Central Locking Problem Help Needed

[Porkballs29]

The central Locking on my drivers side door does not work. If I press the remote all the other doors lock accept the drivers, the led by the door button does not light up or flash, the drivers side door mirror does not move if you set it to that side it operates the other side, and the roof light does not come on when you open the door. Now I imagine it must all be related? Is it likely to be the mechanism or micro switch or something else?

[rwbaldwin]

The central Locking on my drivers side door does not work. If I press the remote all the other doors lock accept the drivers, the led by the door button does not light up or flash, the drivers side door mirror does not move if you set it to that side it operates the other side, and the roof light does not come on when you open the door. Now I imagine it must all be related? Is it likely to be the mechanism or micro switch or something else?

The most likely cause would be a break in one of the power wires as it passes from the 'A' pillar to the door - Red/Yellow or Red/Brown. It could also be a bad connection behind the 'A' pillar trim at the base.

[Porkballs29]

Ok thanks for the reply. Being a bit Of a novice to Skoda how would I go about getting this repaired?

[andy68]

Common problem this, mine suffers the same except the interior light works on mine, the problem on mine is caused by the connector block on the electric window motor inside the door, it lets water in and corrodes the pins, depending on the amount of damage you may get away with cleaning it all up and sealing it up to prevent further problems, or you could be unlucky like me and have a load of snapped pins and in need of a new motor, i'm putting up with it at the moment not a cheap part to replace.

[Porkballs29]

My drivers side window still works so would it still be this? I suppose I'd better strip the door card off at some point and have a look. It's no real hardship locking the doors manually I was just a bit worried as to whether it would affect the alarm and imobiliser working as the lights not flashing etc.

[andy68]

My window still works, just the pins in the motor snapped with corrosion, no LED, no control on drivers mirror and the heating element in drivers mirror faulty, unlocks everything but drivers door, noticed how poor mine was when stripping door down to do the window regulator(another common fault) welcome to our world

[Porkballs29]

Wow that's exactly the same as mine as I forgot to mention the heated mirror not working. Oh well the key it is for a while yet then lol.

Cheers Guys.

Edited 20 December, 2011 by Porkballs29

[STSKODA]

I've got an intermittent fault with mine where all functions work perfectly except drivers door does not always lock or unlock, and drivers door led sometimes does not come on.

all other functions such as courtesy light etc work perfectly.

if i thump the door lock it can be persuaded to lock/unlock

any thoughts on the root cause of my issue

car has previously had new door loom, window regulator and ccu

[darrylg]

I've got an intermittent fault with mine where all functions work perfectly except drivers door does not always lock or unlock, and drivers door led sometimes does not come on.

all other functions such as courtesy light etc work perfectly.

if i thump the door lock it can be persuaded to lock/unlock

any thoughts on the root cause of my issue

car has previously had new door loom, window regulator and ccu

I've just posted about this on a much older post.

I have exactly the same problem, same intermittency.

Haven't tried the thumping though.

I think it's water/damp/cold related as it's just started.

This time last year I had the crazy windscreen wipers when it got down to -9, these sorted themselves.

I've also got a nice version of Skippy the kangaroo, in that my indicator relay ticks at me randomly.

I'm going to strip the drivers door panel off after Christmas and check the connector block for corrosion as mentioned earlier in the thread.

Unless you fix yours first!

[colinvrs]

the amount of problems from a little black box in the drivers door causes a lot of electical gremlins . why hasnt skoda had a recall on this shody piece of electric misplacement

[stevieauld]

Sounds pretty similar to what I had, ended up having to replace the ecu that controls the locking/windows! Skoda wanted £240.00 for the part but I managed to get one from a scrappy for £60!

Problem is everything works now except the drivers door won't open with the key fob but it does if I use the key in the door! Any ideas how to fix this?? Also the led is not working since I had this fixed but was before hand!M

[rwbaldwin]

Sounds pretty similar to what I had, ended up having to replace the ecu that controls the locking/windows! Skoda wanted £240.00 for the part but I managed to get one from a scrappy for £60!

Problem is everything works now except the drivers door won't open with the key fob but it does if I use the key in the door! Any ideas how to fix this?? Also the led is not working since I had this fixed but was before hand!M

Sounds like a bad microswitch in the door lock.

[darrylg]

Sounds pretty similar to what I had, ended up having to replace the ecu that controls the locking/windows! Skoda wanted £240.00 for the part but I managed to get one from a scrappy for £60!

Problem is everything works now except the drivers door won't open with the key fob but it does if I use the key in the door! Any ideas how to fix this?? Also the led is not working since I had this fixed but was before hand!M

This is the same as my problem.

I've dismantled what feels like the whole car.

The microswitch works!

If I disconnect the door locking mechanism from the cable connector in the door, the red LED works when I lock the car with the remote.

If I re-connect the door locking mechanism and lock the car with the remote, the red LED doesn't work.

I'll update this thread when/if I find out anything more today.

[STSKODA]

try a new door lock assembly

[darrylg]

This is the same as my problem.

I've dismantled what feels like the whole car.

The microswitch works!

If I disconnect the door locking mechanism from the cable connector in the door, the red LED works when I lock the car with the remote.

If I re-connect the door locking mechanism and lock the car with the remote, the red LED doesn't work.

I'll update this thread when/if I find out anything more today.

I checked the connector unit on the bottom of the window regulator mechanism and although it was a bit mucky and what looks like the beginnings of corrosion, there was nothing damaged, broken or rusted. I cleaned off the parts delicately and measured the power in the connector. It had 12v, so all looked good.

I think I'm going to have to try a new door lock mechanism as STSKODA says.

I've completely taken apart the old door lock mechanism assembly. Inside is a simple circuit board with three more micro switches plus the electric motor. Looks like it can only take 5v, which is roughly what I've measured coming into the power connector, so it can't be a cable problem.

It must be the circuit, one of the switches or the motor has gone.

I'm still impressed that I managed to get the mechanism back together. How did people used to manage without cameras on phones!

Another wasted day.

Anyone got a working drivers side front door lock assembly for sale?

[STSKODA]

by the way, when you reconnect all this stuff up use electrical contact spray, silicone grease and self amalgamating tape to water proof it all

[darrylg]

by the way, when you reconnect all this stuff up use electrical contact spray, silicone grease and self amalgamating tape to water proof it all

I'm still wondering how the water gets into the connector of the window regulator unit. I mean, the thing is upside down!

It must just be condensation build up.

I've got a lock assembly on the way from my local breakers yard. £30.

We'll see if that fixes it.

[STSKODA]

its not condensation - it runs down between window and seal and drips down the regulator to the lowest point, the plug and gains entry there

[darrylg]

It's not the locking mechanism.

I replaced it with another one and the same problem.

Is there a central locking control unit somewhere in the car?

[STSKODA]

check the multiplug then - if its not that i'd bank on it being a wiring issue somewhere in the door

[darrylg]

check the multiplug then - if its not that i'd bank on it being a wiring issue somewhere in the door

Yeah I've been reading many many many posts about this issue and like you say:

1, It's probably the cabling in the door loom somewhere (remember I had 5v only).

2, Seal the connector unit up with anything you can get your hands on!

I feel another weekend coming on. At least I haven't re-fitted anything in the door. I could probably strip one down in 20 mins with all the practice.

Thanks very much.

[darrylg]

Well today was successful!! The drivers door now locks with the remote! :clap:

The problem was both the connector box (adjoined to the window motor regulator unit) and the connector female block.

When I checked it last, the day was getting dark so I missed the fact that I was missing one pin from the box, plus, as I found out today, the red/yellow small wire was actually corroded away and was not making a proper connection to the "clip" at the end of the female block unit.

Here's what I saw when I initially took off the door inner and looked at the connector female block:

It fits into the connector block like this:

It looked OK on initial inspection, but the tell tale now I realise it was the amount of blue gunk:

Today I managed to get a better look at the male end of the block because I spent about 20 minutes carefully releasing the clips toward the window motor end, and pulled it off the unit.

I saw that I was clearly missing one of the pins off the centre row on the far right hand side:

So, I manufactured a new pin using a small retaining clip off a USB female socket (I happened to have a PCB board lying around that was broken):

I managed to lay the new pin along the length of the remains of the old pin, then solder the two together.

Obviously the new pin sticks out roughly the same length as the others.

Once I'd done this I then tried connecting the block to the female end.

It still didn't make the drivers door lock work. :'(

So I tested the voltage again by attaching the multi-meter to the female unit where the thick brown wire connects (earth) and to the red/yellow wire (the one that contacts to my new pin). The multi-meter was showing a range of values from 1 to 4 volts. Not 12v as I have come to expect (from another post on this forum).

So I released the cable tie at the end of the female block unit and pull the red/yellow wire. It came straight out!!

The end of the wire had completely corroded away from the end of the metal clip, which could still be seen at the end of the female connect block:

Oh dear.

So, I trimmed back the wire and cleaned it up (I left the rubber seal bit on the wire, just pushed it further up the wire).

With the multi-meter I confirmed that the wire gives 12v!! Thank god for that. No issues with the wiring loom then.

I then set to work try to force the remains of the clip back up the female connector.

I managed to get it out and clean it up (removing the soggy remains of corroded wiring) although it wasn't in the best condition when I'd finished.

I then re-inserted the newly trimmed wire and pushed it into the female block.

It poked out slightly further than before, but this was good as I needed a good connection.

I then pushed up the rubber grommet to act as a bit of resistance to keep the wire in place along with some glue.

I then connected the female block onto the male connector block unit. Bingo! The lock assembly worked! The LED in the door now flashes too!

I taped and sealed the whole unit, before re-connecting the block into the window motor assembly.

All in all, a good fix that cost me absolutely nothing but time.

The messing about with the lock unit cost me £30 for a decent set of sockets which included the spline ones. I can hopefully use these again one day.

I paid £30 for a lock assembly from a scrappy that I didn't need in the end, so returned it.

I'd like to thank those people on this forum for posting excellent information.

You've been really helpful and have definitely saved me near on £400! The garage that diagnosed the fault said the VAG-Com was reporting "implausible signal" from the lock assembly, so wanted me to pay £100 for a new unit plus £100 fitting. Then they would have told me that didn't fix the issue so would have charged me £200 for a window motor regulator unit with the stupid connector block, plus fitting costs.

You can definitely get these connector blocks off. Go to a scrappy and get them plus the wiring loom. If it costs you two weekends of work plus £50, you'll be laughing.

I'm off out for a celebratory meal with the wife tonight, as I was starting to think I'd have to shell out on a load of garage work! I'd rather spend £60 this way. ;-)

Thanks very much.

Darryl

[STSKODA]

well done in fixing it - shame you missed the broken pin 1st time round

good write up by the way, and nice to see how one member got to the bottom of the fault

just watch out for your drivers door leaking now, the door seal can be hard to refit. if water is sitting on the lower door seal when you get in rectify it before you get soggy carpets!

[Porkballs29]

Good on you mate. Still to look at mine yet but i'll be sure to look out for this when I do. Hope you enjoy your meal.

[BigRedDog]

Spot on! I will have to have a go at this soon, very comprehensive guide. Does anyone reckon it should go in the guides section?