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does anyone know what determines which side the fuel door is placed?
Usually when I purchase fuel, it's in NJ, which is full service only (except diesel). With the exception of stations which state long hoses, they fill either side, it seems to me that it's a serious advantage to have a fuel door on the right, as from my impression, most are on the left.
Yesterday, maybe it was the day after a long weekend, but the warehouse club was PACKED with people waiting for fuel. Wouldn't you know, I had the BMW and so I just drove right up, got my fuel, and left. Ahead of me was an Audi, and prior to the two of us entering, a Subaru. If I had to try to visualize a pattern, all European cars are on the right, some Japanese are on the right, and some American are on the right. The only logical thing I have ever heard was that the Europeans consider most cars to be left hand drive, and they place the fuel door on the pass side, to keep the person filling away from traffic or the drive lane. I'm not even sure exactly what that means, if you fill on the left, how is that different...
Boy do I wish Lexus had put the fuel door of my LS on the right, I can't even begin to imagine how much time that would have saved....
Don't know if it's true or not, but my last BMW salesman said that BMW has them on the right side because in many older German towns, gas pumps are on the right side of a narrow street, and sometimes attached to a building. So there is no "drive around to the other side".
I always assumed it has to do with right hand or left hand drive markets. But I have seen cars that are contrary to this. For example, I previously thought all Mercedes (and euro) cars were on the right, but then I believe the Mercedes M class previous had it on the left, although that car was arguably designed for the US market in mind...
I emailed Volkswagen about why they seem to prefer passenger-side (right) fuel fillers, and here’s what I was told:
Volkswagen passenger cars always on the right (passenger) side (to keep the filling person away from the street/lane traffic in left hand drive cars, which is the majority of our sales).
Volkswagen Commercial vehicles on the left (driver’s) side, due to the standard right hand side sliding door of the T-series (there is no space left before the door for a tank lid, and no space thereafter as the pump might interfere with the door when suddenly opened by a passenger).
A Toyota engineer also relayed a similar justification for fuel filler-side decisions:
Depends on the OEM and may be affected by crash testing versus p/f packaging. In our case it is based on company policy for customer convenience.
In other words, we don’t want the customer to have to walk around the truck for left hand drive vehicles. Of course it is on the right side for right handle vehicles.
There’s certainly other more technical reasons for why a given side may be selected: for cars that use a mechanical, cable-operated internal release for the fuel filler, it’s much easier to have the release be on the same side as the fuel filler flap, so there’s a good reason to have it on the driver’s side.
“The placement of the fuel door is mainly a factor of fuel tank design, location and underbody packaging. With all of the structure and components located underneath the vehicle, (engineers) would quickly encounter restrictions in trying to route the filler tube to the same side on every vehicle.”
I learned from Motorweek Podcast and John Davis that the Japanese cars from the 70s and 80s that because of law required the filler door to be on the right side as when you pull over on the highway in Japan and you were not in the way of traffic. This would be for highways and note, they drive on the left side.
I learned from Motorweek Podcast and John Davis that the Japanese cars from the 70s and 80s that because of law required the filler door to be on the right side as when you pull over on the highway in Japan and you were not in the way of traffic. This would be for highways and note, they drive on the left side.
This is now no longer required
That doesn't seem right to me, as both my '77 Corolla and my '86 MR-2 had them on the left side.
We had several discussions of this over on the Elio Owner's Forums. In case you missed it, Elio Motors is finishing its run of ten engineering test vehicles to finalize HVAC, engine tuning, and safety (crash) testing before moving onto the first 100 pre-production models that will go to a large commercial client toward the end of the year. Full production from their Shreveport, LA plant (formerly the site of Hummer production) is scheduled to begin in early 2018. Designed as a two passenger tandem reverse trike - it has airbags, power windows and door (singular) lock, cruise, anti-locks, VSC, and A/C, so it's pretty hard to call it a motorcycle, but they've worked hard to get it declared an "autocycle" in all but one or two states so far. The difference is that there is no need for a helmet, and it can be insured as a motorcycle. At a base of under $7,500 for the 5-spd manual model (auto-manual optional), with a heavily optioned vehicle coming in under $10K, it's not a bad deal - especially if you're a commuter. That promised 84/48 mpg should ease whatever financial pain comes with a new fully-warranted car.
Amazingly, the company has been paying attention to its subscribed owners online, scrapping an expensive and confusing digital/mechanical instrument binnacle and replacing it with conventional needles and numbers gauges. But the biggest hew and cry (believe it or not) was over the location of the gas filler. Personally I never understood what difference it made - the vehicle's about two feet wide back at the rear where the filler pipe is located, so walking around to the "other" side is a matter of about two steps, but thanks to the outcry from probable owners, they moved it from the off side to the "driver's" side. Since the single passenger door is on the left, and the exhaust on the right, it only made sense to move it for both safety and convenience reasons.
The only reason the gas filler door was ever put on the right was for packaging in the earliest hand-fabricated steel hoop frame and ABS plastic bodied prototypes. Roush Engineering (of Mustang fame) came in to tweak the final design for production, first reworking the suspension then shifting the body over to a stamped steel monocoque that is much stronger, faster, and cheaper to produce in volume. While they were at it, they moved several items, putting the fairly large battery in the trunk for better weight distribution and the gas filler on the left side while they reconfigured the CADD files for production. I never realized that because the gas tank, filler, and vents have to be packaged into a restricted space, their design gets "frozen" in the design process fairly early on. In this case, people wanted it on the left, so it was a fairly easy matter to move it since the whole structure was being re-engineered anyway. That's probably why we see gas flaps on either side of cars - even within brands. It's called "inertia". If something gets put somewhere, it stays there . . . often for years.
If you look in your gas gauge.. there is a picture of a FUELING STATION, next to that there is an arrow pointing left or right. This is indicate which side the fuel door is.
Note: this is for most newer cars, I have not verified this with older gen cars.
Depending on the automaker, there have been a number of different excuses and spins given for which side of the car the filler-pipe is placed on.....among others, ranging from safety reasons (which side of the car the automaker feels is less likely to get sideswiped in an accident) to what they say is driver-preference, to the idea that the pipe should be on the opposite side of the car from the steering wheel, so that it will be easier for the driver to open the door and get out if he or she is parked close-adjacent to certain pumps. I suspect the most likely reason is whatever is cheaper to produce for that particular design and vehicle.....money usually talks.
Depending on the automaker, there have been a number of different excuses and spins given for which side of the car the filler-pipe is placed on.....among others, ranging from safety reasons (which side of the car the automaker feels is less likely to get sideswiped in an accident) to what they say is driver-preference, to the idea that the pipe should be on the opposite side of the car from the steering wheel, so that it will be easier for the driver to open the door and get out if he or she is parked close-adjacent to certain pumps.
That is why the fuel filler was removed from the rear of the car (where it was behind a flip-down licence plate holder or behind a rear taillight). With the fuel filler neck at the rear of the car, in a rear-end collision, it was a fire hazard.
Originally Posted by mmarshall
I suspect the most likely reason is whatever is cheaper to produce for that particular design and vehicle.....money usually talks.
I would not say that it is cost cutting but more of not changing a design if there is no regulatory requirement to do so. From pictures I have seen (including the latest spy photos of the next-generation Toyota Crown), Toyota has the fuel filler on the left side, regardless of the side of steering wheel (the fuel filler is on the left for right-hand drive and remains on the left for left-hand drive models of the same or related vehicles).
It is not as simple as changing the fuel filler neck from the left side to the right side. To do so would require a new fuel tank, new rear fenders, and movement of other hidden structures and components just to allow for a new location of the fuel filler neck.
That is why the fuel filler was removed from the rear of the car (where it was behind a flip-down licence plate holder or behind a rear taillight). With the fuel filler neck at the rear of the car, in a rear-end collision, it was a fire hazard.
That also fits in with what I said earlier about which side the car the manufacturer says they think that the car is more likely to get sideswiped on from oncoming traffic......but that, of course, varies in left-hand vs. right-hand drive markets as well.
07-06-17, 07:25 AM
does anyone know what determines which side the fuel door is placed?
