How To: Octavia 1 - Replacing Door Latch Microswitch

[Bowders1]

Hi folks managed to re build this thread and re link pics after a disastrous loss of pics in Photobucket.
Hope it is useful:

Part 1. Removing The Door Panel


I must add that these instructions are to fix the none functioning of the interior light from when the driver's door is open and when the light on the driver’s door is not working for the same reason. This involves replacing the door latch micro switch. I also can't be held responsible should folks not be successful in fixing there door mechanism.

If you do not feel confident, then the options are to either purchase a complete lock mechanism for dealers at around £100 or a scrap yard one at around £25- £30( can never be sure these will work). Or get someone else to do it.

Various threads I found for info that may help.

http://www.taligentx.com/passat/maintenance/doorlockmechanism/
http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=1542461&page=8
http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=77648&page=4
http://gruvenparts.com/website/diys/Door%20Locks%20Explained%20-%20MKIV.htm
http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=77648&page=8

Tools needed:

- Long nose pliers
- Small flat screwdriver
- TX10 torx bit (for removing door panel screws)
- TX20 torx (long piece or long torx allen key) for removing external door handle
- TX30 torx bit for losing the window regulator
- 12 point star driver/bit (aka triple-square or spline bit): M8(for removing the Lock asm)
- Phillips screw driver
- Duck tap (to hold window up)
- Soldering Iron
- Solder
- Micro switch - Burgess Part #275-016A. This is a Radio Shack item.
I purchased mine on EBay. This is the Radio Shack web site.

http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...tId=2049718&cp,



Other alternatives
- Burgess V4NS-UL



DK series




So if you still feel up to it .

- Start by putting a cloth over the window frame and then using duck tape support the window (this is safety precaution only and not because we need to take the window out, but we will be loosening the screws that hold the regular in place. (later in the instructions).

Example to another car


Then start removing the Interior door panel by removing.

- The grip handle that is at the back of the interior door handle.(on the electric window switch panel) with a small flat screw driver to gently ease it out.



- Remove the Electric window switch panel. This is push fit and needs some gentle persuasion with the flat blade screw driver at each end. Should then pop up. Then unplug the connector.



- unscrew the 3 screws (Phillips that are uncovered from the removal of the electric window multi switch panel.



- The Triangular Tweeter surround bracket (use a small flat screw driver to gently lever the side to allow it to pop out of the 2 lugs.



Note mine is a custom speaker, I left it hanging, you should be able to unplug the standard connector if you have standard speakers.
- unclip the Electric mirror switch panel using small flat screw driver again and unplug the connector and remove the switch panel. This will expose a screw holding the trim in place, remove this.



- Unclip the Drivers door light using the small flat screw driver. Unplug the connector from the back of the light.



- Finally undo the retaining screws from the sides and bottom of the trim panel (7 screws with TX10 torx)

Pics here from around the side and bottom.







The panel will now come away by applying some pressure upwards and outwards. Be careful as the panel will still be connected by
The door handle cable
The door pin (silver plastic rod)
The door “locked†LED
You should be able to separate the panel enough to the get to these items.
Then whilst either getting someone to help you, or support the panel on something unclip the door lock LED and remove the door pin.
Then slowly pull away the panel and unclip the door handle cable.

Job done on removing the panel.

[Bowders1]

Part 2. Removing the Exterior Door Handle

You can follow these instructions on the link from a Briskodian member

http://briskoda.net/technical-guides/removing-door-handle-fabia-octavia/126938/

Or use this good example too (was for a Passat).. (This is where you will need a long reach TX20 torx bit, or a TX20 torx allen key.

Remove the small plastic tab on the rear edge of the door with a screwdriver.(2 for the Skoda Octavia) The tab is indicated by the yellow arrow in the picture below.

18. Behind the plastic tab is a retaining screw which is used to secure the blank in the door handle, indicated by the yellow arrow in the picture below. On the driver's side door, the screw secures the piece which surrounds the door lock key slot.

19. Loosen (but do not completely remove) the retaining screw with a T20 Torx driver. The screw actually has a very small triple square head, but a T20 driver works perfectly. The retaining screw can be seen in the picture below.

20. Loosen the retaining screw enough so that the handle blank slides out of the door. (2 for the Skoda Octavia) The passenger's and driver's side pieces can be seen in the pictures below. On my car, the screws needed to be turned approximately 13-15 turns for the pieces to slide out. Also, you may need to pull out on the door handle slightly to allow each piece to slide completely out.

21. The outer handle is connected to the door lock module by a small cable (red arrow in picture below). The end of the cable is secured to the handle by a small plastic tab (yellow arrow in picture below) which fits into a threaded groove.

22. Pop the tab on the end of the cable out of its retaining groove using a small screwdriver, as shown below. Before doing this, note the position of the tab in the groove so that it can be reinstalled in approximately the same position later.

23. The picture below shows the tab detached from the retaining groove.

This is as far as you need to go on the outside, to then take out the Door lock Mechanism.

Now you are ready to remove the door lock mechanism.

This is where the taped up window comes into play.

- First you will need to either carefully pull off the door membrane on the right hand side or cut it down the side so to expose the window regulator bracket bolts and allow access to get at the door lock mechanism. You will need to tape this back up later.

- Then unscrew the TX30 torx screws on the right hand side that support the window regulator. This is to allow enough room for the door lock mechanism to come out.

- Then remove the two door lock module bolts on the rear edge of the door using the 8mm triple square tool. The bolts are indicated by the yellow arrows in the picture below.

The 8mm triple square tool is also shown below.

- You will then be left with the door lock lose and the door handle cable still attached to it. Un pop the door handle cable from its clip.

- You will now be able to manipulate the door lock by carefully twisting it around the lose window regular bracket to remove it out of the car. See picture below

- Before taking it completely out release the wiring plug. Underneath the mechanism.

Now the Door lock mechanism is free. Well done.

[Bowders1]

Part 3. Strip down of Door Lock asm

Stripping down the Door lock asm to replace the Micro switch

Pic of mechanism with the micro switch wires (blue and red). This is what we need to get at.

You need to remove this micro switch and replace it with the one you have

purchased.

- Observe the position and how the old switch works. Then remove the old switch. It is held in place by two plastic plugs that are melted to hold the switch. Pry it out with a small flat bladed screwdriver and clip the wires at the switch.

Seen in the pic below on the reverse side of the mechanism, take note of the correct way round the top part of the switch mechanism contact point.

The result will then look like this.

Examination of the switch shows why it was not working

The switch was completely missing the little plastic rod that triggers the internal part of the switch to operate.

As the replacement switch is not like this and will need to be either screwed down or glued with strong cement. I opted for screws.

In this pic you will see the difference between the old and new switch, mainly the holes in the new switch that screws will be used to hold it in place. You will also have to remove the metal lever that comes with the new switch by slowly twisting it out with pliers. You don't need it, just the main body of the switch.

- cut the red and blue wires off of the old switch near to the switch end

- You will need a dremel tool or small drill to slot out the holes in the new switch inwards and upwards to the top of the switch to allow the screws to fit through the mechanism holes and through the switch and to give adequate clearance for the cam in the mechanism to clear the switch.

Some folks have actually dremelled the lock asm rather than the switch, this is up to you, but I felt more comfortable doing this to the new switch (rather bugger that up than the asm).

Here is a pic of someone else’s attempt to drill the lock.

- When you have drilled out the holes enough to get screws through it and the lock it should look something like this. Note the below pic has the switch around the wrong way as it is a VW Passat and slightly different

Note I added a couple more nuts to hold in place better and also used screw thread lock.

- Solder the previously cut wires to the new switch on the terminals.

Attach the wires to the Common and one to the NO (normally open). This is the middle terminal (ignore the pic above as first soldered it wrong. Does not matter which way round the colors go by the way.

- You are now ready to test the results

- Take the door lock mechanism out to the car and replug the door lock connector whilst holding the mechanism.

- Try to manipulate the door open and closed by sliding a screw driver into the latch area to see if the interior light will come on.

- You can do this by pulling up the lever on the mechanism and at the same time push the latch down or up.

- If all is well you have just repaired you door latch mechanism

It is now a case of putting it all back together.

[f1_mw]

Thanks man, so much better than the Haynes!

[Silver Bullet]

Your posted "how to" guides are brilliant ,

Clear and concise and the pics are so useful

Many Thanks

[Bowders1]

Cheers for the comments guys.

[cakey]

I just want to say thank you to Bowders1 for his excellent posting. I had this problem on a 2003 Octavia and wouldn't have attempted it without his advice that you don't need to take out the window and regulator. (which you don't)

My observations:

The amount that the window is unwound is fairly critical. Too far up and everything is too tight to move. Too far down and the window and window holder get in the way and you won't be able to get the lock mechanism out. With the window open about 1cm it worked well.

The micro switch on my car was slightly different to the ones I saw in the photos here. I opened it up and in mine the rod pushes against a spring. I reconnected the cable into the lock mechanism, reconnected the battery and turned the ignition on and could check the switch itself was working perfectly.

That ruled out the electrics part of the micro switch.

The little black rod (which pushes against the cam of the lock) on the micro switch was well worn, but looking at the cam of the lock, it seemed even more worn with a deep groove in it so I decided to replace the whole thing with a scrap dealers lock assembly for £20. My point is it may not be the micro switch.

I know very little about car maintenance but can follow good instructions easily so if anyone is thinking about this and would be interested in spending £20 rather that £200 for a new one including fitting, then I would say go for it.

[Bowders1]

I just want to say thank you to Bowders1 for his excellent posting. I had this problem on a 2003 Octavia and wouldn't have attempted it without his advice that you don't need to take out the window and regulator. (which you don't)

My observations:

The amount that the window is unwound is fairly critical. Too far up and everything is too tight to move. Too far down and the window and window holder get in the way and you won't be able to get the lock mechanism out. With the window open about 1cm it worked well.

The micro switch on my car was slightly different to the ones I saw in the photos here. I opened it up and in mine the rod pushes against a spring. I reconnected the cable into the lock mechanism, reconnected the battery and turned the ignition on and could check the switch itself was working perfectly.

That ruled out the electrics part of the micro switch.

The little black rod (which pushes against the cam of the lock) on the micro switch was well worn, but looking at the cam of the lock, it seemed even more worn with a deep groove in it so I decided to replace the whole thing with a scrap dealers lock assembly for £20. My point is it may not be the micro switch.

I know very little about car maintenance but can follow good instructions easily so if anyone is thinking about this and would be interested in spending £20 rather that £200 for a new one including fitting, then I would say go for it.

Thanks buddy for comments

Very true points. This is why I state at the very start of the thread you need to verify the symptoms are the same as to the issue I had. As you point out there are more than 1 type of cause of failure to the central locking mechanism and if folks have slightly different symptom the micro switch fix might not work for them.

However the symptoms I had are one of the most common. Also to get a second hand door mechanism is a better option if one is found cheap than messing with the switches but the guide would still be useful for general understanding of door asm and panel removal.

When I removed my door lock I had the window right up and found that to be ok for me. I also had a spare door lock from a VW golf which although was the same the micro switch had suffered the same demise as mine(no pin) typical glad i checked it first. It is also worth checking the fixed lock asm before reinstalling completely as per my comments.

cheers

Mark

[Mateus109]

Great guide but I can't get the lock past the window regulator. I removed the regulator bolts but it would only move about 1cm and the lock is way too large to get through. Haynes manual suggests removing the regulator entirely so how did you manage to get the lock out without doing this?

Cheers,

M

[Bowders1]

Great guide but I can't get the lock past the window regulator. I removed the regulator bolts but it would only move about 1cm and the lock is way too large to get through. Haynes manual suggests removing the regulator entirely so how did you manage to get the lock out without doing this?

Cheers,

M

post a pic dude on what you are trying , but lock definately comes out without regulator being removed

can see in this pic. It is very tight but you can do it. A little jiggering

[Kharon]

Still useful topic, thanks to Bowders1!

 

Had to replace window lifter as one of the cables broke and glass dropped to halfway, so I tackled stuck lock at the same time: It was so badly rusted even key wouldn't go in and the lock cylinder was totally stuck. I had to eventually drill the lock cylinder out and buy a new one. Anyway, now the the window and the lock cylinder operate as intended. While there I cleaned and checked the microswitch, seems to be OK.

[Torsein]

Having ordered and received a door latch micro switch it turned out being the wrong one, even though supplying the chassis number to skoda-parts.com.

I wonder if you could advice me upon the correct alternative to this ;

MIK 83X 0XX

Lock Microswitch [de+]

 

My garage sent me the attached picture, which I'm not sure helps a lot.

I did not receive the original part number/article number from the car.

Chassis#TMBKS21U918458056