Gas tank door won't open on 2003 ES300
 

Sorry if this has already been addressed ... I couldn't find anything. My gas tank door doesn't seem to want to open. When I hit the button under the steering wheel, it tries to open, but it won't "pop" out, if that makes sense.

The only way to get it to open is to shove a credit card in there, and then press the button. That forces it to stay open. It's like it doesn't have quite enough force to open. I've done some Googling, and it sounds like it might be related to a spring in there or something?

If anyone has encountered this and knows of a fix, that would be great. It's an '03 ES300.

It is a fuel door spring that may have popped off at some point. Happened to me as well and had to use pull cord in trunk to open fuel door until I made the easy fix. The Lexus part number is 77360-30080. It just snaps on...easy.

Thanks kf3118. I'll give that a shot.

I recently had this issue on my car and wanted to post so that it might help someone else. My release button would make a sound when pushed but not release the fuel door. After popping it open with a credit card while pushing the button, I saw that the hinge was not very well lubricated. I sprayed it with WD-40 to lubricate the hinge and it's working now.