Fuel Door Won't Stay Open
 

I've searched the archives and only find those with the problem of getting their fuel door open. On my 01S I'm having a problem of my door not staying open while I'm fueling. I'm guessing the approximately 1" curved piece of metal inside the door is some kind of spring designed to hold it open but I can't find a break in it. Anyone have this problem before and/or a fix?

The spring may have come loose or broken at the hinge, it's also possible that the hinge is broken and the spring will no longer attach properly to it. The spring is # 996.201.413.01 and the hinge is # 996.201.063.00 . They are both pretty cheap.

Interestingly, I just removed the spring and it is not broken and neither is the hinge. However with the spring off I can pop the lid open and it will stay open! Go figure!! There has to be some down side to this but I will try it awhile and see what happens. There has to be something else going on that I can't see. Thanks for your help.

Same problem. Battery in key died, replaced it, but it needs to be reprogrammed. Manual ring inside passenger door broke off. Desperately needed gas this morning. The trick of manually locking the door and then unlocking it also unlocked the *#@! fuel door.

Thanks for the (4 year old) advice.

I've got the opposite problem, my fuel door doesn't lock when I lock the car. Any hints on what to replace?

Question: if you leave the fuel door open and lock the car, do you see the locking pin move so that it would engage a closed door. IIRC mine moves 1/4 to 1/2 inch when I lock the car with the remote key.

I have same problem and don't know why the fuel door will not stay open anymore; any steps/pics on how to fix this problem?