nota_troll

Having a bad day. Lots of fires to put out for clients today. To make matters worse I stop to fill my car and the gas cap strips. It sounds like the plastic cap broke and spins. I don't think it's the threaded section of the cap's neck but I don't know. Any ideas?

I did a search but found nothing.

faster

i would guess the ratchet system is stripped, grab it kind of firmly with a decent size pair of channel lock pliers and turn it left to loosen.

if that doesnt do the trick you will have to break out the dremel tool at low speed and do surgery to the top of the cap enough to remove it then you should have access to the bung part.

first suggestion should work though

nota_troll

Vise Grips no go. Anyone know the schematics of the gas cap?

tj90

Try fasters advice. Drill 2 holes through the red plastic and into the threaded portion below. Then insert 2 coat hangers as a pin tool to increase leverage. careful not to scratch paint if you slip.

faster

nota troll, use a fairly large set of channel lock pliers, not vice grips. dont worry so much about to much pressure on the twist part, the cap is trashed anyway, put enough circumferentual pressure to actually bind the outer part to the inner bung part of the cap.

nota_troll

I'll try that. Gotta make a trip to Sears for a larger one. Thanks again for your help.

Van1

This happened to me many years ago on a '77 BMW motorcycle. I consulted an expert who told me how to go about getting it off. I was instructed to take a 1/8 drill bit and drill down 3 layers (you can feel each layer as the bit goes through) offset from the center. Then I was told to take the drill bit out of the drill and insert it into the hole to lock all of the pieces together. It worked like a champ. Not sure how much, if any, of this procedure is transferable to your case but it might be worth a try. Just don't go all the way through the cap and get shavings in the tank.

Incedently, I discovered that my cap was stripped after I ran out of gas and had to push the bike to a gas station a mile away. I took the tank off, turned it upside down and took one of the petcocks off and trickled enough gas into the tank to get home.

JCinKC

This just happened to me on my 97 Boxster . . . .

After a couple of bouts of pushing, pulling, and swearing while turning the cap in both directions, I was finally able to pull off the outer portion of the cap. Then used a pair of pliers to turn the business end of the cap.

Lots of little plastic pieces inside of it, but the cap maintained its integrity.

$10 for a new one at Autozone. . . . .

mpruden

I bought a new Porsche gas cap that was like this from the factory.

On mine, if you would push down hard while turning (like a child proof pill bottle), you could get it to engage and loosen.