Gas door won't stay open

..no longer clicks, anyone know what broke & how fix? Thx

There is a semi circular spring tab in there, take the flap off the car and take a close look. The spring tab has probably dislodged and flapping loose in the housing. Make sure it goes back in the right place or you could dent the outside skin (like I did a day after buying the car....)

Originally Posted by hqstu

There is a semi circular spring tab in there, ... The spring tab has probably dislodged ...

Ditto...your spring is either broke, lose, or missing.

See item # 8 in the diagram below. This same part has been used on 11 BMW models (e12/e21/e23/e24/e28/e31/e32/e34/e38/e39/e53) going all the way back to the e12 5 series...so there's a long time history if you need to search for how to replace the spring. I'm sure that sometime between the mid 70s (e12) up till 2006 (e53) someone has had a broken/missing/loose fuel filler door spring....which means there's gotta be something written about it.

Click this link & scroll down to #8 to get the 11 digit BMW part nbr: http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...41&fg=25&hl=18

You can see the spring in this pic below of my e38's fuel filler door...it is the curved metal thing (#8) that goes from the middle of the (black) hinge(#7) to the car's (silver) fuel filler door (#6):

Thanks much but the spring's there, only something would keep the door open before with a click. Click gone.

I had the same problem. I found that the problem was actually a broken hinge. The spring was fine. The first photo shows the broken part. The second show a new hinge with the part number on the label.

Yes thanks. I see the issue on mine. The ribbon-like spring is fine and the way door normally stays open is the spring slides around a part of the plastic hinge that is now broken.

Originally Posted by ztom

Yes thanks. I see the issue on mine. The ribbon-like spring is fine and the way door normally stays open is the spring slides around a part of the plastic hinge that is now broken.

I had never noticed that before.



Since this appears to be a new issue, I'll add it to the bestlinks ... probably piggybacked on the gas door tether thread:
> E39 (1997 - 2003) > Hints on replacing a broken BMW E39 gas cap tether leash

Originally Posted by ztom

Yes thanks. I see the issue on mine. The ribbon-like spring is fine and the way door normally stays open is the spring slides around a part of the plastic hinge that is now broken.

Yep, that's the problem. Replacing the hinge is the solution.