406 petrol flap removal

Here's some words of wisdome glened from this NG a while back which got my busted flap sorted. (I got a new flap off Ebay BTW) fraid I don't know who the OP was.

Gently tap the long hinge pin upward about an inch so the smaller diameter parts of the pin are in line with the two parts of the hinge.(You'll see what I mean when you do it) You'll see abit of pastic protruding from the flap just above the pin, which prevents the pin working it's way upwards by iteself. Then pull the flap off the pin. With a sharp knife cut around the joint of the painted bit to the rest of the flap. Clean up where they meet and glue together with new flap.. (The OP suggested superglue but I'm more into EVO stick which worked fine for me.)

That would be me! Here is the entire post.

The bit that opens the flap is part of the hinge and is just a piece of plastic that goes up against the bodywork at the hinge and bends slightly. Then when the release is pulled it "unbends" and opens the flap. It breaks if you close the flap too hard. To fix it you need a new flap, and it comes unpainted. However I have got round this. Gently tap the long hinge pin upward about an inch so that the smaller diameter parts of the pin are in-line with the two parts of the hinge. (you'll see what I mean when you do it!) You'll see a bit of plastic protruding from the flap just above the pin, which prevents the pin from working its way upward by itself. Then pull the flap off the pin. With a sharp knife cut around the join of the painted bit to the rest of the flap until the two parts come apart. Do the same with the new flap. Clean up where the two parts meet and super glue the painted bit to the new flap part carefully so that no glue gets on the painted bit. Put a weight (book?) on it and leave for 30 mins or so. Then push it back on the pin and tap the pin down so that it is under the protruding bit of plastic. All should now work!

Thanks for that one Nigel..It worked a treat on mine, I'm chuffed every time I fill up now without the need for a little wooden wedge for the release handle. rgds... Djimbo.

Hello, Nigel! You wrote on Fri, 05 Oct 2007 01:15:10 GMT:

??>> Here's some words of wisdome glened from this NG a while back which ??>> got my busted flap sorted. (I got a new flap off Ebay BTW) fraid I ??>> don't know who the OP was. Gently tap the long hinge pin upward about ??>> an inch so the smaller diameter parts of the pin are in line with the ??>> two parts of the hinge.(You'll see what I mean when you do it) You'll ??>> see abit of pastic protruding from the flap just above the pin, which ??>> prevents the pin working it's way upwards by iteself. Then pull the ??>> flap off the pin. With a sharp knife cut around the joint of the ??>> painted bit to the rest of the flap. Clean up where they meet and glue ??>> together with new flap.. (The OP suggested superglue but I'm more into ??>> EVO stick which worked fine for me.) N> That would be me! Here is the entire post.

Cheers chaps....pin really stiff to move up got old flap off and new one on but cannot get pin to back down worried i will break off something but closes and open ok which is what matters

Got it painted for free cos car need a new wing...didnt fancy doing the cut and superglue