Hi I'm new here and really need some help with my drivers side door lock on a 2002 Skoda Fabia. The door lock on the drivers side door has all of a sudden failed and will not turn anti-clockwise to unlock the car but will turn 360 clockwise without locking the car (will not lock or unlock the door). Right now I have to unlock the car using the key in the passenger door and then walk round to open the driver door.

How do I go about repairing the drivers door lock?

I think you'll find more help in the Fabia forum. Replacing the lock is fairly straightforward, just remove the door card, and then the lock (which will have protection over it), but you may need a replacement first, and of course then you'll need to get one that fits your key (or end up with a 2-key car).

You suggest you have central locking (can unlock other door and open it then), it would probably be cheaper/easier to fit a remote central locking addon kit or alarm (which would also add remote lock/unlock) than replacing the lock barrel.

By the sound of it, assuming the door will open/close and lock/unlock fine from the inside, My initial suspicion would be the linkage between the lock barrel/button and the lock mechanism itself, rather than those (expensive) bits. Especially given that Skoda list no less than 6 repair kits (none costing more a few pounds) with various combinations of those linkage parts - it's a bit more complex than the Felicia setup.

As for getting in there, I don't know for sure, but looking at the parts it looks like you may not need to take the door card off - the basic procedure probably goes something along these lines: open the door and remove the rubber/plastic bung in line with the handle on the rear edge of the door, loosen (or remove) the screw accessible through that hole so you can then pull the handle and/or lock cover plate off from the outside, then you should be able to unscrew the mounting plate (which looks to be attached from the outside of the car, unlike the Mondeo I'm referencing) and pull the whole lot out

n.b. I.'d expect the internal handle, lock button and central locking may well keep working fine even with the external handle removed. Probably.

edit: had a look at a Fabia in the car park at work today, and on closer inspection whilst there may be screws accessed from the outside with the handle removed, the mounting plate is behind the door skin so would require the door card off to remove it. But then you may not need to go that far anyway.

Edited 9 December, 201015 yr by RobinSLXi