The central locking on my rear drivers side gave up a few weeks back. The problem is, the previous owner had kiddies, and the child locks were still engaged. I never thought to check, as I never get in the back!

So, the car failed its MOT today because the rear door won't open. I can't get the door card off as I can't open the door, I can't open the door until get the door card off. HELP!

Any suggestions? A mate suggested looking at the opposite door, working out where the lock is, making a "special tool" and trying to jimmy it open. Dont want to start trying to break in if there are easier alternatives. Will be tackling this issue tomorrow so any advice much appreciated

Update.

After getting nowhere I cut away a small section of door seal and managed to get a specially bent bit of wire in to turn off the child locks. Door still won't open. No life to the motor. All the mechanisms are connected and run freely as far as I can see.

There seems to be a lot of talk on VAG forums of the deadlock mechanism failing. Some people are smashing the motor off the lock until they can get to the inner workings and disengage the deadlock. Sounds a bit harsh to me.

Sigh. Have been at this all day and got absolutely nowhere. Might just have to take it to the garage.

Update.

After getting nowhere I cut away a small section of door seal and managed to get a specially bent bit of wire in to turn off the child locks. Door still won't open. No life to the motor. All the mechanisms are connected and run freely as far as I can see.

There seems to be a lot of talk on VAG forums of the deadlock mechanism failing. Some people are smashing the motor off the lock until they can get to the inner workings and disengage the deadlock. Sounds a bit harsh to me.

Sigh. Have been at this all day and got absolutely nowhere. Might just have to take it to the garage.

The child lock wouldn't prevent you from opening the door from the outside if the door was unlocked. If the lock unit is already broken, then why not smash it up - it's the only way to get the door open

The first thing you need to do is get the door card off. Then check that the door has power, as the wires can break between the door pillar and the door

Ah ok, didn't know about the wiring issues. I've never had a car with central locking before, lol. Motorbikes are so much simpler

I got the card off, and thought that if I pulled up the lock button from inside whilst pulling the handle from the outside, I could get around the child lock.

Anyway, have a new lock mechanism on order and I had already started smashing off the old one before I saw your reply. It's definitely theft-proof! Might take me a couple of days to get it off fully whilst letting my knuckles heal in between sessions.

Still irritating that the rear door lock should fail the mot :(