Fuel Flap release

[Alex]

Hi there,

Just bought my FD this Saturday and the little catch that pulls back to release the fuel flap (inside the fuel filler area) has decided to stay stuck inside its little housing.  I\'ve tried WD40 and wiggling the catch about, but there\'s only about 2mm protruding and I can\'t grab it with anything to drag it back out.

Is this a common problem?  And does anyone know an easy fix?

Failing that, can someone please tell me how to get at the release cable?  Is it from iside the boot, behind the panels?  If it is, a couple of pointers as to where to start on removing these would be great.

Thanks for any help, hopefully this isn\'t a sign of things to come

Cheers

AL.

[clive]

Hi Al,

How about with someone pulling the Release, tapping the flap ?

I had this a long time ago and ended up taking the interior panels out to the cable ,  you start with the speaker panels behind the drivers seat first to  gain access to the back panels, bit of a piggy of a job!.

[Alex]

Thanks for the quick reply Clive.

I\'ve tried the two person approach already and it\'s stuck like a bugger :mad:

Looks like I might have to go down the panels out route, at least it\'ll make sure I know the car inside out

If anyone else has any suggestions, fire away.

Cheers people.

AL.

[Alex]

I\'m sure a lot of you will already know about this link, but just putting it in for future searches by people with the same prob.  Hopefully with this info I can take the boot to bits without having to resort to large, heavy hammers

http://www.rotaryheads.com/PDF/3rd_gen/Mazda%20Service%20Manuals/1993%20Factory%20Service%20Manuals/(S)body.pdf

Cheers

AL.

[petemillis]

I\'ve had the same twice, and you just need to persist. Loads of WD40, and instead of just wiggling the catch about, push it in as far as it\'ll go and try and ping it out. You will win (hopefully!)

[Alex]

Cheers Pete,

I\'ll give it a go before I end up with bits of RX strewn over my front drive

AL.

[Ricco_04]

I had the same.  Used a lot of WD40.  Pushed the little catch in and used the release lever up and down to wotk the oil round the sides of the catch.  Seemed to work for me.

Good luck!