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As many have noticed, the rear end of the gas filler door sticks up above the body panel, and that misalignment has always bothered me. After months of thinking about it, the solution suddenly popped into my head. I put a small vinyl cap on the bolt (the bolt that retracts to open the door), and it is just thick enough to make the door perfectly level with the surrounding panel. I have a box of such vinyl "caps," (which are often used to protect the open end of bolts and screws) and the one I used has an inside diameter of 0.2435 inches (or 6.20 mm). It slides firmly onto the bolt with a little pushing, and you do want it snug. When you push it on, you'll feel the spring that locks the latch pushing against you, which is fine. Just keep pushing. In the image with the cap installed, you'll see that I applied a bit of grease to prevent wear and allow it to slide easily into the female section of the latch. I'm not sure the grease is really needed with a smooth vinyl cap, but it won't hurt. It took one minute to "install" this very appreciated fix.
You may have to experiment a bit to find a cap that is both snug on the bolt and small enough in the outside diameter to fit in the female part of the latch, but in my parts box of such things, I found several different ones that worked. You can find such caps on Amazon, for example here:
They probably do, but I'm 71 years old and fairly stuck in my ways. Incidentally the angle of the photo gives an impression of variable clearances around the door, but it's actually almost perfect.
Can you put an after fixed photo up? Thinking about trying this. The dealer supposedly did a fix on mine. It doesn’t stick out from the body anymore but very crooked, almost touching on the lower right.
Can you put an after fixed photo up? Thinking about trying this. The dealer supposedly did a fix on mine. It doesn’t stick out from the body anymore but very crooked, almost touching on the lower right.
The picture after the "repair" is in my original post, and I mentioned that although the gaps with the surrounding panel look uneven, they are not. It was the camera angle because I had no room to get at a larger distance and the phone uses a wide-angle lens. And the lid itself is flush with the surrounding panel. Your lid should not be crooked, and I'm guessing that the dealer twisted the door hinge to make it lie flush. So my solution will probably not fix your problem at this point.
07-20-2018, 02:06 PM
