Fuel filler door lock(can it cause parasitic drain?)

[misha]

Hi guys!

Is it possible that stuck fuel filler door lock can cause battery parasitic drain?

In another words....if the fuel filler door lock stays *unlocked* when the car is *locked*,does it use any power trying to lock itself and can it cause parasitic drain?

[jblackburn]

I suppose it's possible. My antenna motor kept running one night (even though it's supposed to cut off) - it was on the next morning when I went out and my battery was nearly dead.

What makes you suspect it? Have you actually checked for a parasitic drain by yanking fuses yet?

[misha]

No, i didn't checked it yet,but i'm tired of slaming near fuel door when locking & unlocking the car in order to keep it working properly.

When i slam it in the same time when i lock & unlock the door it works.
When i just lock the doors without slaming...it keeps stucking.

[linkhart]

My 850 had a jammed fuel door lock and had a parasitic battery drain. It would continue to draw 1.3 Amps after the doors were locked. The battery drain changed to 0.02 amps once I repaired the fuel door lock motor by taking it all apart and lubricating it.

Hope this helps.

[misha]

Thanks for the info,but how exactly can i approach to it?

I moved everything in that side of the trunk(i have wagon) in order to approach to it,but i couldn't see it at all.

Am i missing something,or i need to unscrew two torx bolts from the outside(from fuel filler door) and take it out from the inside?

[linkhart]

You will need to remove the two torx on the outside and it does come out from the inside. You need to carefully pull back the right inside panel to get to the area near the fuel door. To do this requires 1) popping up the bottom panel next to the spare tire 2) taking off the back corner panel with thumb screw and 3) then carefully prying the inside panel away from the under the trim on the back and sides. Be aware that there are plastic clips holding the trim in place and some of these are pretty fragile. It takes some patience but also some force. To get to the area I needed to peal back the side panel all the way up to the back side speaker housing. 4) once you have the area exposed, you can trace the two yellow wires to the fuel latch activator. There is one torx on the inside holding the latch activator in place. Once you have the whole activator latch housing out you can test its operation again using the remote. 5) I needed to use smaller torx and dismantle the whole device to re-lubricate the gears mechanism and reset the small metal contacts that are just pressure fit into the motor housing. As someone else noted the metal contacts into the motor housing are only held in place by the outer case and seem like they will not offer a secure electrical connection.
One other tip is that getting the hosing back in place is a bit tricky and using the wires helped me position the activator. I then put in the inner torx part way to give myself a pivot point to lineup the outside. Having two people would make this easier as it needs to be lined up from inside and secured from the outside once the placement is correct.

Good luck.

[misha]

Thanks for directions linkhart,i'll try this when i have a little more time for it.

Can you tell me how much time i need to do this?

Misha.