Fuel Filler door
Fuel Filler door
(OP)
I am a reasonable intelligent person, but for the life of me I can not figure out why the fuel filler door is located on some cars on the passenger side. My wife who is blonde keeps asking me that same question, and I have no answer for her. In this time of huge filling stations, it only adds to the confussion with some cars pulling in one way and the others the opposite way. It would seem that a simple enough reason to keep it on the left side would be for driver convenience. Does anyone have a bonifide answer to this????





RE: Fuel Filler door
Cheers
Greg Locock
RE: Fuel Filler door
Other than the increased risk of blowing up, right in the middle of the rear end was handy.
RE: Fuel Filler door
And I can't believe NZ has any rule like that, as their compliance regs could be summarised "If the car is homologated in any of the following markets (long list) then it is legal here"
Cheers
Greg Locock
RE: Fuel Filler door
Now, my car happens to be dual exhaust, but they did not put the filler under the license plate as some cars I have owned it have had it located.
Is there any truth to that?? Surely Tom and Ray wouldn't put out bum dope would they??
rmw
RE: Fuel Filler door
The argument about the exhaust sounds valid, as does drivers side for convenience, but then so does passenger side for safety if filling from a drum on the side of the road.
Several British homologated race versions in the 60's and 70's had twin tanks and filler. Mini Cooper and Cortina GT spring to mind.
Regards
pat pprimmer@acay.com.au
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RE: Fuel Filler door
I don't know if it is a rule, or just an outcome from the difficulties caused by packaging the tank and the mufflers.
Cheers
Greg Locock
RE: Fuel Filler door
My intent was to point out that Humpty assumed that the drivers side always equals the left side.
RE: Fuel Filler door
Some countries or states do specify tailpipe position to some extent (eg Viper is illegal in the UK due to the side exits, California specifies heights)
Cheers
Greg Locock
RE: Fuel Filler door
Regards,
Cory
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RE: Fuel Filler door
As for locating it in the middle, do a search on "Pinto".
RE: Fuel Filler door
But all my single-exhaust cars have located the filler on the opposite side and my OE dual exhaust car put it right under the centrally-located license plate, so I also think that routing of the exhaust vs the filler pipe has something to do with it. Maybe the side location of a filler indicates a fuel tank offset slightly toward that side as well, leaving more room for the exhaust on the other?
Norm
RE: Fuel Filler door
I prefer my fuel filler on the passenger side (VW's in America) so I can open my door without problems. A co-worker thinks they should all be on the drivers side so everyone can drive to the right of the pump like driving on the right side of the road.
Here's a link to a thread full of car enthusiast's "wisdom" about fuel filler locations. Complete with a poll.
http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=750265&page=1
RE: Fuel Filler door
Aside from that one car, I can't think of another vehicle that has the filler co-located with the stock exhaust exit. Two of my other vehicles, both LHD variants of originally RHD models, have fillers on opposite sides... both opposite the exhaust.
RE: Fuel Filler door
I think the "opposite to exhaust" argument still holds in spite of the Fiero--after all the Fiero was mid-engine, which presents all sorts of different packaging issues that most cars don't have. Thus it would make sense for such a car to "break the rule", as the (presumed) design rule for front-engine cars wouldn't apply to it.
Brad