AshDVS;c-149216 wroteYup. We were cursing a bit at it.
The pressing/recess is still in the floorpan, it simply doesnt have a cut-out and a plate over it anymore like it would have had on earlier cars.
I would not do this one without a hoist. Even with half a tank of fuel, the tank was awkward to lug around.
Two of us made quick-enough work of it, but it was a pain.
This one now has 210K on it, Up until the fuel pump, it's been flawless aside from maintenance, but 200K(ish) seems to be the magic number where a lot of the maintenance items are due and simply need to be done.
I'll get something smaller once we've moved house next year.
The VE fuel sender access hole(s) have a lengthy and controversial history...ask me how I know! In the early days, of course the service people wanted the plastic caps as it makes tank pump/filter changes much easier. But then they said the filter was a lifetime filter when we asked them how often it had to be changed??? Go figure...anyway I recall doing several trade-off studies looking at cost of adding the covers vs. increased cost of service in the event of a bad batch of fuel requiring filter replacement. In the early days the service guys won out even through IIRC the cost trade-off didn’t make sense (i.e. we were putting 2x covers on every car for a cost of $x.xx per car, and only one out of every xx,xxx cars would ever need to have the senders/pumps/filters replaced.) Oh, senders. Apparently pre-VE they had a lot of trouble with corrosion or something on the senders which was another potential concern.
So, we went into production with the hole(s) and cover(s)...then along came a “Let’s export VE to America as a Pontiac”. The US has some unique high-speed rear crash tests (IIRC it was 50 MPH car-to car, simulating a drunk driver running up the back of a stationary or slow-moving car)...of course no fuel leaks were allowed, and another thing they were looking at was potential holes in the passenger compartment where, if the impact speed were greater and there were to be a fuel leak and possible fire, it would take longer for any flames to get into the passenger compartment. So, based on that test/knowledge, the access holes were ruled out for the US...even though some cars do have them (i.e. it was something looked at internally, not a legal requirement). We did propose metal snap-in or bolt-on covers, and did some crash testing, but there was still a risk of deformation in that area that could lead to a potential body seam opening.
Finally, the access holes were fairly close to the seatbelt anchors. Some additional/different US seat belt anchor tests as well as the addition of lower child seat tethers (“ISOFIX” or “LATCH” as they call them in the US) meant that additional reinforcing was required around the seatbelt anchors. With space very tight for welding on the reinforcements, and having holes near the anchors reducing the strength, it was also not feasible to have the holes.
IIRC the service guys here in AUS developed a procedure (template?) for cutting the holes in the floor on later cars to access the pump/sender/filter and then retrofitting plastic covers, but not sure if this procedure was ever used. I believe the pump/sender/filter turned out to be a lot more reliable than previous cars, so it sort of became a non-issue from a warranty standpoint IIRC. Of course when you keep an older car past the warranty time period, these things start to need repair/replacement.
Here ends the history lesson for today. I hope you enjoyed it! Oh, the good old days of Holden! ;)
