Broken Gas Door Hinge Fix

[abscate]

Have you guys popped off the rubber gaiter to see if you can access the pins?

[MoVolvos]

*
Not sure how far along you are or what you've decided to do but here are a few more pictures on what I did in case you want to give this a try.

Remove the tension ring and push the entire outer rubber lip inward to detach the rubber neck. Do not push the entire neck in too far. Next slide it to the left to expose the back of the 4 holes.

*

0_MVS.jpg (412.58 KiB) Viewed 395 times

*

I did enlarge all 4 holes in the black hinge in order to use the stainless machine screws. The nylon insert lock nuts will keep the screws from loosening. The star washer will keep the nuts tight against the back of the sheet metal.

*

1_MVS.jpg (529.12 KiB) Viewed 395 times

*

This is what I used to hold the nut when the screw is threaded.

*

2_MVS.jpg (378.86 KiB) Viewed 395 times

*

1) Green Arrow: Insert a thin rag or strong paper towel to catch the nuts. Before doing so I managed with difficulty to fish out two nuts with a magnet but lost one in the narrowing abyss.

2) Blue Arrow: Before use thread a nut on the machine screw and cut. This way the threads on the nut can clean the cut when you back it off. This is the only screw that needs to be shortened.

3) Red & Yellow Arrow: I'm a little fuzzing on this one but I believe I attached the two end ones backwards first. The tapered cone screw helped centering the hinge in the sheet metal holes while the two yellow ones were attached.

4) The alignment seemed fine.

*

3_MVS.jpg (464.66 KiB) Viewed 395 times

3__MVS.jpg (533.42 KiB) Viewed 395 times

3___.jpg (612.3 KiB) Viewed 395 times

*

I thought by cutting the slots deeper the door would have more spring and pop out further. It didn't so I used some shrink connector with the glue on the inside to help bring back the height lost from deepening the slots. You won't need it.

However, I did need the zip tie in order for the spring not to pop off the bridge. When you drill the two holes you'll have to eye ball where it comes from the back. I winded up drilling 3 holes as the zip tie would bind/rub as the hinge move through it's rotation.

*

4_MVS.jpg (514.92 KiB) Viewed 395 times

4__MVS.jpg (472.33 KiB) Viewed 395 times

*

[MrAl]

*
Not sure how far along you are or what you've decided to do but here are a few more pictures on what I did in case you want to give this a try.

Remove the tension ring and push the entire outer rubber lip inward to detach the rubber neck. Do not push the entire neck in too far. Next slide it to the left to expose the back of the 4 holes.

*
0_MVS.jpg
*

I did enlarge all 4 holes in the black hinge in order to use the stainless machine screws. The nylon insert lock nuts will keep the screws from loosening. The star washer will keep the nuts tight against the back of the sheet metal.

*
1_MVS.jpg
*

This is what I used to hold the nut when the screw is threaded.

*
2_MVS.jpg
*

1) Green Arrow: Insert a thin rag or strong paper towel to catch the nuts. Before doing so I managed with difficulty to fish out two nuts with a magnet but lost one in the narrowing abysses.

2) Blue Arrow: Before use thread a nut on the machine screw and cut. This way the threads on the nut can clean the cut when you back it off. This is the only screw that needs to be shortened.

3) Red & Yellow Arrow: I'm a little fuzzing on this one but I believe I attached the two end ones backwards first. The tapered cone screw helped centering the hinge in the sheet metal holes while the two yellow ones were attached.

4) The alignment seemed fine.

*
3_MVS.jpg
3__MVS.jpg
3___.jpg
*

I thought by cutting the slots deeper the door would have more spring and pop out further. It didn't so I used some shrink connector with the glue on the inside to help bring back the height lost from deepening the slots. You won't need it.

However, I did need the zip tie in order for the spring not to pop off the bridge. When you drill the two holes you'll have to eye ball where it comes from the back. I winded up drilling 3 holes as the zip tie would bind/rub as the hinge move through it's rotation.

*
4_MVS.jpg
4__MVS.jpg

*

Hi,

Oh i see now, so you can access the area behind the hatch door holes from right inside the gas port hole itself, so no need to go in through the back of the inside panel. I think that is very clever not sure how you figured that out.

I ordered a new part but i like that idea better. Thanks for the info there. Nylon anti-vib nuts too, great choice.

[abscate]

l. I think that is very clever not sure how you figured that out.

I think I know how he figured that out. We have seen farther further because we have stood on the shoulders of giants.

Thanks MoVo!

[scot850]

Great mother of Invention! My only negative comment is it just seems like a lot of work v's price of the part. Once the part becomes NLA then this will become a very valuable piece of information, so many thanks!

Neil.

[MoVolvos]

*
It is time consuming the first time around for sure and there is a problem with this setup. If it really gets snagged on something there could be a good amount of bent sheet metal until the other plastic parts of the hinge break away. I can tell you that the OE does break away quite easily so not sure I like that but do understand Volvo's design intent.

*

[scot850]

In owning and repairing several P80's over the last 20 years I have only repaired/replaced one hinge on a P80 and one on a P2. The P2 one had been bad for years. Still no idea how it was broken. Same basic design as the P80. The P80 was on a friends 98 V70 that took to refusing to operate at -20C and below and got broken when the latch was forced at the gas station.

I have replaced a few plastic latches again as the solenoid had not worked. 850 is great as it has the manual release. I have modified as mentioned earlier with the wire rod from an 850. Like many of the 'faults' we have with these old cars is age related (cars not necessarily the owner!) and lack of maintenance. A few drops of silicon oil on the plastic plunger of the solenoid latch helps reduce the chances of failure to open.

Neil.

[MrAl]

Great mother of Invention! My only negative comment is it just seems like a lot of work v's price of the part. Once the part becomes NLA then this will become a very valuable piece of information, so many thanks!

Neil.

Hi again,

Yes, and that should allow me to use my metal hinge. I'd like to be able to bolt that right on to both the car and the door. End of another stupid, stupid design again from Volvo.

For now though my new hinge came in already that was pretty quick. So i'll be installing that. Looks pretty nice and the spring works right too.

[MrAl]

*
It is time consuming the first time around for sure and there is a problem with this setup. If it really gets snagged on something there could be a good amount of bent sheet metal until the other plastic parts of the hinge break away. I can tell you that the OE does break away quite easily so not sure I like that but do understand Volvo's design intent.

*

My old and very cheap Hyundai had a metal hinge and in the many years i owned it there was never a problem with that. I think the main thing is that it should open all the way, but if it's closed there is little that can go wrong i think.

Was it that they saw countless gas doors ripping up the sheet metal? I cant believe it because my experience has been good.
Big Co's make a lot of strange decisions and none worse than Microsoft. They even flipped back and forth on several problems. First then do it one way, then next version the other way, then the next version after that they do it the same way as before, then back again next version. It's nuts, but my explanation is they have a lot of worker turnover and inexperienced people making decisions.
One notable example is with the Windows API function for generating a simple message box. That's the thing that pops up now and then and tells you about the problem or what you might do next and usually has buttons like YES, NO, CANCEL. In one version i think it was Win95 they had it set up so that the characters across the box was limited to 80 characters. That was stupid to begin with and many programmers did not like that, but everyone learned to live with it. Then i think it was Win98 then allowed any number of characters limited only by the screen width of the end user (or something like that) so you could have a message in your program pop up with a longer line of text. It was pretty nice. Then, and even worse, after many programmers put out countless programs that used that ideology they put it back to 80 characters (or around there) and that broke many programs that were already sold to people. If those people "upgraded" to the newer version of Windows, they would find their message box text all messed up. Programmers complained but it's still the same now in Win 11 and probably Win 10 also.

Well anyway, hopefully tomorrow i can install my new hinge. Woo

[MrAl]

In owning and repairing several P80's over the last 20 years I have only repaired/replaced one hinge on a P80 and one on a P2. The P2 one had been bad for years. Still no idea how it was broken. Same basic design as the P80. The P80 was on a friends 98 V70 that took to refusing to operate at -20C and below and got broken when the latch was forced at the gas station.

I have replaced a few plastic latches again as the solenoid had not worked. 850 is great as it has the manual release. I have modified as mentioned earlier with the wire rod from an 850. Like many of the 'faults' we have with these old cars is age related (cars not necessarily the owner!) and lack of maintenance. A few drops of silicon oil on the plastic plunger of the solenoid latch helps reduce the chances of failure to open.

Neil.

That sounds good and speaks about the reliability i guess.

I know how mine got broken. It was because of the new gas cap i had to buy because the last repair place lost the gas cap. The new one came with a strange tether. That thing would droop down and get in the way of the bottom part of the door and keep it from closing, so the gas attendants would bang it closed. A couple times and the hinge was history.
One good came out of this, at least now i know a few ways to fix the hinge.