[KiaCanuck]

I've had this issue 3 times now, I go to fill up my tank and the fuel door won't open. It's not frozen, it moves, it just will not open.

When it happened this time, I checked to make sure the doors were not locked, I restarted the car, tried again, no dice. I moved the car, no dice. I unlocked it with the Fob, the button on the door, turned off the window lock, held down the unlock on the fob, turned the car off and on from both internal and the fob, opened and closed both sliding doors, yelled at it a bit (felt good but still no luck).

I tried everything I could think of so I searched from my phone and someone suggested "get in the car, close the driver door, turn the car off, and without pressing the brake hit the start button 2 times to put it in accessory, and then press the break and start the car, turn it off, press start 2 times for accessory (no brake) and unlock the doors and open the driver door and try the gas door" and I hate to tell you, it worked. Something in there reset the process, I'm not sure what but it worked. I can't recreate the issue, and I'm always needing to be somewhere when I'm filling up so not really an option to go to the dealer and get it looked at, and to be honest, if I can't reproduce it in front of them they will do nothing about it.

There are also a lot of sites saying there is a bypass in the luggage area, there is no mention of this in the manual, and I haven't been able to find one (Canadian SX trim).

Has anyone else had this happen? Is there a better fix?

 

[UN-Limited]

I tried everything I could think of so I searched from my phone and someone suggested "get in the car, close the driver door, turn the car off, and without pressing the brake hit the start button 2 times to put it in accessory, and then press the break and start the car, turn it off, press start 2 times for accessory (no brake) and unlock the doors and open the driver door and try the gas door" and I hate to tell you, it worked.

I can't offer anything constructive, but this part made me laugh a bit. How in the world did someone figure out this seemingly random sequence of events?!

 

[KiaCanuck]

I wish I knew, I hate to think that it might be just a lucky opening / closing of internal switches that have that effect on the fuel door or that it might have something to do with the time it takes to run that process and that magically unlocks something else.
Either way, I really must look like a crazy person sitting at the fuel pump doing all this

 

[kckyle]

US Carnivals don’t have a fuel door that opens via a button in the cabin, so most of us won’t be much help. We just press right on the fuel door itself, and it pops open mechanically.

 

[KiaCanuck]

US Carnivals don’t have a fuel door that opens via a button in the cabin, so most of us won’t be much help. We just press right on the fuel door itself, and it pops open mechanically.

Neither do we, we press the fuel door as well, it's that fuel door press that is not working.

It's now happening more often then not, just no time to get it to the dealership. I find when it happens it's really a random series of events that causes it to open again. Somewhere in turning the car on / off / accessory and locking and unlocking and locking the doors (trying the fuel door each time) it ends up working.

 

[kckyle]

Neither do we, we press the fuel door as well, it's that fuel door press that is not working.

It's now happening more often then not, just no time to get it to the dealership. I find when it happens it's really a random series of events that causes it to open again. Somewhere in turning the car on / off / accessory and locking and unlocking and locking the doors (trying the fuel door each time) it ends up working.

I could be wrong but I don’t think any of those things you’re doing with the ignition/locks has anything to do with it then; it’s a purely mechanical door, I think.

 

[UN-Limited]

I could be wrong but I don’t think any of those things you’re doing with the ignition/locks has anything to do with it then; it’s a purely mechanical door, I think.

Although the latch is mechanical, it is tied to the door locks so that it wont open if the car is locked. It also kills the power to the drivers side sliding door to prevent it from opening if the gas door is already open. So there's some clearly some electronic interlocks that could prevent the mechanical release. Still a super strange situation for the OP.

 

[kckyle]

Although the latch is mechanical, it is tied to the door locks so that it wont open if the car is locked. It also kills the power to the drivers side sliding door to prevent it from opening if the gas door is already open. So there's some clearly some electronic interlocks that could prevent the mechanical release. Still a super strange situation for the OP.

I’ll be damned, just tried it and you were right. Never noticed that!

 

[jthegonz]

Reminds me when I bought my spanking brand new 2002 Kia Sedona EX. My battery kept on dying every few days. Had to constantly get a boost. Took it to the dealer and they could not reproduce the problem Had to talk them into keeping the Sedona over the weekend without touching it. Bingo! Dead battery. They finally traced the problem to the driver's side power window or seat button (forget which one it was) which would remain activated, killing the battery if the car was not used for 2 or 3 consecutive days. I'm sure glad they listened to me and kept the car over the weekend.