Gas door locked

[SoCalTed]

Damn...I was driving the car last week and was approaching empty after some heated sporting about.

Pulled into the gas station to feed the beast and I could not get the gas cap door open. I've got 6k miles on her and I know that there is no "release" for the gas flap.

:thinker Finally figured it out that I had accidently grabbed the Valet key that AM. The gas flap "locks" when you use the Valet key. Luckily my wife had her keys on her, so it saved me from a potentially heavy situation.

Do yourself a favor, and make sure that you are not driving about with the valet key if you are running low on gas!

Cheers, Ted

[rydwhite]

Haha, I did that when I first got the car. I was standing there at the gas pump and couldn't get the latch to open. I finally figured it out, but I felt like an idiot at the time.

[AZhitman]

Here's one better: I've been in a G sedan (loaner) for a month now. Guess what? Loaners are ALL on the valet key!

So i have to pull the pin from inside the trunk when i want to fuel up (thank God I know a thing or two about Infiniti). Dumb design IMO (no interior fuel door release), and even dumber to send out loaner cars w/o the capability to open the fuel door.

[SoCalTed]

LOL....good thing they didn't turn off the trunk and then lock the glove compartment!

-ted

[szh]

Hmmm. I too had a loaner G35 car once and had no way to open the gas cap door - could not find any button or knob or anything inside the car!.

I was told by the dealer that the correct method is simple: just lightly press the gas cap door in and it will click open. That worked well for me! So I had assumed that this was the correct method. Is this not the recommended way to do it?

Z

[rydwhite]

That opens it as long as it is unlocked. If it is locked then, pushing the little door gets you nowhere.

[szh]

That opens it as long as it is unlocked. If it is locked then, pushing the little door gets you nowhere.

When you say "as long as it is unlocked", do you mean the car door needs to be unlocked or does the gas cap door have an independent lock of some sort?

Z

[AZhitman]

There is an electromechanical doohickey inside the trunk, that retracts a nylon locking rod (rod goes thru the little hole in the tab on the gas door).

I ripped out the interior trunk panel to get to it, and it pulls up easily.

Not putting a fuel door release (and lock) on the INTERIOR of the G was the stupidest design flaw on the G35. And no locking fuel door? Come on, guys! All previous Infiniti's have had an interior fuel door release.

[rydwhite]

I always have to push my unlock button on my keyfob to unlock the gas cap door. After I fill the car up and close the gas cap door, the car is locked. It is an odd little contraption they have set up.

[shodog]

Have you guys ever read the manual? The gas door locks when you lock the car doors. The gas door will unlock only if all the car doors are unlocked

I don't miss having a gas release. How many time have you got out to put gas in only to remember that you forgot to hit the release.

[rydwhite]

Yes, I have read the manual and I know how it works. But my old truck didn't have any lock at all. I just pulled the thing open. Simple and easy, you never had to remember to push any button.

[shodog]

Yes, I have read the manual and I know how it works. But my old truck didn't have any lock at all. I just pulled the thing open. Simple and easy, you never had to remember to push any button.

agreed, it would be more simple but also easier for some jerky to siphon your gas or dump some sugar in your tank. I prefer that it locks.

[szh]

Have you guys ever read the manual? The gas door locks when you lock the car doors. The gas door will unlock only if all the car doors are unlocked

Yeah, but your point would make a lot more impact on me if I owned a G35. Agreed!

However, if it is a car I am borrowing (a loaner car from the dealer for example), then the lack of an inside fuel door release is a problem. They should have had one just like the arm-rest mounted one on the M45 I currently have or the two Q45's I have owned.

When I got myself in a fix with a loaner (at a gas station without much gas to go anywhere,) I certainly did not want to search through an owner's manual (if there had been one in the glove box, by the way) to figure out what was going on. If I had not had a cell phone to call the dealer and ask, it would have been far more annoying!

Z