Central locking

[will_raymo2000]

Hi guys - my first post so be gentle =D

I have recently become the owner of a W plate 1.4MPI Fabia classic.. with no central locking at all..!

I have just checked out rclick.co.uk and the kits seem to go for quite cheap but I'm guessing the labour would be the killer in getting someone to fit the kit.

Anyone upgraded to central locking on a similar car? Any ideas how much someone would charge to fit such a kit or if it possible for me to attempt such a feat myself!

Any answers would be appreciated!

Will

[ninjajebus]

It's not too bad, it's definitely fiddly getting some of the trim off, but it's surprising how easy it is to take other trim bits off, I found taking the dash/front bits off easy, taking the door trims/pillars bits off hard.

I got the rclick kit, they supply you with almost everything you need, tho I bought a 1m strip of metal for 2quid (he seen me coming) for the front doors. As luck would have it I've taken off the door trim in anticipation of fitting electric windows, so I've attached a picture of my front passenger carrier/door.

I had the kit for couple of weeks or so before fitting it, and every evening I gradually took some more of the trim off, took off the metal and plastic poppers and then put it back on again. By taking off all the wee plastic and metal poppers out of the doors and trim panels it made it much easier to remove panels on the actual day that I fitted the kit. It's a wee bit noisier for a few weeks but I'd definitely recommend it. Also, by doing this you get to see what bits of the rclick kit you need to drill/cut and already do it, so on the big day you can put it all in relatively quickly. You don't need to drill cut anything on your fabia. Have a look at the leaky door threads for instructions on how to take of the door trim and maybe try taking off one of the rear door trims to see if you've the stomach for it before ordering the kit.

You should read these two threads too:

http://briskoda.net/technical-guides/fabia-central-locking-kit-retro-fit-guide/81916/

http://briskoda.net/technical-guides/remote-central-locking-installation-guide/84559/

[MattHirst]

It's not too bad, it's definitely fiddly getting some of the trim off, but it's surprising how easy it is to take other trim bits off, I found taking the dash/front bits off easy, taking the door trims/pillars bits off hard.

I got the rclick kit, they supply you with almost everything you need, tho I bought a 1m strip of metal for 2quid (he seen me coming) for the front doors. As luck would have it I've taken off the door trim in anticipation of fitting electric windows, so I've attached a picture of my front passenger carrier/door.

I had the kit for couple of weeks or so before fitting it, and every evening I gradually took some more of the trim off, took off the metal and plastic poppers and then put it back on again. By taking off all the wee plastic and metal poppers out of the doors and trim panels it made it much easier to remove panels on the actual day that I fitted the kit. It's a wee bit noisier for a few weeks but I'd definitely recommend it. Also, by doing this you get to see what bits of the rclick kit you need to drill/cut and already do it, so on the big day you can put it all in relatively quickly. You don't need to drill cut anything on your fabia. Have a look at the leaky door threads for instructions on how to take of the door trim and maybe try taking off one of the rear door trims to see if you've the stomach for it before ordering the kit.

You should read these two threads too:

http://briskoda.net/technical-guides/fabia-central-locking-kit-retro-fit-guide/81916/

http://briskoda.net/technical-guides/remote-central-locking-installation-guide/84559/

I absolutley love you...I WANT TO MARRY YOU

I ordered the rclick kit quite while ago, fitted the 2 rear actuators but with all the snow recently i didn't get round to fitting the front ones as i was under the impression that i had to remove the door 'panel' and glass so i could fit the actuator behind there. Now you have fitted it to the 'outside' of the door onto the little pin thingy, i will do exactly the same.

I will get the 2 front ones fitted this afternoon. How easy did you find the wiring to do?

[ninjajebus]

The wirings a bit fiddly too at times, you'll need to free the b-pillar trim - take the top b-pillar panel off first, it doesn't come fully off (unless you take the seat belt off), but once you free the clips you can rotate it out of the way. The bottom bit then pulls out and then up. You can then shove the wiring under the trim along the sides of the car and then feed it up through into this b-pillar area.

It's a bit harder to do this around the drivers side because of the boot release lever, and eventually I ended up taking the whole drivers side trim off because I was routing the cable for electrical boot release down that side anyway. You can still get away with just shoving the cabling up this side trim though.

Feeding the wire through into the actual door area is much easier if you get a stiff bit of wire, like a clothes hanger or something, tape the connector tips to that and then feed it through the hole. This is really handy when you're doing the drivers door cos theres so much stuff to navigate through.

Routing the wiring the other way isn't too bad, the clothes wire method is also handy when you're feeding the cabling from the drivers footwell behind the stereo. The glovebox comes off a treat and you can route the cables much the same way as you did it on the drivers side.

From my experience I'd recommend taping the wiring up every 5-10cm or so to keep it nice and tidy and if you're looking to get out troublesome metal poppers, get two wide bladed screwdrivers, wrap the ends in electrical tape, put them under each side of the popper and twist the screwdrivers to ease the poppers out. It's much easier than brute force.

Oh and for the front doors today, I lined the metal strip up so that I could use the middle bottom bolt, then I lined that up with the hole that you use to screw in the arm rest on the door trim and got a bit of tape and held it in that position. You should find that this line with open and close the door ok. That's also why there is no bolt at the top of the strip, it only goes in when you reattach the door trim.

Also, on my passenger door (it didn't happen with my drivers door) the central locking system doesn't work properly with the trim off, e.g. if the car is locked and the trim isn't on my front passenger door, then the door won't unlock. It's only when I put the trim back on that it works again. It's like the actuator isn't quite guiding the pin all the way up, but more sideways instead. So if you're doing it like mine and the door doesn't unlock with the trim off, maybe try it with the trim on just to check,

Edited 21 February, 2009 by ninjajebus

[MattHirst]

Got the front central locking fine with the fob, and if you unlock the front passenger door with the key, it unlocks both fronts (haven't fed wires through for the rears yet). But if i unlock the front drivers door with the key, it doesn't engage the central locking, any idea what is causing this?

Also, while removing (or more ragging hehe) the panels off the dash/facias etc these 2 long springy things that operate the heaters (temperature and direction of the air flow) came off. Now i looked in my haynes and it doens't mention these at all, i can't for the love of god figureout where they go to (i know where they attatch on the rear of the heater control) but i can't figure out where inside the dash. They seem to attatch to a worm type gear (plastic) but i still can't figure out where they go. Can anybody shed any light on this?

If the folk viewing this thread don't know, i will make a thread dedicated to that problem (sorry for the thread hi-jack by the way)

Thanks

Matt:)

[ninjajebus]

Got the front central locking fine with the fob, and if you unlock the front passenger door with the key, it unlocks both fronts (haven't fed wires through for the rears yet). But if i unlock the front drivers door with the key, it doesn't engage the central locking, any idea what is causing this?

Sounds like one of the connectors to the drivers door actuator isn't in right maybe? I can't help you with the other problem. I removed the stereo and the cubby hole and fed the wires through the back of there, I didn't fancy removing the heater panel.

[MattHirst]

Sorted the heater thingy, dad's do come in handy for some things

I got the rears wired in today, as well as the indicators (so it flashes when i lock/unlock). Had to re do the clamp on the drivers door because it needed adjusting a tiny bit, and now it does unlock/lock with the key and fob

[will_raymo2000]

This sounds like a bit more work than I anticipated.. Only got the car 2 weeks ago so I might save this for a few weeks when im on holiday and can have a few days at home dealing with it!

What do you reckon the dealer will say if I had to have it go in for some warranty jobs? Or should I wait until the warranty period has finished?

[MattHirst]

Well my car has around 1 month left on warranty (or a tad less) but if something goes wrong, aslong as it isn't related to the work you have done, there shouldn't be any problems at all.

I fitted the rear actuators in about 3 or 4 hours (taking my time, carefully removing panels checking where everything goes etc) when i first got the kit. Due to the bad weather and me injuring myself again i have only just got round to finishing it off. I started yesterday at about 3pm, my friend came over at about 5 to give me a hand and got the front central locking working properly etc. Started again today at about 12:30 and got the rears wired in, made fine adjustments to all the clamps and tidied up all the wiring, made it so it was totally hidden and also wired in the indicators (took me longer than i wanted, turns out i was using the wrong brown wires, followed by a popped fuse. Its the 2 browns on the 4 pin plug if your using the rclick unit).

My other friend that also has a Fabia asked for a quote off a garage for fitting central locking and they said they wouldn't do it because its so complicated, can't be a very good garage in my opinion. He said once i have got mine fitted and working, let him know and he'll get my to do his aswell. Now i have done mine, i could easily do his in a weekend (thats doing things carefully etc, i could have it done in a day if i was a bit reckless etc). For less than £40 posted, the kit is very good and very simple to fit. Just the instructions are a bit pants.

I was going to take some photos of the whole job but it was getting dark and i needed to get my car back together (work tomorrow!) and make sure it was fully working before i left my car parked outside for the night in the middle of Englands very own gazza strip!

[will_raymo2000]

The fitting of the actuators sounds do-able but im a bit scared about the wiring. I fear that will be my downfall! May have to call on my Dad to assist on that one.

I will have to do a bit more research on how to take off the panels and be able to put them back on neatly!

With regards to the wiring.. Im assuming theres a central control box that these actuators plug into and then this is somehow wired into the fusebox? Or is it slightly more complicated than that?