I can envision driving down the interstate at 7pm Saturday night and the pump goes out. 30 miles from the nearest city and 350 miles from home. You call a tow truck to bring you to the shop and of course the shop is closed, but wait, the Autozone is open. No good there, don't have the tools to do that you just have a basic kit and if you bought them Autozone does not want the liability of you doing that in their parking lot. You hope the tow truck driver will bring you to a hotel. So your car is at the shop thats closed, you are at the hotel, and you planned to be back home because you have to work Monday morning. And you are in BFE hick town and enjoy watching TV in the room. What if your kids are with you? They will ENJOY that and you will ENJOY the complaining. And they need to be at school Monday. Can the shop get to your pump Monday? Or are they backed up with their regular customers.

Two nights in a hotel - $150
Tow truck ride late at night - $175
Raping on the pump - $500
Fuel pump hatch - Priceless

If you think the above is not possible, then you never go anywhere or you have a Camry to drive around and you use your 3rd gen to go to the drive-in and get a burger on Sat night. You could be loaded with money and don't care. You could be one of the people that couldn't fix it with or without a hatch.

I have no hatch and I feel that it is a roll of the dice. Even if I am near home I'm looking at a $100 tow instead of calling the wife to bring me a pump.

So the question is "fuel pump access panel or not?"

It depends on what YOU are comfortable with, where YOU drive it, what funds YOU have readily available when it goes out. Remember the tow truck only takes cash and not ONE of the nay-sayers here are going to be there to help you.

 

if you dont cheap out and buy a crap pump, or install it incorrectly, or constantly run your tank on E, you shouldnt have a problem with a new pump lasting 10-15 years.

granted there are the occasional pumps that go out for no reason, but i have no fear of driving my car cross country AGAIN with my replacement pump. and no, i dont have a hole over my gas tank.

would i cut a hole in my floor to make a potential future pump change easier, no id rather mod the tank in a safe manner to make it quick and easy to drop my tank. even on the side of the road with nothing but a jack and basic hand tools.

 

This is a pretty old thread but I figured I would drop this here. The pump was replaced by dropping the tank only to find out it still didn't work. I bought this car not running afterwards. Cut the access panel. Pulled the pump and soldered all the connections inside of the fuel pump assembly. I figured I will get a rubber mat to lay over this and call it good. Their really isn't a reason to try an "seal" it with a gasket because water can't splash up on top of the tank and if you're trying to keep fumes out of this area your tank is leaking and you should fix that.
The access panel makes doing the fuel pump on the side of the road possible and quickly. I work as a mechanic professionally and i always appreciate the cars that have fuel pump access panels.

 

I Like the panel. However if there is some fuel vapor leaking in, yes it should be fixed. But between the time of leaking, and you noticing, there is a period where the car may fill with explosive gasoline vapors. In other words, In order to realize there is a leak, you have to smell the leak. So you get in the car, about to turn the key, and notice "hey the car is full of explosive vapors" by which point you are already in a potentially deadly situation. I think the way to handle this issue is, SEAL the area, and periodically unseal it to check for vapors/fumes every 3-6months as routine maintenance. This way you avoid the 1 day you goto do some wiring and may or may not notice the smell, or realize how dangerous it could be for an instant. It just takes one little spark, a static shock as you get into the vehicle before you notice the smell for example.... kaboom!! Its probably never happened, but while you may be a professional mechanic, I am a professional risk mitigation.... uh... thing. And this is a potential risk here you may have overlooked. $.02

 

after you do your fuel tank drop repair do you periodically drop your tank and check for fuel vapor leaks that are just as dangerous on the outside of the car as they are in the inside of the car?

 

If your not confident enough that you can make rubber hoses seal against steel lines, close one end and fill fill it with air pressure and use soapy water to verify your repair.

 

My car actually has a fuel pump cover/hatch from the factory. Its a Japanese car with fuel pump hatch OEM. And its got some seal around the cover, and plastic threads for course thread bolts to seal it, with a rubber seal for the wires.

Outside the car fuel vapors can leave... escape and drift away. Inside the car may not be so lucky. Fuel may permeate into interior cloths for example, even if you fix the leak they can stick around for a while. I Really like the hatch idea but do yourself a favor and seal it up with something, even a cover and some tape is better than nothing. At least you won't be getting inside the car one day, the last thing you remember is smelling fuel and next wake up in a hospital.

Fuel and water can permeate right through steel, iron, plastic, rubber, etc... the properties of these materials are sufficiently sized pores to allow fuel permeation over time. Water gets into your fuel tank gradually this way... and fuel leaks out at a constant rate. There is always some leaking.

 

 

the process is using soapy water to look for air bubbles in the areas that air is escaping. You can use your judgment to determine if the amount of air bubbles you see is acceptable or not. If you do that same procedure with your cylinder heads on a bench to check valve sealing I guarantee you are going to be disappointed lol.

 

Is your Japanese car a Nissan? Totally off subject