Broken Gas Door Hinge Fix

[scot850]

That tether clips over the top hook on the hinge on the OE part. Otherwise you get your issue with it getting in the way.

Neil.

[MrAl]

That tether clips over the top hook on the hinge on the OE part. Otherwise you get your issue with it getting in the way.

Neil.

Hi,

Yeah ill try that see if that helps.

I had a problem getting the tether to work right when i first got the new gas cap. If the same problem persists ill just cut the tether off. Ive gone 50 years without tethers.

[scot850]

Mostly me too, but she keeps reminding me to put the cap back on!!!!!!!!!!!

Neil.

[MrAl]

Mostly me too, but she keeps reminding me to put the cap back on!!!!!!!!!!!

Neil.

Yeah and more important with the OBDII engine spy in every car now ha ha.

Very little sun here again today.

[MrAl]

Some bad news.

I went to install the gas door with new hinge and i tapped the little plastic pins very lightly with a hammer and they broke off.
That's right, all four broke off and never went through the expanding part.

I have no choice but to place a curse on Volvo for doing it this way

Ok, so let me run this by you guys i hope you all read this.
How about using rivet nuts? Yes/No/Maybe?
Relatively easy to install, stronger than that crappy plastic expanding junk thing. For those worried about the breakaway protection, how about just using two of the four mounting holes. If it did break off again, easy to fix.

[scot850]

I can only think that for some reason either the cold or you had not got the heads of the plastic rivets pushed close enough before deploying the pins that they broke. I have done these a few times but either in a garage or warmer weather with no issues.

It is really unfortunate. Can you return with a complaint?

Sure you could possibly use riv-nuts and screws. All you would have to make sure is that the heads of the screws can pull flat enough for the hinge to close over them.

I would drill them out for the riv-nuts and use stainless if you can to prevent rusting and maybe even a little touch up paint where you drill through to reduce rust starting.

Neil.

[volvolugnut]

I suggest aluminum pop rivets. Slow to corrode, easy to drill out, and shallow heads.
volvolugnut

[MrAl]

I suggest aluminum pop rivets. Slow to corrode, easy to drill out, and shallow heads.
volvolugnut

Hi,

I would be afraid to use pop rivets because they deform a little in unpredictable ways when you squeeze the handles of the rivet gun which would probably crack the plastic. It's also hard to control the force they would put on the plastic. That would be after drilling out the plastic to be able to accept the rivet too so we would be dealing with thin plastic in some places.
To control the force it may be possible to not squeeze the rivet gun all the way and then cut off the excess shank, but that would mean not installing the rivet all the way in the way it is supposed to be.

[MrAl]

I can only think that for some reason either the cold or you had not got the heads of the plastic rivets pushed close enough before deploying the pins that they broke. I have done these a few times but either in a garage or warmer weather with no issues.

It is really unfortunate. Can you return with a complaint?

Sure you could possibly use riv-nuts and screws. All you would have to make sure is that the heads of the screws can pull flat enough for the hinge to close over them.

I would drill them out for the riv-nuts and use stainless if you can to prevent rusting and maybe even a little touch up paint where you drill through to reduce rust starting.

Neil.

Hi,

I was extra careful to make sure the bottom side of the plastic was perfectly flush against the metal because the mushrooming part was not very long so barely fits past the sheet metal body thickness.
The pins are so fragile though and i think they may have been defective too. When i got one out to examine it, it had flashing left over from the part molding process which made it thicker at the end that goes through the hole. I meant to check for a smooth travel before i went out there to install it but forgot.
It's also possible that the hammer head did not contact the pin squarely. When i saw one break i got a punch and used it in reverse because the handle end is perfectly flat so makes a good solid, square connection to the top of the pin to prevent any side force, but that did not help the pin just cracked over.
But really after i saw the mechanism up close i didnt like it right off. Too fragile. Something like that needs to be on with a better hinge. I mean geeze, the door is there to keep anyone out of the gas filler tube but if they wanted to siphon gas all the would have to do is break that hinge im guessing with a cheap screwdriver. Very poor design im my opinion but that could be because i saw the Hyundai hinge was all metal and very hard to break that off.

Thanks for the ideas and im still thinking this over. Very disappointing though to have that happen but i've never had to deal with anything that fragile on a vehicle before. I went out there today aiming to get this over with and instead find yet another problem.

[scot850]

Maybe Volvo has changed their supplier? I never used a hammer. These should be a push fit. I used a large punch (big enough to more than cover the head but not too big so I could see what I was doing). Some silicon oil on the plastic pins may also help.

Return it an ask for a non-defective part.

Neil.