Darrell's weblog

It’s my own fault really. There is a plastic retainer that serves two purposes for the fuel door. First, it holds the thing on the car. Second, it provides a pair of tines to hold the spring the holds the door open or shut. Well, those two tines had broken off, so the fuel door was basically free-floating, although it seemed to always stay shut while I was driving. Also, my car has an ingenious locking mechanism that would lock the door shut automatically when i was away from the car, so no worries there.

Anyway, I hear tell about this nice car wash at the gas station by my house, the revered LaserWash 4000. So we fill up on gas and head into the wash. Sometime during the wash, I hear a bang frm the rear of my car, but I can’t place it, so I ignore it (typical guy). When I get home, I notice that THE FUEL DOOR IS GONE (OMG)! Apparently, the banging noise I heard was the Laserwash ripping the fuel door from my car. This almost certainly would not have happened if the spring was able to hold the door shut properly.

So we went back to the gas station, and Heather got an attendant to rescue my scared and lonely fuel door from the car wash. My car is at the shop right now getting the plastic piece replaced, which I should have gotten replaced long ago. Oh well. See below for a picture of what my car looks like without the fuel door…