Rebuilding Cabrio roof hydraulics

**An o' Neamus** · 17-06-2009,10:32 AM

Had some problems with the 2000 Cabrio roof. On closer analysis, one of the hydraulic struts was broken (how?!), and both hydraulic cylinders were leaking...

Went to the dealer and they told me they'd need to replace both hydraulics, which would be 6 hours labour + the (very expensive!) hydraulic parts. Needless to say I wanted a cheaper option, so I contacted a hydraulic engineering company to see if they could repair the hydraulics.

Unfortunately VW designed the hydraulics in such a way that they can't be repaired. However, the company said they could build new ones for me. Was a bit of a leap of faith, as they said they would need to destroy the existing parts to get the brackets etc. from them! First I had to remove them - VW agents said that would be 3 hours labour and they'd need to dismantle the roof frame... Took me 1/2 hour to remove both with no dismantling of the roof!

The engineering company then cut the originals apart, built me new hydraulic cylinders, fitted them with the parts from the originals and gave them back to me a few days later for fitting to the vehicle... 1/2 hour later, the parts were refitted (once again no roof dismantling necessary!). And now the roof works perfectly!

Just posting this here as a solution that may be of use to others. The entire cost of the repair was just over 1/4 of the cost from the VW dealer, and took about 2 hours of my time...

**Hitby** · 15-02-2010,03:22 PM

Have you got details for this engineering firm? What did it come to all together if you don't mind me asking?

**A4TCB** · 17-02-2010,12:11 AM

That sounds most interesting.

My mum has a 2000 Avantgarde cab with mysterious fluid vanishing and cant see any obvious pipe leakage so guess it must be one of the struts (or both).

Can you furnish us with the details of who you got to fabricate the replacements?

Cheers,
Toby

**An o' Neamus** · 23-03-2010,08:43 AM

I had this done in South Africa, so you'll probably need to find a company in your country. I looked in the 'yellow pages' and called a company that listed itself as a hydraulic engineering company. I then took one of the struts out to take to them to get a quote.

There's nothing inherently complex about manufacturing a strut, but the company will need to destroy your existing struts to get the VW mounting bracket (and the shaft if it's not damaged). The expense comes from the manufacturing of the seals, which is a labour intensive operation as it must be done by hand. I can't remember exactly, but I think they said it takes about 4 hours to build each strut. Apparently they did the work on it in idle periods to keep the cost down.

I was quoted around R6000 (ZAR) per strut by the VW agent, and a further R3000 for the fitting. The manufacturered struts (which appear identical to the originals, except the manufacturer sprayed them black), cost me R4000 in total. So the entire repair cost me R4000 instead of R12-15000!

PS. Exchange rates change - at the time I did this, R4000 was 285UKP. Now it's about 380UKP!

**john warner** · 12-05-2011,07:09 PM

I have that exact same problem could you please give me the details of the enineering company and an idea of price, would love to use them.
Cheers john