Mr. Dan,

These are not to be fixed--they are dead.

The best thing you may do is call the BD and order two of the heavy duty
ones.
They last very long, and the back door will stay up in any position.

Good Afternoon,

Fred

E-mail message

Subject: Pistons on rear door

Well it looks as though the pistons that keep the rear door (hatch,
trunk...) open on my 91 GL are shot once again. I think it must have
been 9 years ago or so that this last happened and at the time I was a
newbie to working on cars so I had the dealer take care of it and they
replaced both pistons with new ones. Anybody out there have any luck
fixing ones that seem to have lost their ability to hold the lid open? I
haven't yet ventured into the pistons myself, so I don't know if there
is a leather/rubber cup (like in the old bicycle pumps) that could be
re-oiled or something that would then lead to a better hold on the air
it is compressing.
Thanks for any and all help.
--
Dan Erlandson
Flemington, NJ
danoer1@eclipse.net
91 VW Vanagon GL 168,000 mi
99 VW Passat 102,000 mi