That's not a safety feature, it's a mechanic's error. The filler is supposed to be locked when the doors are locked so no one can steal your fuel!

If you look behind the cover in the trunk, you will find either that the hoses are connected correctly and they have been swapped on the trunk lock OR that the hose for the hoses are swapped by splicing into the wrong one at the gas filler cap door servo.

Most likely, the hoses behind the rear seat back got broken and were spliced up wrong, and the therefore malfunctioning trunk lock was "fixed" by either plugging the lines or swapping them instead of hooking the lines up right.

Long disuse makes the door linkages stiff, as will removing them and putting them together improperly, it's very easy to get them to bind by not putting the spacers in right.

I don't find the vac locks a problem at all compared to running around and manually locking or unlocking doors!

Peter

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1972 220D ?? miles
1988 300E 200,012
1987 300D Turbo killed 9/25/07, 275,000 miles
1985 Volvo 740 GLE Turobodiesel 218,000
1972 280 SE 4.5 165, 000 - It runs!

Peter: I was joking about the gas filler safety feature. I will look at the sitution in the trunk area and figure it out tomorrow. The trunk and the gas filler are no big deal to me. I am not afraid of anyone stealing my gas and the trunk lock im used to it being manual.

It would be nice to figure out the slight leak but as long as I try to fix it up as well as I can before I sell it, I will be confident letting it go to a new good owner.

Thanks for the advice,
Peter