Hello,
My X350 fuel flap does not want to seal shut suddenly.
I can hear the solenoid make the normal noises, and when looking & feeling, the latch seems to retract normally.

I am guessing that either:
1) the latch does not protrude far enough to engage with the catch on the flap side, or
2) there is some alignment issue that prevents them from connecting as they should

Any advice? I attach some pictures. To me it looks like it protrudes the right amount, judging by how long the angled part is before it is just solid.
Are there any alignment settings?
The flap side does not seem worn down either, and of course on closing I cannot see if they line up or not.

The wet is WD40, but the movement action is decisive, I don't think anything is stuck.

Thanks!
Leon

 

Assuming that your problem is shutting fuel door close.
Looks to me that something made that burr on latch housing. Could it be something stuck to fuel door? And it prevents door to close completely?
I would file off all those debris and sharp edges on latch housing.

Also, take a red and put it on one of the mating surfaces on ONE side. Do it sparingly. Let dry
Close fuel door tight by hand.
Open it and see where 'paint transfer' happened.
You can clean dye-cham with alchohol very easy.

 

Thanks Big,

I don't see the burr?

Yes it is when closing - it does close all the way by hand, but there is no click and it just pops open again. (So I think it does hit that spring loaded bit, because it pushes out a bit again)
I will check for obstructions.

I like the paint idea, I did that with kids' powder water paint on the boot latch. Perhaps I will learn something here.

Does the latch part look the same on your car? I mean does it protrude the same amount?

Regards

 

@Leon_X350 Here you go

 

Thank you!

It does seem as if yours protrudes perhaps 1 mm more.
So I will do the paint trick this weekend.
I wonder if something can be adjusted from inside the boot.

 

Leon_X350,

if you compare your pictures with the ones from Big Koshka, it seems that your car is missing a kind of screw on the outside above the recess for the latch.

I don't know what it really fixes, but has this been missing for longer? If not, maybe it could it be the reason for your trouble?

Best regards,

Thomas

 

Hi Thomas,

I saw that for the first time when taking the pics. I thought it might be a recessed adjustment screw, but it's not. Then I thought OK a rubber cover bit is missing as below, but I see on the pictures of Big's car that there should be a screw.
I'll check it out better, but the whole thing does not seem loose in any way.

Regards

 

There is an emergency fuel door release behind the passenger trunk liner make sure nothing is pulling on the cable and it is operating correctly. It could be that is preventing your fuel door from latching

 

I opened up the boot trim, to get the the fuel flap mechanism.
I noticed that when I press the emergency release in the opposite direction (to the front of the car), the latch actually protrudes a bit further! (and the flap will stay closed)
So I had to remove the "rear electronic module" to get to the latch mechanism. It turns out that one of the bolts that hold the Rear Electronic Module, also hold the fuel flap open mechanism.
( I didn't have to unplug anything, could just get it out of the way)
I was hoping to find an adjustment on the cable, something like how you adjust the brake cable on a bicycle.
I could not find something like that, or I will have to dig deeper.

What I did find, to my surprise, is that moving the whole mechanism forwards & rearwards, directly affects the latch position - I can open the fuel flap just by pulling the whole mechanism back, and by pushing it forward, the latch will latch. If you look at the bolt that is now loose after removing the electronic unit, it almost seems like you're supposed to adjust the setup at that point. I re-assembled in the most forward position I could, and it fixed it, for about 5 tries. Now it is touch&go. I will have to revisit and think of a better plan. As you can see in the one picture, someone has been in there before and added a tie-clip, although not in the best position for this problem I think. I might add something similar at the top side, to push the mechanism (and thus the latch) forward as far as possible.

Thanks



Have to remove this to get to the fuel latch release mechanism

Tried to push that open slot forward&down as much as possible when tightening the electronic module's nut again

someone previously added a cable tie, but not in the best position imo

 

OK, seems I fixed it with a cable tie holding the top part of the mechanism in as tight a fit as possible, towards the latch.
Not convinced that this was in fact the reason - I checked the latch side of the cable between the inner & outer skin, and yes I can pull the housing (sleeve) of the cable backwards and out of the place it rests on the latch. Not sure it should be able to do that. It seems as if it should screw in or something, but I couldn't make it do anything except seat based on the pressure coming from the solenoid motor side. So far so good: