1999 LE fuel door hinge pin

Do not know, however, is it your intention to replace it with a much stronger spring? I find the spring in my 99 Camry CE is poor engineered--should have been a lot stronger. Every winter there are problems with either it or the spring pushing that little black prong which holds the fuel door closed.

Bought replacement spring from Toyota dealer. If I can't remove hinge pin I guess I will have to improvise another spring. Perhaps something stronger.

Thanks, Ron

Daughter's '99 Camry had the same kind of problem, the little torsion spring on the hinge pin broke, so instead of buying a replacement for it, I looked through my junk box and found a small compression spring and fastened it to the latch side of the door. Works great and it was a free fix.

I had to change my 99 LE fuel door spring about two years ago and was surprised to find out it was plastic, not metal. But, I did NOT have to remove the fuel door or hinge pin to do it. The Toyota dealer said it was a two minute job if you knew how and that was about right. Of course I spent the first ten minutes figuring out how to get the old piece out.

I have the old piece out. Can you explain how to put in the new spring without removing the hinge pin?

Thanks, Ron

Since no one has answered that actually knows, and it seems there must be an obvious answer, how about this for a complete guess: position the gas door half way open, compress the new spring and insert it from the outside working the ends into position before releasing tension.

Ok, I will post this to the group just in case it is helpful:

I'll try after going out and looking at it again. As I said mine was two years ago. But, when the Service Writer at Toyota said he could do it in the service lane if I had the part - and he was then busy, I took it home and gave it a try.

You can see when you have the new part that it does not go around the hinge pin. It is open on one side and clamps over the hinge pin. That clamping over part was the last step as I recall.

With the door wide open I slid the new part behind the metal piece it hooks over but only part way because the hinge area blocks it moving more than a mm or so. When I had it partially hooked on the end nearest me I began closing the door while maintaining light forward pressure (towards the tank) on the clip. At about the 2/3rds closed point there was enough clearance for the other end to slip forward the rest of the way so the U-shaped part was right over the hinge pin. I don't recall how I got pressure on it to snap it down, but I think there was then enough clearance to open the door wider again and get a thumb on it. I may have used a screwdriver to push the clip forward towards the tank at the earlier part where I began closing the door to get clearance as it is pretty tight when trying to get a hand in there.

Sorry I can't be more help but I did it - and afterward I could see why the service writer offered to do it for nothing. He said they saw a lot of them. Mentally my problem was thinking I had to remove the door hinge, but when I had the new part I could see it didn't go thru it, just around, but you're past that part (I just checked the newsgroup now).

Worked just like you described. Of course it took two people (wife and I) to open fuel door, since no spring attached, then about 10 seconds to install spring. I used a long screwdriver. Works just fine now.

Thank you, Ron

Right, I forgot that part - my wife helped me get it open too!

Orv