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The locking device is not a traditional solenoid in that it is not spring loaded in either position that require an electrical shot to move it away from that position. Instead it is a motor that will remain in the last position, it was electrically placed in, indefinitely. If moved to the extended position it will remain in that position forever until an electrical signal moves it to the opposite position. It will then remain in that position indefinitely as well.
So to avoid getting locked out of the gas filler I inserted a Christmas tree fastener in to the hole in the filer door hinge that receives the locking pin. It can be left loose in the hole for easy removal when you want to be able to lock the fuel door, or place a small amount of glue on the fastener to hold it in place until you wish to forcibly remove it.
This has had no ill affects on the lock. you still hear it click as you lock, and unlock the door. It just wont allow the car to lock you out of filling up with gas.
^^^ Absolutely the easiest owner fix for this whole issue! Door will latch and unlatch but the lock will not engage unless you remove the plug! Brilliant!!!
Elmer
Last edited by Steve Garrett; 04-23-2017 at 12:45 AM.
^^^ If you want it back and the plug modification killed the solenoid, replace the solenoid. If it works as described, it'll hit it with a shot of juice and assume that it moved to the locked position. When it unlocks, same thing, a shot juice and assumes that it unlocked.
I just got back from the garage where I plugged the locking hole.
Elmer
Last edited by Steve Garrett; 04-23-2017 at 12:45 AM.
I still wonder if the solenoid can be damaged over time if it tries to move to the locked position but cannot physically move.
I'll repeat myself. It's not a solenoid in the sense that it does not have a fixed, spring loaded position. From this point on I'm guessing, but I'm assuming it changes polarity to reverse position, or it is a rotating cycle. i.e. One pulse extends, and next pulse retracts.
Either way if you leave the filler door open, and put your finger over the locking rod while hitting lock and unlock buttons on the key fob, you will see that their is only a momentary force against your finger. There is not a continuous voltage applied. It does not continue to apply force to extend the locking rod. The computer sends a one time shot to the motor, and says, "There that should do it."
But you are free to do what you wish. It's just something I tried, and it works for me.
Ed
Last edited by Old Yellow; 03-31-2015 at 12:58 PM.
The ? really is why did they design a "locking gas door" at all??? Not much of a detriment to anyone want to dump something in your tank. And you cannot syphin gas out of modern fuel tanks anyway. I have a capless fill on my ford and it does not need to lock so that is not the reason.
GM remove the lock. This is a problem waiting to happen...........now for some long term for the rest.
I think that's a patented design, and has a few of its own problems. IMO. I like to top off the tank, but it's almost impossible to do with the capless filler tube and then there is the "special" funnel you need to dump a bottle of techron in the tank every so often.... It is handy though for quick fill-ups.
In the case of the C7, I think I'd rather have no electrical lock at all and a locking cap. I can see these going bad left and right out of warranty. Why GM left out a manual release is beyond me. What is that, 2 bucks worth of parts?
Last edited by CriticalmassGT; 03-31-2015 at 04:11 PM.
The locking device is not a traditional solenoid in that it is not spring loaded in either position that require an electrical shot to move it away from that position. Instead it is a motor that will remain in the last position, it was electrically placed in, indefinitely. If moved to the extended position it will remain in that position forever until an electrical signal moves it to the opposite position. It will then remain in that position indefinitely as well. So to avoid getting locked out of the gas filler I inserted a Christmas tree fastener in to the hole in the filer door hinge that receives the locking pin. It can be left loose in the hole for easy removal when you want to be able to lock the fuel door, or place a small amount of glue on the fastener to hold it in place until you wish to forcibly remove it. This has had no ill affects on the lock. you still hear it click as you lock, and unlock the door. It just wont allow the car to lock you out of filling up with gas. Ed
Okay, so here's how to fuel your car when the electronic lock fails.
First, verify that you have actually tried to open the fuel door correctly. Car must be recently unlocked. Passive unlock is not sufficient. Use the FOB, press unlock, open the driver door, push unlock on the driver door, verify the red light is off on the door lock button, try to open fuel door, by pushing the back half of the door in, then releasing, it should spring open.
None of that worked for me. When unlocking or locking, I was able to hear that fuel door was 'clicking', a weak noise that didn't sound substantial enough to unlock the door.
Unlike C6, there is no manual release inside the cabin. Ignore OnStar when they tell you to go looking for one.
I'm going to show how to override the fuel lock. I'm sure someone is going to complain that I'm enabling criminals. But anyone that isn't concerned about damaging your car would figure out the same thing in about 30 seconds.
here we go...
1. Pry off the fuel door.
I was just trying to get a peak at the locking mechanism by prying first the top, then the bottom of the door to see in. I used a wooden chopstick to peak in, that leverage was enough to rip off the door.
Here is the fuel door hinge, with the door ripped off.
2. Release the electronic lock 'bolt' by pushing it to the right
Here is the a close up of the door.
the rubberized circle in the upper right is the manual spring latch. (This is the one you push it once it locks, push it again it unlocks). It has the tab labeled with a 'D' just to the left of it. I've forgotten already, but I think if you fiddled with that , it'd release the manual lock.
Below the manual latch, running horizontally, the black cylinder is the 'bolt' for the electronic lock. it can be pushed towards the right, until it is flush with the side of the fuel filler housing. This is what has failed. When the car is unlocked, it should be retracted, allowing the door to open when the manual latch is triggered. Here it is still extended, despite the car being unlocked.
You can push this bolt to the right by jamming something into the front and then pushing sideways, or coming in head on from the left.
3. Door can swing open (make sure you push in to release the manual latch).
Here is the view with the door open.
You can see the electronic lock is engaged.
Here is the door hinge end on.
You can see the wedge that pushes in the electronic lock bolt if it is engaged before the door is shut. My problem is that the bolt wasn't retracting when unlocked, so the door is blocked from opening by the bolt through this hole.
Here is the door hinge from the top. You can see how the fuel door slides on.
It doesn't look like I've done any damage to the door, it should be able to slide back on, once I get the lock fixed.
I do not have a theory for what caused the electronic lock actuator to fail. I note that the bolt requires a lot of force to push it in, more than I would expect is normal. So I expect something in that bolt mechanism failed. The alternate expectation is that the door hinge was misaligned, causing the bolt to bind on the hole that it slides into ; but then the lock should work with the door now open, it doesn't.
So the good news is that I was able to fuel the car and get it home. I'll need to decide if I take it to the dealer, I dread them ripping apart the whole right side panel to fix this on a car with less than 1500 miles. Part of me wants to just hack saw off the bolt and go without a locking gas cap.
I'd love someone on the forum with a C7 to check two things for me:
a) When you normally open your fuel door, the lock is retracted, right? (It doesn't stick out as shown in the picture).
b) With the fuel door open, if you lock your car, the lock both should extend. Right? (it's safe to close the fuel door over the extended bolt, but why push luck, just unlock the car again).
keywords:
Corvette C7 Stingray fuel door won't unlock
fuel door stuck
Thank You, great information for future reference. Appreciate all the details and photos.
I'll repeat myself. It's not a solenoid in the sense that it does not have a fixed, spring loaded position. From this point on I'm guessing, but I'm assuming it changes polarity to reverse position, or it is a rotating cycle. i.e. One pulse extends, and next pulse retracts.
Either way if you leave the filler door open, and put your finger over the locking rod while hitting lock and unlock buttons on the key fob, you will see that their is only a momentary force against your finger. There is not a continuous voltage applied. It does not continue to apply force to extend the locking rod. The computer sends a one time shot to the motor, and says, "There that should do it."
But you are free to do what you wish. It's just something I tried, and it works for me.
Ed
A solenoid is just a coil of wire used to create a magnetic field... and is not necessarily spring loaded..
If the coil is just energized for a short pulse, then it does seem that nothing would be damaged if the plunger cannot move in one direction.
EDIT: Once I removed the whole actuator assembly, it was clear that the actuator is a motor, not a solenoid. It drives the pin closed, and reversed polarity drives the pin to the open position. That is why it takes so much force to push the pin back in if it is in the locked position.. There is no spring loading so you are mainly just flexing the actuator arm.
This thread just saved me. I was stuck at a gas station earlier with a fuel door that would not open. Must have tried a thousand times every combination of unlocking door, fob, etc.. Pulled the fuse--nothing. I even walked down to an auto store down the street and borrowed a 10mm socket, unhooked the battery for twenty minutes, nothing worked. Searched here for "fuel door won't unlock" and got to this thread. Went back to the auto store and bought some trim tools to get the fuel door off and used a Leatherman I carry in the cubby to pry the locking bolt back. You can bet after I get it fixed I will be putting a scrivet in the hole so this can't happen again. Absolutely worse timing for Murphy to show his face.....I thought I was going crazy at first...
I just learned by accident that the locking bolt will disappear in the hole. Permanent fix for me. Pushed it to the right with a small screwdriver and it is gone....It isn't coming back out. Still left the scrivet in there just in case. I used a left over scrivet from splitter and side skirt install. Also, pic of trim tool I used with the same MF towel folded and between paint and trim tool. Pry from top, stuff MF towel in gap then run finger around fuel door to bottom. Pull away and slide door toward back of car. Slips right off.
Thanks for the info and detailed pictures. This is good info to know if it strikes (always at an inopportune time!)
Sorry you had to learn how it works and how to get the cover open by being locked out of the gas filler!
Ed
Thanks!
Just realized I never posted the final resolution. For the record:
-The electronic lock was replaced under warranty.
-The dealer tech was able to just detach the electronic lock from both the old assembly and the new one, making the repair relatively painless.
-The fuel filler door went back on remarkably easy. I had pried it off with pressure on the vertical axis, but now I know to slide it front-back.
Otherwise, just finished up my first 2 yrs of ownership with the only problems being this issue and that the metal emblem on the drivers seat broke on one side.
Just ran across this thread. Have not been locked out of cap yet. I have noticed on my '15 the the solenoid has become increasingly loud and noisy almost grinding like. Sometimes noticeable sometimes not.wonder if I should be preemptive. I suspect the shop I use would look blankly at me if I brought this up.anybody else have in their opinion a noisy release. I honestly can't remember if it was this noisy when new.
I look at this thinking if someone wanted to open my fuel door, they could yank it off or use a nice metal screwdriver to get the door off. A scrivet to eliminate the door jamming on me at an in appropriate time seems a small price to pay to not have to dork with a balky solenoid.
I look at this thinking if someone wanted to open my fuel door, they could yank it off or use a nice metal screwdriver to get the door off. A scrivet to eliminate the door jamming on me at an in appropriate time seems a small price to pay to not have to dork with a balky solenoid.
Elmer
+ 1
Someone can just rip the plastic door off if they want access. Since I use passive locking its kind of a pain at times as well.
I never seen this thread but I had my solenoid (or actuator if you prefer) on my '14 freeze twice when I left it overnight in an open parking garage in the winter. Luckily it didnt happen when I really needed gas and after a night in my warm garage it worked fine. I was just going to snip the locking pin off, unplug it when it was 'open' or dremel the door part so it didnt latch anymore. I sold the car and didnt think much more about it until I read this today.
After seeing the christmas tree/scrivet idea here I found a christmas tree fastener in my junk box, it was the right size that fit snug in the hole but large diameter head so I cut it into shape. Even beveled the edge so it closed nicely when the car is locked. It easily pops out if you push it from behind if you want the lock to function. Took about three minutes to make it, looks clean if anything
Pic of the fastener and part number, bought it at one of the chain parts stores.
kp, I got inspired by your post and got this skrivet from a local hardware store. Trimed the head to a rectangle shape (the shaft was just right), and installed...works perfectly.
03-31-2015, 10:27 AM
Why GM left out a manual release is beyond me. What is that, 2 bucks worth of parts?
