DerbyDad03

Greetings from a new member. We just took delivery of a 2007 LX, 90K miles, purchased via a private sale. So far, so good except for one minor issue.

When we test drove the vehicle the trunk and fuel door release cable worked fine. When the seller delivered the vehicle, the first thing he said was: "Minor problem. The trunk and fuel release cable stopped working yesterday. I tried to fix it, but the best I could do was unhook the cable from the trunk latch to get the fuel door to work."

What he did was unhook the cable at the trunk latch, open up the junction tube where the single cable from the driver's release lever splits between the trunk latch and the fuel door and then coil up the trunk cable behind the trunk felt for "neatness".

The first thing I checked was the well known "fuel door cable" problem where the cable end breaks at the driver's release lever. That does not seem to be the problem. I unbolted the mechanism and everything looks solid.

After putting the release mechanism back together, I went into the trunk and pulled the felt back to see what was going on with the cable. The attached images show what I found. The position of the junction tube is kind of it's "natural position" at this point based the tensions in the cable. I can move it all around and it goes back to it's current "curved" position. The "curve" is kind of the main problem as described in the text.





As you can see from the text, I can't put the junction tube back together because just as soon as I begin to rotate the long side of the tube upwards to insert it into the short end, the fuel door pops open and won't latch again until the tube is opened up and placed in the position shown in the pictures.

Now, I will admit that I did not try to put the junction tube back together and then reattach the trunk cable to the trunk latch. Perhaps pulling the trunk cable will do something to the fuel door cable, but it doesn't seem like that will help. Since I have never seen the cable in it's "proper" position I'm not sure if hooking it all back up will change it's behavior and lead me to the root cause of the problem. Has anybody seen anything like this before?

Am I looking at buying a new cable and replacing it?

Thanks for any advice you can offer.

ezone

Your "curve" is where the housing split apart and won't stay latched together.
I'd replace the cable.

DerbyDad03

Thanks for your response.

Yes, the curve is where in the housing is split. However, it will stay latched together. It didn't "split apart" on it's own, the previous owner opened it up. I can easily latch it back together, but as soon as I start to do that, the fuel door plunger retracts and the fuel door opens. The plunger stays retracted until I open up the housing again and the curve returns to the cable.

As I mentioned in my post, the previous owner open it up in a effort to get the fuel door to work. He correctly felt that having the fuel door work was more important than the trunk since the trunk can be opened with the key.

I probably will.

DerbyDad03

I replaced the trunk lid/fuel door cable today using the steps found in the online manual:

http://civic.hondafitjazz.com/manual2.html

The procedure for the cable replacement can be found here:

Trunk Lid Opener Cable/Fuel Fill Door Opener Cable Replacement

For the most part the procedure was well done and easy to follow, except that a pretty important step appears to have been left out.

Steps 4 of the procedure deals with the removal of the plunger portion of the fuel opener. The step suggests that you squeeze 2 tabs inside the "vehicle" (to be more exact, they're inside the trunk) and push the assembly out into the fuel door area so that you can release another tab and pull the plunger back into the trunk as show here:



The problem is that the fuel filler cap adapter (that plastic "housing" that surrounds the fuel filler tube, shown below) prevents you from pulling the fuel door plunger assembly out for enough to release the tab that holds the plunger.



You have follow these steps to remove the fuel filler cap adapter, which involves lowering the fuel filler tube. They don't mention it at the link below, but you can't get to the fuel filler tube bolts unless you remove the wheel and fender liner.

Fuel Filler Cap Adapter Replacement

Now, there is a workaround, but I'm not necessarily recommending it.

1 - Have your burly neighbor come over just as you are stuck at this step and explain the problem to him.
2 - Have him grasp the fuel filler cap adapter and pull it towards the front of the vehicle until you have room to get the plunger holder out far enough to remove the plunger.
3 - Complete Steps 4,5 & 6 to remove the old fuel door opener plunger and install the new one.
4 - Do your best to reposition the now slightly out-of-shape and slightly torn fuel filler cap adapter. (That's why I don't recommend this workaround)

I didn't realize that he was actually damaging the fuel filler cap adapter while he was pulling on it.

In any case, it's not that big a deal. I sealed up the tear with some silicon adhesive to hold it in place.

In any case, other than the missing step (a pretty important one, in my mind anyway) the procedure worked well and both my trunk and fuel door can now be opened from inside the vehicle.

venn

DerbyDad03, there's no need to damage the plastic adapter (plastic "housing" that surrounds the fuel filler tube) without lowering the fuel filler tube.

Push the adapter INSIDE the body instead of pulling it out.

The procedure for the cable replacement like you mentioned can be found at: Trunk Lid Opener Cable/Fuel Fill Door Opener Cable Replacement
... but BEFORE step 4 do the following:

a. Unscrew the two 10 mm bolts holding the fuel lid hinge.
b. Starting close to the hinge carefully push the end of the fuel filler cap adapter INSIDE and going around the perimeter walk the whole adapter INSIDE the body.
c. Remove the lid with the hinge
d. Turn and tilt the fuel filler cap adapter as you need and you will have plenty of space to do step 4 i.e.: remove the grommet (B) from the body while pinching the hooks (A) from inside the vehicle.

Do step 4 and complete the procedure listed in the manual.

Assemble in the reverse way.

Civic 2009 - Fuel adapter pushed in

Civic 2009 - Grommet with release cable for fuel lid pulled out

Civic 2009 - Release the fuel lid opener cable