Before their baby girl arrived, Jenna and Jeremy Chipps traveled the globe, posting their trips on social media. Now, the travel-turned-lifestyle influencers share much of their everyday life as a growing family with their nearly 200,000 followers. Recently, Jeremy posted a PSA that was definitely outside their normal programming. This one’s for RAV4 owners – or anyone driving a car with a spring-loaded fuel door, really.

Toyota RAV4 fuel door won’t open

“This is not our usual content at all,” Jeremy begins. He pulled up to a gas station to fill up their RAV4’s empty tank. Surprisingly, though, he can’t get the fuel door to open. He pulled the lever, nothing. Then, he used his car key to try and wedge the door open. Nada.

While he had bad cell service, he was able to play a tutorial of a solution. However, it seemed to be a convoluted process where you pry off a panel inside the rear hatch and pull on a piece inside with both hands. It’s a cramped and irritating job.

Next, someone next to him at the pump tried assisting, to no avail.

In a final act of desperation, he drives to the closest Toyota service center, making it despite being low on fuel.

Any model vehicle with a spring-loaded fuel door can fail this way

It turns out, a tiny spring inside the fuel door hinge broke. This is a common failure on any car with the same fuel door design.

The comments section lit up with drivers of several different cars pointing out that their fuel doors won’t open on their own, either. A couple of folks shared that they use the edge of their wallet to pry open the door at the pump.

Toyota would have charged $100 to replace the part

While Toyota offered the solution, Jeremy found the replacement part online for ten bucks. He says he didn’t even need to watch a how-to video to swap out the spring, either.

In the end, he saved his household $90. By posting the tip and trick, he’s probably saving lots of other drivers on their fuel door problems, too.