Broken fuel filler flap hinge - fix for pennies

If you are one of the "money no object" types who only use Volvo parts, look away now or forever be disgusted!

The problem:
Plastic teeth on the filler flap hinge break off/wear away so the spring is no longer retained. The flap can then swing open whilst driving.

The obvious solution:
Buy a new hinge assembly. Not particularly expensive and can be swapped in about 10 mins. IPD have a good "How To" video

The cheap and simple solution:

Neodymium magnets.....

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y25...psdcoz0ui4.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y25...pstu6ojzvl.jpg

These cost me £2.38 from ebay for a pack of 10. They are 12x3mm size. As I only used 4 that's a total cost of 95p. No tools required, takes seconds to fit and is removable in an instant. They are strong enough that they will hold in place without glue and provide similar retention to that of the spring. I wrapped them in black insulating tape just to make it look a bit more discreet.

On a scale of pikey fixes, I'm quite proud of this one!

LOL, love it :)

Yep, my old S60 and External Errors S60 have this mod ;)

Haha, I'm in good company then!

Nice mod! :-)

And there I was, pinching hinges off scrappers like a fool!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by M-R-P

And there I was, pinching hinges off scrappers like a fool!

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Hinges? Plural? I was surprised to find one intact, have you seen many? I expected it to be akin to finding an alarm siren with battery still in a scrapper!

I wasn't being ultra careful when I tried to remove the one I found but I reckon they are likely to be hit and miss due to the brittle plastic. I had to press the pins all the way in so they were lost upon removal and then the lugs on the back (that the pin pushes through) snapped too. Maybe I was just unlucky, it felt pretty well stuck on there!

It crossed my mind earlier that if anyone wants to be even more pikey than using magnets, adhesive backed velcro has got be a winner too. Now that would be a tacky fix (pun intended)!

Yeah, I got a working alarm off a scrapper too :)

OK, so downside of this bodge is that the magnet also collects dirt/dust, so there's a nice little dirty ring (oh er!) on the outside of my flap (double oh er!) marking where the magnet is attached behind. Obviously it cleans off fine but it comes back very quickly.

Think I might just buy a new hinge after all.

Man, I just never bloody learn! :doh:


I was starting to get irritated by this bodge fix, so with the replacement hinges being so cheap and easy to fit, I treated myself to a new one a few months ago. A cheapy from eBay (here we go :wallbash:)...........Lee, don't even.....:talktohan

Finally got around to swapping them over today and wish I hadn't bothered. What should have been a quick and simple job took twice as long as the new part is crap. And when it was finally done, the end result is tragic. The flap now sits proud of the bodywork at the leading edge by a fair few mm, it's glaringly obvious and just looks totally wrong, and it doesn't line up square in the hole any more. I'm going to have to get a new one and do it all again. I've messaged the eBay seller and hope they might offer a refund or something given I've bought other stuff off them in the past and they are a pretty good eBayer, but it's been that long since I bought it they could just ignore me.

As an FYI to anyone thinking of buying one, mine was made by PPS, Pro Parts Sweden, which seems to be a very common pattern parts producer for Volvos these days.

Yeah, Volvo forums accross the globe are full with comments about the ‘excelent’ quality of PPS parts.
I’don’t know if its the same in the UK,however here in Ireland Genuine Volvo parts prices went down significantly the past few months. So, its worth to check the stealership price first before going down the aftermarket route.

Well I've got the refund already. Credit where it's due (ebayer is called Parts Monster), I contacted them late on Friday night with photos and they replied shortly after at about 1am! Asked if I wanted a refund or replacement and I just said I'd prefer a refund as the part didn't seem faulty, it was just clearly a bad copy. I'll buy a genuine Volvo one now.

I don't always buy cheap parts but eBay is becoming a bad habit as it's so much more convenient. I'm not the biggest fan of my local Edinburgh dealer. And I've used Rufe in the past and will in future but there's the extra cost of shipment buying from them and having to call up in business hours. I do sometimes find genuine Volvo stuff on eBay at reasonable prices though.