Fuel Door hinge

Osiris,

I had the exact thing happen to the fuel door hinge on my '07 Prius! I'm beginning to wonder now if this hinge is particularly susceptible to inordinate rusting..

I just ended up replacing the fuel filler opening lid hinge with a replacement part for about $3 (part #360-30080 at toyotapartseast.com) and called it a day but it was an irksome issue nonetheless

Anyone else have this problem with their Prius?

 

That wasn't a complete Toyota part number. It is probably supposed to be 77360-30080 which according to the parts listing has been replaced by 77360-02020.

That part is called a spring so double check..

RE your rust question. Sometimes a batch of parts don't get the proper finish, sometimes they screw up the design. The fact that they changed the part number indicates a design change big enough that they want to be able to specify the new design and not use old parts. That might have been to correct the corrosion problem...or not.

 

Can you post a detailed picture of it? Spot welds are commonly removed by drilling through them, or using a special spot weld remover tool that only cuts into the first layer of metal,

This is one example
Buy S&G Tool Aid Cutter 3/8 Spot SGT18000 at Advance Auto Parts

 

Those black round spots aren't spot welds, The look like blind rivets. Drill out the rivets using the indentation in the center of the rivet as a starting point. A 3/16 drill bit should do the job. Don't go very deep, just through the hinge. You may need to hold the rivet head with pliers to keep it from turning.

Once the rivet heads are loose, if they don't fall off, pry them off with a screwdriver and pull the hinge part off the car. If part of the rivet remains in the car body, punch it through with a skinny punch or nail and hammer.

You can install the new one with a pop riveter.

 

Because design for assembly is more important to them than design for maintainability.

I expect their intent was for the part to last the life of the car, but they screwed up by a bit. If you search for the hinge part number in Google you will find all sorts of pages on how people replaced the hinge on a variety of cars.

Also, the part number has been changed so maybe they recognized the deficiency and improved the part.

 

You don't need a new side panel and you won't need to remove the side panel you have You just need a door and spring and some rivets. Don't buy the Toyota Rivets unless they can be installed with a standard rivet gun.

What does the door and the other part of the hinge look like. Can you post a picture? If you know someone who can weld or braze, the hinge can probably be repaired and reinforced where it broke to save the cost of a new door but that would take some skill to make it fit right.

 

I'm suspecting that the hinge is bolted in from inside. Now I'm trying to get the panel that covers the seatbelt reel off so I can get at it from inside.

 

The parts list
2006 Toyota Prius QUARTER PANEL Quarter panel & components Fuel door Page Auto - Your Toyota Parts Dealer
looks like it is held on with rivets (item 9). If that's the case you can drill out the old rivets and don't need to get at the inside.

 

I am having the same issue on my 2007 with 180k miles. Looking for best way or an aftermarket replacement. Did you fix yours with a new door, and what tools did you need to replace it?

 

So i went to Toyota today and got a quote. $85 for the parts and installation, $110 to paint it, so a total of just under $200 for everything, you were spot on! I was excited when he said the $85, then he asked me if I wanted it painted. If I am going to that much trouble, I may as well DIY!

 

If you decide to forgo the pop rivets and opt for screws, make sure they are stainless steel. a couple of 6-32 X 3/8's or a 8-32 X 3/8's should hold it!!

 

I know this is an old thread, but I wanted to share my experience with fuel door replacement on my 2005 Prius. I got my fuel door on eBay for $25. It was scrapped from a 2008 Prius, but it seems to be the same part as the 2005. Color is slightly off, but that's fine by me.

The rivets that Toyota uses to hold the fuel door on are pretty big and have big holes. No screws I was finding were going to work, and I wasn't finding any rivet tools that worked with stainless rivets big enough at Home Depot. Seems like I would have to spend a lot of money on a rivet tool or find one to borrow through the grapevine.

What I ended up using was a pair of #8-32 x 15/32" rubber & brass Expansion Nuts, along with some stainless #8-32 machine screws and washers. The expansion nut is a rubber cylinder with a flange that drops into a blind hole. It has a threaded brass insert inside, so when you screw into it, it expands to the sides and grips.

The smallest Expansion Nuts I could find we're a little too big for the rivet holes on both the body and the door hinge, so I had to make them just a little bigger.

The top machine screw can be up to 1" long, but the bottom one should only be about 1/2" long otherwise it will hit something inside the body.

Then I stacked the parts like so:

Screw => washer => Exp. Nut => Fuel Door Hinge => Prius

and tightened the expansion nuts down.

Working great for me so far after about 1700 miles.

best,
Arvid