Fuel Door Actuator Replacement Installation and Autopsy…
10-30-2008, 03:35 PM
#1
Safety Car
Thread Starter
Member Since: Aug 2005
Location: Eastern NC; Retired x 2 (US Army: 70-90 AD) (US Army: 91-16 DAC); yea, I'm old.
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Fuel Door Actuator Replacement Installation and Autopsy…
After reading Silver Devil’s thread about his fuel door actuator going kaput, mine did the same thing the next day. 
…so I picked up a new one from my local dealer and following Silver Devil’s write up and pics :thrumbs:, I installed mine last night.
I removed the wheel, fender liner and cooling duct. After 68k miles of blissful driving I had picked up a little extra weight in the form of sand, pebbles, the odd leaf or two and something I wasn’t sure what it was.
When I maneuvered the fender liner to remove it at the point where the brake duct and liner are attached to each other, this is what fell out:
This is looking at the rear of the fender liner where it attaches to the lower rear valance under the back up light.
And this is looking at the lower rear valance…
After getting everything back together, I decided to do an autopsy on the broken unit to see what caused it‘s demise even though I suspected it was a broken spring somewhere. I started at the back of the main control assembly and after unclipping the main cable from the front and the manual release cable from the back of the main control unit, when I looked at it, I was surprised to see there was no spring.
As you can see in the following pictures, the main control unit has a cavity behind which I believe is a magnet that is activated when the button inside the car is pushed. The magnet retracts a bullet-shaped cylinder which is connected to the main cable that goes through the fender above the liner to the fuel door thereby retracting the nub that holds the fuel door closed.
Main Control Assembly minus Cylinder:
Bullet-Shaped Cylinder:
Main Control Assembly with Cylinder:
Not finding a spring in the main control unit, I looked at the opposite end of the cable. The rubber boot comes off easily and by releasing the two small clips that are exposed at this point, the plunger is separated from the main cable.
Although it is a bit greasy (I had sprayed some WD-40 on it thinking it was just binding up), when I removed the plunger, out comes what was left of a spring whose wire diameter looks to be about two strands of hair thick.
All in all, I think I got my money’s worth out of the part; 68k miles divided by $58 for the part seems to be a good value. I did miss the World Series
but I learned more about how to fix my own car…
…so I picked up a new one from my local dealer and following Silver Devil’s write up and pics :thrumbs:, I installed mine last night. I removed the wheel, fender liner and cooling duct. After 68k miles of blissful driving I had picked up a little extra weight in the form of sand, pebbles, the odd leaf or two and something I wasn’t sure what it was.
When I maneuvered the fender liner to remove it at the point where the brake duct and liner are attached to each other, this is what fell out:
This is looking at the rear of the fender liner where it attaches to the lower rear valance under the back up light.
And this is looking at the lower rear valance…
After getting everything back together, I decided to do an autopsy on the broken unit to see what caused it‘s demise even though I suspected it was a broken spring somewhere. I started at the back of the main control assembly and after unclipping the main cable from the front and the manual release cable from the back of the main control unit, when I looked at it, I was surprised to see there was no spring.
As you can see in the following pictures, the main control unit has a cavity behind which I believe is a magnet that is activated when the button inside the car is pushed. The magnet retracts a bullet-shaped cylinder which is connected to the main cable that goes through the fender above the liner to the fuel door thereby retracting the nub that holds the fuel door closed.
Main Control Assembly minus Cylinder:
Bullet-Shaped Cylinder:
Main Control Assembly with Cylinder:
Not finding a spring in the main control unit, I looked at the opposite end of the cable. The rubber boot comes off easily and by releasing the two small clips that are exposed at this point, the plunger is separated from the main cable.
Although it is a bit greasy (I had sprayed some WD-40 on it thinking it was just binding up), when I removed the plunger, out comes what was left of a spring whose wire diameter looks to be about two strands of hair thick.
All in all, I think I got my money’s worth out of the part; 68k miles divided by $58 for the part seems to be a good value. I did miss the World Series
but I learned more about how to fix my own car…
Last edited by LJD51; 10-30-2008 at 03:41 PM.
07-27-2013, 12:14 PM
#6
The spring for replacement is available at true value hardware. It is 1/4 inch in diameter part number c554 (package of 6) and cost $3.59 takes just a few minutes to replace. You do have to cut the spring 1/4" shorter. A corvette fix for less than 5 bucks! My first in 40 years of owning corvettes!
Last edited by famdoc3; 07-27-2013 at 12:18 PM. Reason: Spelling
10-20-2016, 12:42 PM
#7
Melting Slicks
Member Since: Jul 2014
Location: The Lowcountry South Carolina
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Does anyone know if the release mech can be reached and replaced from the inside of the trunk of a C5 FRC? The panel(s) do not act like they can be removed? Thx, SCvette
Last edited by S.C. vette; 10-20-2016 at 12:43 PM.
10-20-2016, 08:57 PM
#8
Le Mans Master
The spring for replacement is available at true value hardware. It is 1/4 inch in diameter part number c554 (package of 6) and cost $3.59 takes just a few minutes to replace. You do have to cut the spring 1/4" shorter. A corvette fix for less than 5 bucks! My first in 40 years of owning corvettes!
10-21-2016, 11:50 AM
#9
Melting Slicks
Making some broad assumptions about how often you fill up and average fuel consumption, says that spring failed after only a couple of hundred cycles.
68,000 miles / (15 gallons * 20 MPG) = 227 door openings to fill up
That's pathetic. I've designed and tested springs to over 1 billion cycles. Obviously that would be overkill for this application but some design engineer should have been fired over this spring.
68,000 miles / (15 gallons * 20 MPG) = 227 door openings to fill up
That's pathetic. I've designed and tested springs to over 1 billion cycles. Obviously that would be overkill for this application but some design engineer should have been fired over this spring.
10-21-2016, 11:54 AM
#10
Senior Member since 1492
Making some broad assumptions about how often you fill up and average fuel consumption, says that spring failed after only a couple of hundred cycles.
68,000 miles / (15 gallons * 20 MPG) = 227 door openings to fill up
That's pathetic. I've designed and tested springs to over 1 billion cycles. Obviously that would be overkill for this application but some design engineer should have been fired over this spring.
68,000 miles / (15 gallons * 20 MPG) = 227 door openings to fill up
That's pathetic. I've designed and tested springs to over 1 billion cycles. Obviously that would be overkill for this application but some design engineer should have been fired over this spring.
10-21-2016, 12:24 PM
#11
Burning Brakes
