The gas door is electric,I would start with fuses

 

I have friend that had this same problem with his jetta. He drove to the dealer and they said there was nothing they could do except break the mechanism that opens the door. They first tried getting the door open several different ways. I'm not sure if his door was frozen or if the openning mechanism stopped working. Either way, the dealer broke the openning mechanism and now his gas door won't stay shut. He could replace the mechanism for $150 but he said the door was always freezing shut before, so he just left it broken.

Hopefully your door is just frozen and you can bring the car some place to warm it up.

 

Your answers are all here I believe: http://www.passatworld.com/forums/showthread.php?t=140905

 

 

I've had mine literally freeze. If you're in a cold climate and it's snowed/rained/just washed... heat it up. 5 minutes with a blow drier got it open... 5 more dried it out.

Hopefully you're lucky.

 

Thats one way to do it:lol:

 

^ that's some funny sh*t.

If the holesaw method isn't to your liking, there's a manual release behind he carpet in the trunk on the fuel filler side.

 

No dude........remove the carpet liner to the quarter panel and feel you way to the door, There is a sort of lever or latch that can be released.

Happened to me and I opened the gas door at the gas station this way on my B5.

good luck

 

Okay - got it open, thanks for the info. Pulled out the liner and found the safety catch.

Sharky - good one - but don't laugh !!!!! I work in an industrial plant, and the helpful maintenance offered me one of those, amongst other interesting tools of destruction.

Thanks all for the great info - saved my butt again

Bill

 

Also might want to check the electrical push button switch.
Mine stopped working a few years back, after much pissing around I traced the fault to the switch.
Something had snapped off inside. Picked a new one up from the stealership. IIRC under $20

 

For some reason I find very few people that know about the manual release in the trunk. I had to help this guy with a Beetle at a gas station who had the same problem, He was using his car key to pry the door open, scratching his paint in the process. I told him to open the trunk and low and behold an big yellow pull handle on the right side behind the gas cap.:crazy:

 

Lol, kind of a third visor thing..