13) Now time to tackle the filler neck assembly. Lower the car. Working in the boot remove:
- The battery tray
- Any remaining carpet
- The two metal straps holding the fuel tank in place.
- Lift the boot seal from the front edge of the boot so you can lift off the flat plastic hooks that go over the channel edge and are held in place by the boot aperture seal and remove the panel that hides the fuel tank. I didn’t do this and ended up separating the plastic hooks from the hardboard panel.
- The tank breather pipe (This was not as described in the manual. The external pipe from the breather flange connects to a small metal pipe which goes through the floor to the rear LHS of the tank).
- The water channel drain pipes
- The CD player if fitted
- LHS hockey stick. On my car there were several unused connectors on the loom/harness behind the hockey stick and photographing these now will help on reassembly
- The RHS hockey stick if not already removed.
Remove the angled rubber breather tube between the tank and filler neck. There is a little ‘L’ shaped bracket that slots over the filler neck and is bolted to on the filler flange set screws. Remove this bracket.
15) Now on the outside of the car open the filler cover and remove the three 8mm hex bolts that hold the plate and rubber shroud in place. Remove the plate and the shroud. The latter has a circular spring which holds it tight against the filler neck and may need some gentle twisting to release.
16) Now undo the tube clips on the rubber connector between the filler and tank necks. It is a good idea to have these very loose so they don’t snag on anything.
17) To remove the filler neck you need to rotate it counter-clockwise so the right angled breather connection will come out through the hole but the filler probably won’t budge. The rubber connector hose that you can see will probably be stuck to the filler and tank necks. There is also a rubber seal at the top of the tank neck that you can’t see and over time this will most likely have stuck itself to the filler neck.
Getting the filler neck to move is difficult because there are no purchase points so I re-fitted the filler cap and used that to try and gently rotate the neck clockwise. I also applied some gentle, targeted, tapping on the right-angled breather connector on the inside to try and rotate it counter-clockwise. I used a large diameter drift and was quite delicate because I didn’t want to break anything but it did work. Once it is free you can rotate the filler neck anti-clockwise and withdraw it from the car along with the rubber connector and the tube clips.
18) Both of the most challenging tasks are now complete so it is time for another cup of tea and chocolate digestive.
19) Check around the tank but you should now be able to pull the fuel tank rearwards towards the boot space so you can disconnect the electrical connector on the breather flange.
20) I used a large flat head screwdriver to gently tap the breather fixing ring counter-clockwise to release it and remove the breather flange. Check the breather flange seal, I’m not sure than new ones for available.
21) Remove the electrical connector on the inside of the flange
22) I was fortunate in that I could see that the inside of the tank was in excellent condition so I didn’t need to remove the tank completely.