FUEL DOOR LOCK

I took my car out for a spin today. I had to fuel up. I realized that my fuel door doesn't lock when the car is locked. There is a little plunger that goes out and into a hole in the fuel door when the car is locked. It looks like the little locking unit is just hanging in the hole its located in, possibly missing a clip or something that secures it. The fuel cover door closes just fine manually since it completely misses the plunger. I can view the little plunger assembly with the door open and work it with the button on my key. The plunger extracts when I push the lock buton but only for about a second and then it retracts which would mean that it wouldn't lock the fuel door anyway even if it was secured. I could just leave it broken as I don't think a locking fuel door is needed anyway. The problem is it drives me nuts if something doesn't work that should so I hope someone on here will tell me what I'm missing or whats broken. Also I don't have a lift but was wondering if you could look up from under the front fender and unplug the whole assembly if it had to be replaced.

You may not have to replace the full assembly. If you do you get to it from behind the lining in the wheel well. Is the plunger missing the rubber guide grommet? They get lost. I think that has a lot to do with locking action. You can buy a small grommet as I did from anywhere. Not particularly a Porsche part. The part in the right photo came from a Porsche Garage at $3.

Thanks for the help, the rubber guide grommet is missing from mine, although it seems like it would also need something else to hold the assembly in the grommet or a special grommet.

Quotes source post: 11927467

No. Not that I know of. What you refer to a grommet should be a plastic bushing. This bushing is designed to snap into place. It is keyed so it can only fit in one way. For some reason the bushing gets pushed out. I found it rolling around in the bottom of the fuel filler basin and not knowing what role it played just put it in the ash tray until some months later I found the gas door wasn't locking. Locked and unlocked the car with the key and watched the locking pin move a bit but not like I believed it should. A (dim) light bulb went off over my head and I got the plastic bushing out and found it fit and after I snapped it into place and when I locked and unlocked the car the locking pin would shoot out plenty far enough to obviously lock the lid and yet fully retract so I was sure I would be able to open the lid. I was afraid something else might be amiss that would lock the lid and then not allow me to unlock it again. Years later I found the bushing loose in the basin again and this time just put it back in place. I have no idea why it works loose. I believe you can buy this bushing from the dealer parts department but if you can find a rubber grommet that works I guess that would be ok.

Thanks for the additional information, this is what I really like about this forum. I will try to buy the correct plastic bushing this week. I went to SUNCOAST website but I don't see the part listed there. It looks like they have something for a Boxter but not what mine looks like. If anybody knows where to get the part on line please let me know.