I know there have been numerous posts already about the fuel door breaking. I was wondering if anyone knows of an aftermarket that replaces the whole assembly, not just the door itself. All the ones I checked into rely on the original hinge.

I broke mine washing the truck, accidently shot the inside of the open door with almost-full pressure from one of those fire-nozzle gizmos. (they produce some pretty good pressure)

I am going to take it in and get it replaced under warranty, but unless Ford beefs up the plastic shaft and hinge hole, it looks like it will be a recurring problem for me. (as much as I would try to baby it, the caveman will always win out)

I would be willing to spend the $$ for a well built billet one that replaces the whole Ford plastic one.

 

The factory ones are plastic, go figure. I replaced mine with a chrome aftermarket one and they readily available on Ebay or your local aftermarket place.
Trev

 

Did you just get a fuel door, or a whole new assembly that replaces the factory hinge?

EDIT: By the way, that is a VERY nice black Screw you got there, Trev.

 

Mine has broke twice. And it's not like I slam it or blast it with pressure washers, I open and close it as if it were made of glass, and the stupid thing still breaks.

 

Waiting to hear from these folks. (fueldoors.com)
Porkchop said he used one of these on his Cobra, and the quality was real good.

This would replace the entire door and hinge assembly, not just bolt on a billet door onto the existing hinge.

 

I banged on their inbox.(fueldoors.com) They said the F150 was on their list of things to do. They didn't know when though...Kevin

 

The new door attaches to the existing PLASTIC arm. I do like the fueldoors version alot better, but it wasnt availble so i bought mine. I guess i can always sell it on ebay when the new ones come out.
P.S. Thanks, it even looks better now as i had the paint Minged (better than dealer paint protection package) today, and had them tint all the windows to limo black while they had it.
Later Trev

 

So I have the issue with my fuel door now too.... I took it into the Ford service center this morning and they referred me to their body shop. The body shop says they are going to have to order parts and paint them to match. Does that sound right or can they just fix the door "hinge" assembly and reuse the exterior door (and then not have to repaint anything)? Thanks...

 

Does the hinge break, or is it the plastic spring that breaks? Or is it both? Mine hasn't broken yet (I havn't given it many chances yet.) Seems like if it is the spring it could be replaced with a more robust design (once people get tired of using the warranty.)

 

I'm not really sure what broke... (I wish I knew so I could just fix it myself!) But there is no tension on the door at all, so maybe it's just the spring. I need to find another f150 around here so I can see how it works when it's not broken.

It was interesting also that the body shop tech tried to blame the problem on me. He said that I must have opened it too hard!? I told him that others had this problem too... not my fault!

 

I have one of those "Fire Nozzle" deals from Wall-Mart. It does crank up quite a bit of pressure. I wouildn't spray my panels with it on 'MAX". I had it at about 3/4. The blast when (accidently) directed at the back of the open fuel door broke it. (I like to clean inside the fuel door area)

The part that breaks is: the curved arm that you see disappearing into the back of the assembly, it has a hollow, tubed, hole that is (for lack of a better term) geared, and a white plastic pin that inserts into the hole with a little arm at the top (where the actual spring hooks to) that is geared to match the gearing in the hole. Maybe notched is a better word than geared.

The notching inside the hole actually strips, allowing the little arm (that has the spring hooked to it) to move, or "push back". The hole is actually the end of the curved arm that the fuel door is attached to. So the fule door just flops open. There is nothing wrong with the spring itself, except maybe it's too strong for the application.

 

Here is a picture (borrowed from ashcraft1973's gallery) of the assembly.....the white arm that is part of the pivot pin is visable.




Here is a crude drawing illustrating the problem.....the notching strips out.

 

I have a Black Lariat.... yeah, I can't believe they'd need to paint one just to fix the silly fuel door. Crazy.

Thanks for the photo/diagram Net Wurker!

Well, since this is the only problem I've had with my Lariat for 10,800 miles, I'm pretty happy all things considered!

 

The diagram and photo are great, thanks! You can really see why it fails. Basically, the wire spring is going to collide with the white post on the underside of the white tab, forming the open position stop. Since there is not going to be any give (it has to bend the stiff wire at a point, rather than along the entire arc) it will cause large forces with any deflection at all. The high force will strip the tiny splines. So just the door's inertia of hitting the stop while flipping the door open, or bumping it while open could cause failure.

Of course all bets are off if there is a different stop somewhere. If not, one could probably be added with stick-on rubber bumpers, eliminating the problem for good.

 

I looked at mint this morning, and the stop is on the arm, not the wire on the post. Looks like the splines are simply too weak. Shoot, thought we might have come up with an easy fix.