2007~2015 Fuel Door Release

[Bronco Boy]

Has anybody had their fuel door release stay in the "open" position? Mine is that way, and was so when I bought the car last summer.

When you pull the release lever, that all appears to work properly. I suspect that the end of the cable that latches to the fuel door is jammed in it's sleeve. I think it got dirty, pulled open and jammed itself. It's like I just need to pull it out, except you can't do that. I've tried lubing it up. Also read that if you reach in behind you might be able to free it, but that means removing the interior, which I really don't want to do. Hard to see in the image, but the round end is all that is visible, so grabbing it with pliers is a no go. I've thought about drilling a small hole in the end of it and seeing if a screw extractor will bite into it and maybe twist it loose.

Any thoughts? The fuel door stays closed and almost flush, but it's one of these things that bothers my poor brain.

 

[youri]

This looks like a nut the whole assembly is a nut. Could it be possible to unscrew the whole thing to pull it out without going in through the back ?

I have the same issue with my Mazda 3 2010, but haven’t got the chance to look into it yet. From the picture it looks like the same design, the Mazda 3 forum may have info on this since it is a larger user base.

Let me know if you find out anything !

edit: looks like we have to go in from the inside if it is the same as on the Mazda 3. That guy used oil to lubricate it which is not a good idea on plastic as mentioned in the comments on reddit. Silicone lubricant or something else would be better.

https://www.reddit.com/r/mazda3/comments/6lmgka

 

[Bronco Boy]

youri, thank you so much for your reply. I didn't even see it until last week, but as soon as I did, it got things rolling for me. Today, I ripped things apart and figured it out. Turns out the "nut" that the plastic latch slides within had some corrosion on the outer end, and had the plastic latch piece stuck pretty good. I pulled it all apart, cleaned it up, and got it working as it should. Here are some pics and detail.....


Remove the trunk, side trim, sub-woofer and end trim.

Remove the 4 tie downs.

Pull out the side panel and you will see the release mechanism.

It was very seized, and I couldn't move it by hand. After some bench time, I was able to move it a bit, but it needed more love. Apart it comes.

Cleaned up the "nut" with a drill.

Bench test video:

Installed and final test video:

See my full write-up here for more detail.


Found a cable-tie and a golf tee while in there, so win-win-win for me.

 

[youri]

Awesome. Glad it was an easy fix. I will get to work on mazda 3 to do the same fix sometime soon.