Fuel Door Torsion Spring

Has anyone been able to replace the torsion spring on their 3rd Gen Tacoma fuel door? I'm referring to the wire torsion spring, that is part of the hinge, that holds the fuel door open.

I'm not even sure if it's a replaceable part.

This spring on my '17 seems to have snapped near the lower hinge pivot and now the fuel door doesn't stay open on it's own.

 

Another place to lube. Great.

 

That hing is a known failure point. If not lubricated the door mechanism gets out of sorts. Happened to me, I had to replace the entire door unit.

 

I don't think it was a case of poor lubrication, just that the torsion spring fatigued and snapped.
In the big picture, it's a minor issue. If I let the gas cap hang and rest against the plastic wheel flare, it holds the fuel door open. I just don't like when simple parts are broken.

 

It is a failure caused by lack of lubrication. Lube it and it will last forever.

 

I had the whole door assembly replaced about a year ago. for some reason it was all out of sorts and wouldn't sit flush when i closed it. Never been hit, never received any trail damage that i know about. It was under $200 all said and done for a new door from the body shop attached to my dealer. Now i regularly lube the hinges as that's the only thing i can think of to prevent misalignment.

 

I got the spray can out and did my fuel door and the GF's 4R during your last PSA,, thanks for the reminder!

 

it puts the lubrication on the spring...it does this whenever it's told.

 

Did they do away with springs? My 22 doesn't have one.

 

The hinge pin is also the torsion spring. If it isn't routinely lubed where the sheet metal wraps around it, it will seize to the bracket at the red arrow below. Then, when you open the fuel door next time, it pulls on the bracket until breaks free. But not until after it deforms the bracket enough to kick out the bottom of the fuel door. It can/will rub the the paint off the bottom corner of the door every time you open it until the bracket gets straightened out.
I got mine back to tolerable. But not perfect. I am waiting for it to warm up a bit more before I attempt anymore work.

 

How did you remedy this issue? My fuel door has the same issue, just popped up the other day at the gas station. ‘17 tacoma, no damage to the fuel door that I know of. Sprayed it with some WD-40 but didn’t seem to fix the problem.

 

See post #10 right above. If the spring wasn’t lubed, you could have bent the hinge. Unfortunately the key is to lube before the damage. Also, I wouldn’t use WD40,, it’s actually a degreaser. I use a water resistant spray from the auto parts store,,, can’t remember which type.

 

White lithium grease in a spray can ... easy peasy.

 

I used some LPS "greaseless lube" It's what I had on the shelf, left over from a project at work.

 

My 22 is the same way. Really annoying that it just flops around. Not broken either to my knowledge, bought it brand new and now has 10k miles on it.

 

If you lube it, it won't fatigue and break or bend. Definitely a lube point