Take it to your dealer and ask them to repair it because if the WD 40 does not work they will probably charge you to remove the WD 40
Cheers,
Ian

Thanks Ian. I will let the forum know if the dealer says the problem is anything other than just a once-off faulty component on the bolt unit.

Best regards

Joe

>Thanks Ian. I will let the forum know if the dealer says the
>problem is anything other than just a once-off faulty
>component on the bolt unit.

I noticed that my recently acquired V70 exhibits the same "problem", which I reported to the dealer. It turns out that the filler flap lock engages about 10 minutes after the doors are locked.

This is, apparently, designed to make it possible to lock the doors at a petrol station yet still get access to the fuel tank.

Cheers, Steve

>>Thanks Ian. I will let the forum know if the dealer says
>the
>>problem is anything other than just a once-off faulty
>>component on the bolt unit.
>
>I noticed that my recently acquired V70 exhibits the same
>"problem", which I reported to the dealer. It turns out that
>the filler flap lock engages about 10 minutes after the doors
>are locked.
>
>This is, apparently, designed to make it possible to lock the
>doors at a petrol station yet still get access to the fuel
>tank.
>
>Cheers, Steve
>
>
>
>

Local dealer has determined that there was indeed a fault with the motor unit on the filler flap bolt and have replaced it under Warranty. Thanks for the help anyway.

[HowardP]

I realise this answer is several years after your post but it may help somebody else.

I have the same problem on my 2003 S60. I stripped down the actuator and found that the plastic gear on the end of the lead screw that locks the flap had two teeth missing. The whirring is the drive motor wizzing round correctly but its little gear is in the space where the missing teeth used to be.

There's no identification on the actuator itself so it looks like it's a complete new part (£39) for the sake of a 20p bit of plastic.

Best regards