I'm a bit confused at the moment. My friendly VW parts bloke in Scarborough has helped me this week by looking into the part numbers for the door mechanism. According to his computer in a shiny new dealership, the part number that Skoda gave me for the door mech was only fitted on the Passat from 2002 onwards, not the Mk4 Golf. A contemporary Mk4 Golf has a totally different part number and didn't match the info I'd gathered apparently.

Could my vRS - which was put together in 2005 according to some of the parts stickers - use a different lock or part number to the rest of you? I would have thought not, but he was adamant that mine is a Passat part. He even allowed me to connect a new lock up to my car, but it didn't operate anyway.

It looks as if I will have to concede defeat and pay Skoda to hook me up to VAG com to see what the issue is. I've tried all the DIY fixes, spent two weeks driving round with no door card on and am quite fed up.

Any last minute advice would be welcome, as would a VAG com person nearby.

A quick browse shows several lock mechanisms listed for the Octavia depending on configuration, with both 3B (Passat) and 6X (Lupo) prefixes. The Golf IV listings actually list 6X part numbers, but there are 1J (Golf IV) part numbers listed as equivalents for most of these.

A quick browse shows several lock mechanisms listed for the Octavia depending on configuration, with both 3B (Passat) and 6X (Lupo) prefixes. The Golf IV listings actually list 6X part numbers, but there are 1J (Golf IV) part numbers listed as equivalents for most of these.

So is the prefix not overly important then? I've noticed a few of the locks have the same numbers in the middle, with the two letters at the front and the one letter at the end being diffetent.

So is the prefix not overly important then? I've noticed a few of the locks have the same numbers in the middle, with the two letters at the front and the one letter at the end being diffetent.

Those last 2 numbers will be the important ones

Those last 2 numbers will be the important ones

So with the part number 3B2837016-T, it's the 16 that's the most important?