Me too! 2008 Mazda 3 gas cap in at an angle. Channel locks busted off the outer cap and had to be used again to remove the inner plug. Extremely tight! Often the cap is incorrectly inserted at an angle at full serves, and is difficult to see that it is at an angle. Usually it comes off with great force. Mine busted tonight and the gas station is replacing it for me because they admitted inserting it incorrectly last time. I'll see if my dealer in Canada has a "new" design for the cap that will solve this easily misaligned gas cap and filler neck problem.

Use a big fluffy cloth around the pliers if you try to remove the entire cap or the busted inner portion because you will probably smack your paint job when it suddenly breaks or slips! My inner plug minus the outer cap was so tight the plastic was breaking into pieces trying to remove it.

Anybody have any problems with water entering the filler tube when the plug isn't seated properly?

 

Purchased new 08 Mazda 3 hatchback 3 weeks ago. Gas cap stuck on 4th tank. Dealership says known problem. Say replacements covered by warranty. They say all replacements are different cap that is supposed to resolve issue. But said new cap can also get stuck. Ridiculous. If have to break cap and/or tow car whenever out of gas, car is a lemon. Will probably try to get custom gas cap. Mazda should do recall as they did with other models (RX7) that had gas cap problem. How can they miss such a fundamental and inexpensive detail? Otherwise, I love the car. But this is serious problem.

Anyone heard if a recall will happen on this?

 

I becamecurious about this whole gas-cap issue after reading this thread yesterday. When I filled up my 2009 last night I took a good look at the gas-cap arrangement and cannot for the life of me figure out how this might happen, and that leads me to the question, "Do 2009s have a redesigned filler neck and gas-cap arrangement?"

 

For what its worth, It is a common problem. We have seen the part number superceed many, many times. As of lately when we use the updated cap, we dont see any returns.

Kind of a silly problem, But not much we can do on our end.

To my knowledge no '09 model mazda 3's have this issue.

-Dino

 

Thanks.

 

Well as a owner of a Mazda 5 /09 with a little over 2000 km I'm happy to find this thread.Or maybe a little disillusioned . I've had my gas cap stuck twice already.In 25 years plus of driving many vehicle types I have never had this problem.The first time I took it back to the dealer.They said that it was cross threaded.The second time I managed to finally get it out after much effort..A gas cap should be a part that is completely idiot proof.There should not be any way for it to go in but the correct way...I hope mazda solves this problem quickly. I'm starting to dread filling up the vehicle.A fill up should not include a 1 hr trip to the dealership

 

This gas cap problem SUCKS!!! I have an '04 so no problems for me thankfully, but I can imagine just how frustrating it must be for the victims. It"sa minor problem as far as automotive problems go, but certainly a major annoyance for the owners.
After 2 model yrs you"d think the supplier to Mazda would get it right, or that Mazda would contract another supplier that would? I thought they had this fixed by now, but apparently not.

 

Could it be that the fix that might have been applied to the Mazda3 has not yet found its way into the Mazda5?

 

Kinda old news now, but the same thing happened to me, and my gas warning light was on, it was at 4:00 on a friday of a long weekend, and we were about to leave town on vacation!

I had just enough gas to get to the dealership and back down to the station. The mechanic said it was the third time he has seen this happen, had no idea how it happened, and fixed it (and replaced the cap) fully under warranty.

When he was trying to get the old one off it sheered off clean and left the threaded part in place. Took him about 30 min to actually get it all out. New cap went on no problem, and no problems since (although I wont turn it till it clicks any more just in case)

For those that don't know me, this is on an 08 5. (in pic).

(Just a quick edit to add that this problem happened to me back in July - Since they replaced the cap I have not had any problems. I did notice Virgin1 that you noted a TSB for the issue (or was it a recall?) yet I can not find any posted anywhere - have you got a link by chance? Any idea if the cap and threads etc are the same on the 3 as the 5?)

 

We purchased a Mazda 5 in May of 2008. Yesterday I pulled into a gas station 60 miles from home, with three children in the car...and found I could not remove the gas cap. Neither could the station attendant, nor the tow truck driver. Finally, after 2.5 hours and a trip to an actual service garage, they got it off -- but only by destroying it.

When I initially called the mazda dealer who sold me the car (while at the gas station!), I was told there was "no known problem" with gas caps. I called back this morning after seeing these posting, and was told "not to believe everything I read on the internet." I couldn't get a straight answer out of him re: whether the replacement gas cap I know have will eventually have a similar problem. It seems like this is a pretty common problem, and that Mazda should both educate their service dealers about it and also provide a guaranteed fix. I lost a half-day of work and had three kids in the car for most of the afternoon as a result of this issue.