Hi chaps,

The lock on the wife's Altea drivers door has started playing up. I realise this isn't technically a Skoda issue, but from what I've seen posted elsewhere it seems a common problem across the VW group though it could be for several different reasons including the locking unit or the wiring loom.

 

I've posted a question on the Seat forum on Sunday and so far no one has bothered to reply (friendly lot!)

 

The symptoms are that drivers door won't open with the remote, but will open with the key. The remote itself seems fine- I've changed the battery just in case, but it made no difference.

The 1st operation of the key unlocks all the deadlocks (as usual), but doesn't open her door. The 2nd blip (we've got it on the security setting where the 1st blip just opens the drivers door) then opens all the other doors and the central locking button in the centre console then lights up which it normally doesn't do (to show there's a fault I guess).

When we drive off you can hear it try to lock the drivers door at around the 20mph mark ( a quietish bump bump sound), but it doesn't actually lock the door. It repeats this most times we drop below 20mph then go back over it again so it's obviously recognizing the fact that the door isn't locked as it should be (which I confirmed by opening the window and trying the door handle from the outside after pulling up, but with the engine still running and the door opened.

So if anyone can help with any ideas that would be great.

Assuming I can get the trim off I'm guessing there will be a plug that goes into the unit. if so is the feed that opens and closes the door on a different pin to the dead locks and if so which one is it so I can see if the 12v is getting there when I operate the key remote so I can see if its a wiring loom fault or not?

I've checked and both electric windows work from the drivers door switches and the door mirror moves too and the speaker work in the drivers door too so maybe the loom is ok?

Or should I just take it to my local Indy?

Any help would be appreciated

Cheers

Ade

I believe that if you unlock / lock three times using the key in the lock this re-boots the computer.  It might be worth a try.  Certainly that always fixed the Polo when it decided that the window controls operated the opposite window.

Those Altea door trims are a bit wierd to remove as the trim carries the window regulator and they can be tricky to refit.  See if you can get a VCDS scan done on it.

Thanks chaps. It's been the wet rather than west midlands here tonight so I've not had chance to try the key reset option. I'll give it a try tomorrow night.

Any recomendations where I can get a VCDS done locally if the above doesn't work and are they all the same?

Cheers

I had a solenoid go in a car central locking once (not the Skoda). Same symptoms, button wouldn't work but key and handle did.

Thanks Aspman. Looks like it's a spanners out job as I tried the 3 unlock/lock suggested by keystonedriving but no success. I'm wondering if it's water in the multiplug or something similar as SWMBO said it started last week on a day it absolutely lashed it down. Just got to try and find some enthusiasm. Had no probs finding some to give the vRS a damn good clean today though. Now if she had a Skoda instead..... LOL