Fuel flap

Your fuel door along with your doors and hatch are all controlled together, when you use your key to unlock your doors (turn once for drivers door or twice for all doors) or the button inside will do the same. The locking mechanism in these MK3 are air actuated by a single air pump located in the back. If your fuel door will not unlock then I suspect it maybe sticking or the air actuator for that fuel door has a small enough air leak it will not unlock. If you go into the hatch/trunk on the same side of the fuel door pull back the trunk lining and look for a lever something will be marked "fuel release" or something like that and that will manually open your fuel door.

Thank you so much for your reply Jon. You are indeed correct in everything you say . Ta bikeman. PS>>>>>>> i live in South East ESSEX in England .

Nice place I've always wanted to visit there.

Well if your passing theres always a cuppa tea on the go for visitors in my house. While i think of it I would like to pick your brain. Ive recently topped up my roof hydraulic oil reservoir up ( last week actually) The Roof seemed a lot better ( quicker) to open and close . But now it seems VERY sluggish again . Do these oil pumps need topping up every week mate? Its not a terrible job to do . a bit fiddly though. I read it needs 4 or 5 up and downs to settle the level of the oil but it seems a bit excessive to fill it up again . The oil costs a bomb here ( like everything else lol) $10 for 500ml. Cheers Bikeman...........

Well thanks for the invite I'll be sure to look you up if I ever get over there, as for your drop top if you topped up the fluid and raised/lowered your top a few times and your fluid level went down abit that would be normal for one time but if it keeps going down and you have to add to it I'd say you have a small leak somewhere. I've owned alot of vdubs but never owned a cabrio so I can't tell you where to look but I'm sure there must be lube points somewhere on the mechanism that may be need of lubrication which would cause the top to operate slowly. I don't think low fluid level would slow the top down in theory on this type of pump it works if the fluid is low but if it gets to low then it would stop completely. Easy check just call your local Vdub dealer and ask then if there are grease/lube points on the track system of your drop top and go from there. Cheers!

Jon, your a Diamond .........thanks for your time . Bikeman

Hydraulic oil should never be low unless there is s leak. Take the rear seat out in your cabrio - it's easy just two bolts. If you see a sticky mess you have a leak. Need to fix leaky hoses first. HEL auto part out of Britain is your source...vw wants $1200 for 4 hoses of very poor quality. NB have top down when you measure fluid.