Idiots' guide to replacing the fuel flap hinge

[petey]

(There are times when rage is needed. Delicate pin surgery isn't one of them)

[ALBERT10]

Originally Posted by Brendan W

I seem to recall the old pins pushed through easy enough.
It is advisable to try to recover some of them before they hit the Abyss.
There are no spares with the new hinge.

The original replacement has these rubber washer things on the pins, what purpose do these serve, just to act as a snug fit?

How are we meant to recover them they will fall into the bodywork?

[ALBERT10]

Originally Posted by petey

The pin works as a spreader making the plug bigger than the hole. If you just rage it off, you'll make the hole bigger and then the new one won't fit.

Okay so where do I buy a suitable punch tool from. Does the pound shop sell them? Seems like a tool will use once for this job and never again.

What size/type of punch should get?

I thought the plastic pins would snap without causing damage as I thought the bodywork metal be stronger? The holes are just holes in the metal bodywork aren't they? Maybe I am mistaken.

[petey]

From memory, I just pushed them through with an old 'precision' screwdriver that had seen better days. I guess the proper tool would be a punch of the appropriate size, but few people have a range of punches that small, and it really isn't the drama it might at first appear.

[jellison]

Awesome - Thanks

[2.4TSE]

Fourteen years and three months down the line (and 379 operations of the flap to fill up with fuel according to my record for the Tax Man plus probably the same again for cleaning from a quick calculation!), the top spring retainer on my owned-from-new V70 fuel flap failed last week.

I went down the new plastic bracket route rather than screws and as others have posted found it easy-peasy apart from the two centre pins that were a minor faff needing needle nose pliers to hold them until they bit in the expanding lugs behind.

I am glad I followed Simon@FRF's advice to clip the bracket on to the flap first as it all but removed any chance of damage to flap or car body from a sudden slip - though I still placed a large towel on the ground just in case I dropped the flap assembly (which I didn't!). The spring clipped in very easily after fitting the assembly to the car.

[Turbodave]

Likewise, just replaced mine but being of sound Scottish stock... I was too tight to buy a new clip so a breaker donated a complete fuel cover for £2. Removing the clip from said cover was tense, instead of risking breaking the black clip I broke the cover plastic away where the 'rod' is moulding in to then slid the rod out the clip rather than prise it out the black clip itself.

Clipped it to my existing cover door, refitted the spring, gave it all a good clean, picked up the little rubber washers from the garage floor after hunting for them for about an hour and then used small lengths of suitable thickness wire to use as the centre pins... had nothing else to hand that would have been the perfect diameter despite a furious search of the house and debating cutting up her mascara brush. All four tapped gentle in place and jobs a good un. Bit of a bodge, dear say I should have just bought a new clip and pins but it does the job and is more than secure.

Annoyingly, only discovered the clip is held on my the pins having removed the inner boot rims searching for nuts on the back of the quarter panel!

As for tapping the old pins out, I used a suitably sized drill bit

[ASt85]

Please see http://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showth...=34677&page=10

post 91 - and it works!!

[MY V70T5]

THANKS

i will go for it

[KYPREO]

Hi new member after finding this helpful thread via Google. My fuel door hinge pins snapped on the Volvo XC90. Problem solved. I preferred a different manner of using screws to secure the spring from the photos earlier in the thread. The idea is to create a barrier then pull the spring behind (simulating the role of the factory plastic tabs), not pull the spring back using the screws (which requires bending a washer). If you're worried about drilling into metal, use the old trick of wrapping electrical tape around the drill bit to act as a depth gauge. You only need to drill part way into the depth of the plastic for a self tapper to bite.

Pic of my fix.