Now My Fuel Filler Cap won't unlock
 

Well this is possibly the most inconvenient thing i've ever seen.
I pull into the gas station today, with an nice 1/8th of a tank left in my car, and go to fill up. My gas cap wont open, i lock and unlcok the doors about 10 times, it still wont unlock the gas cap. i read the manual and learn to creep in around the right side through the tail-light and find the key to manually unlock it? yeah, the key snaps in half in my hand before i can twist any which way. Now i've got no gas and no way to open the fuel door (bent 3 house keys trying to pry it open, at least i know no1 would be able to siphon my gas). mercedes says"oh tow it here and we'll quote you to fix it", won't compensate me for anything after i argued with the manager for a half hour.
Absolutely livid, i've had this car from 70,000 miles to 75,000 miles and have faced ~8,000-10,000 in repairs. I can't be that bad of a driver can i?
anyone know how to get this thing open before i go at it with a crow bar?

Two of the C230s I looked at (including mine) had the metal part that the lock slides in bent so that it wouldn't lock. I have bent mine back so it locks and haven't had any trouble so far, but this would be highly inconvenient. Sounds like you got one of the bad ones.

wow that sucks i would call it the fuel door not cap. why would the manager pay to fix your car it is out of warranty is int it? what i would do is call road side assistance see if they will come help you. say you are stuck at home because you are afraid to leave and go get gas because you have none. worth a shot at least don't tell them you spoke to the dealer. Honestly my car has only needed about 3k in repairs and maintenance in the 3 years and 56k so i don't know what was wrong with your car to need 8-10k your car is only worth like 14k max anyway.

btw the part that broke is for sale on eBay for cheap i saw one last week.

To say an 03 C320 is worth 14k is very generous. Calling roadside assistance is a brilliant idea, Trey. :y

My thoughts exactly. Roadside assistance should be able to help you manually open it.

I was being nice i don't think it is nice to say his car is worthless but look at this. https://mbworld.org/forums/c-class-w...0-6-900-a.html i think i would rather have an 01 vs any other year up to 04 anyway because they started making them cheaper. and 03MBC320 i am not trying to be mean or anything just trying to help and be honest.

I dunno, you have a good 2001 Trey but that was an exception. Those computer endurance tested cars were awful.

not necesarily pay for it but at least somehow compensate for the past things that've been happening. First my radiator blows and leaks anti-freeze into my tranny fluid, which they quoted me 6,000 to fix. no recalls and tsbs on the radiator even though alot of people had the same problem and came to the conclusion it was a design flaw. Mercedes changed the radiators they were using in 9/03 or 9/04, but offered nothing to the people stuck with the crap Valero ones. So first that, and then two days later my gas cap locks up and wont open, so now I can't even get gas in it.
Yeah the car is worth 14,000 now, which is why i was so pissed when they quoted me 6,000 to fix the radiator/transmission fluid, but when it was bought it was a 40,000 car, i just cant believe that Mercedes is known for this high quality engineering and customer care/loyalty/service, anddd i cant put gas in my car, not at least without them wanting to quote me.

I called roadside assistance but made the mistake of telling them that i had tried to manually open the tank myself and the key snapped. they blamed me for snapping the key, told me thats what the roadside assistance people wouldve tried but wouldn't have broken it, and that they can't help me. No offense taken at all Trey, but for a Mercedes my cars starting to look a little like a POS, and i'm not coping to well with it :)

LilBenz, where are those lock pieces and any ways to get to them with the filler door closed

Oh, and i checked the fuse, fuse 15 in the trunk is "Fuel Filler Cap Unlock", it wasn't blown but i changed it anyways and no luck so its not that either

anyone think that disconnecting the battery would help? (i know on my IS250 that it reset the ECU by disconnecting the battery for a minute, which could clear up some minor computer issues), id just try it but i'm at class and the cars at home.. gonna try that when i get back.

I would not recommend disconnecting the battery. first i don't think it would help second you could blow the sam's which are 1k each from what i here. i would say that the mechanism is broken. btw how cold is it because if you could get it warm it might work again. yeah too bad you told them you broke the piece i would have played dumb and hoped they would have another idea to get it open. sorry about the radiator issue that sucks yeah 6k is way to much i found a re manufactured transmission with torque converter for 2500 with exchange and the radiator is not that much money.

its about 50-60 throughout the days, it rained hard last night? but that shouldnt do anything right? and this car has seen muchhh colder weather (New York) than it has been seeing with me (Florida..)

gonna go pry it open with a screwdriver, if that doesnt work it'll be back in the shop tomorrow

ok didn't know where you lived i know cold weather can do strange things. i would be careful i don't think you will get it open without breaking or scratching up your car. i would try to get to the mechanism from inside the trunk. i am sure you can get it open from there. you are going to have to do it anyway to fix the problem. :y

Grab a broken hacksaw blade. Give it a wrap of masking tape & saw through the plastic pin.

I second glyn

If this ever happens to my car I'm calling roadside. But Glyn's idea works in a pinch, too.

I too would call roadside - I would like to know what they would do without breaking someting or resorting to the blade trick or similar.

I took it in to Euro image, they stuck two plastic wedges into it, one on the top left corner and one on the bottom left, then used a set of 90 degree bent plyers to reach in and manually grab/slide the piston (which is on the left side if your facing the gas tank, directly in the middle), once he did that it popped open, we played around trying to get the locking mechanism/bolt to unlock and lock like normal but after a while it wouldnt, so he just cut it with a bolt cutter. Problem solved, just waiting for autozone to get in a locking gas cap that fits now, since they didnt have one when i just stopped by there

thanks for the replies/help! glad i can finally put gas in my baby again she was very thirsty

Isn't a locking cap a lot of trouble? Is it really this risky to not have it? Like I say, my car had the metal part bent so it couldn't lock when I bought it.

Do you really see that MacGuyver approach as a good long-term solution? :nix:

It looks penny wise but pound foolish to me. And your resale would take an even bigger hit - I know that I wouldn't buy a Benz that had this kind of solution - would make me wonder what other "fixes" could be hiding elsewhere. I'd recommend just biting the bullet and getting it fixed properly.

well its a little too late now, and anyways i plan on driving this car until it falls apart so i'm not to concerned with the resale value
and p.s. i'm all about ghetto rigging things :)

not really sure, my friends got one on his jeep (yeah i know big difference in cars) that just has a key hole in it, and a small key that goes on his keychain, it wont unscrew unless its unlocked. what have you heard about trouble with them? it seems simple enough, but if theres any risk or issue like you say then i wouldnt mind not buying it, and not having the issues lol

i thought the pin was medal? time to go look at my car lol. GL i would personally just buy the part on ebay and fix it but its your car good luck.

Locking gas cap is ghetto. I really don't think anyone will mess with your gas tank.. unless you have lots and lots of enemies.

yeah Trey the pin is metal, its a small cylinder. and lilbenz thats what i was thinking, i really dont have any enemies so i cant imagine anyone messing with it, not too worried.

thanks again for all the help everyone, and sorry for those who don't like the ghetto rigging, i just really cant afford the time/cost of repairing the mechanism (itd be an expensive repair considering it seems pretty difficult to even get to the piece/assembly, they'd also have to get the second half of that key i broke out of the lock, then probably a new motor or something, etc.), and *cross my fingers* i'm not too concerned with people tampering with the gas tank.

i'd just leave it since im sure by just looking at the fuel door, no one really expects that it just flops out since there isn't a handle to pull or anything. i mean the only ones that would know would probably be other mercedes owners, but why would we siphon gas from each other lol. just dont park next to nicer cars in a parking lot. lol

Just make sure that you get a gas cap that Benz diagnostics are happy with or you will get frequent EECS warnings & CEL's.

Random fact: It is not possible to siphon gas out of any (most?) modern car. This is because there is a check ball inside the fuel filler tube. This is a safety feature so that the vehicle does not leak fuel should it flip over.