# Gas cap



## babber (Sep 3, 2006)

Does anyone esle find it difficult to remove the darn gas cap? My wife can't do it,or she has a very hard time. I too struggle sometimes to get it off. Does anyone have a trick or tip on how to remove it with ease?

thanks


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## flynn (Jun 23, 2006)

Assume yours is the same as mine: plastic that's turned till it clicks?

Have you tried a little silicon grease? Only other way might be to make up a tool of some kind.


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## spiro (Jul 20, 2005)

My problem is dealing with the too-short plastic tether! It seems to wrap itself around my fingers before I can get the cap off, and gets in the way when I'm trying to put the cap back on.

Now that I think about it, maybe I'll just cut off that tether...


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## LEONGSTER (Apr 9, 2006)

flynn said:


> Assume yours is the same as mine: plastic that's turned till it clicks?
> 
> Have you tried a little silicon grease? Only other way might be to make up a tool of some kind.



Flynn, it's way better to use a teflon-based dry lubricant instead...

Silicon (even in trace amounts) in the fuel system will very quickly poison the cat converter.

Same thing for throttle body spray cleaners - make sure they're silicon-free.


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## flynn (Jun 23, 2006)

LEONGSTER said:


> Flynn, it's way better to use a teflon-based dry lubricant instead...
> 
> Silicon (even in trace amounts) in the fuel system will very quickly poison the cat converter.
> 
> Same thing for throttle body spray cleaners - make sure they're silicon-free.


Interesting that you say that, did you hear about the problems in the UK recently caused by too much silicon in a batch of petrol. Silicon is a standard additive in fuel apparently and used as an anti-foaming agent in diesel but so much got into one batch that it fouled the lamda sensors on some vehicles. See:Tainted fuel had 20 times too much silicon-News-UK-TimesOnline

If enough has to be burnt to foul the lamda I wouldn't overly worry about a trace smear well above the fuel level too much but you're probably right if you've an alternative handy.


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## Dan Diesel (Feb 25, 2007)

I agree about the tether, have only filled up once so far since getting the new XT (wow diesel goes a long way when you have been used to a V6 , 22 miles to the gallon!) I went to pull off the cap and dropped aganst the side of the bodywork as the tether was so short! I had noticed the car we bought was pristine other than some light scratches around the petrol (diesel cap), I guess this is why!


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## LEONGSTER (Apr 9, 2006)

flynn said:


> Interesting that you say that, did you hear about the problems in the UK recently caused by too much silicon in a batch of petrol.


Thanks for the link. I came across the headlines last week, but didn't think to read any further. I didn't know silicon was the culprit!


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