Twice now I've gone to fill up and the flap has refused to budge. So much so i had to use brute force, rip of the body colour panel, then persuade the arm to release. It has the black plastic neck cover.

Is there a micro switch or setting in FORscan as its supposed to release when undoing the central locking, last time i gave it a good dose of WD40.

Any Ideas chaps or is it gonna get involved ?

The motor is probably getting weak.  It's on the car side, though I don't know how easy it is to access.

https://shop.ford.co.uk/products/c-max-focus-focus-c-max-fuel-cap-lock-motor

Only the pre-facelift Focus has them if you go looking for one at a breakers yard.  The facelift got EasyFuel and did away with the locking flap.

thank you squire

This youtube video shows what the mechanism looks like.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kug63l2uL0U

From what I have been told, it may be possible to access the locking motor from outside the car.

This can supposedly be done by prising out the black plastic filler neck surround without having to remove the rear wheel arch lining.

I cannot say for sure if this is possible.