My boot door was permanently locked in my mk1 octavia, opening and closing the central locking made no difference. I stripped off the boot trim and could see that there is an actuator that moves a lever across so that the outside boot handle is engaged with the unlocking mechanism. When you lock the car the actuator moves the lever so the outside handle does not make contact with the unlocking mechanism.

 

I operated the central locking from inside the car watching the actuator, no movement. I checked the fuses and all seemed to be ok.

 

I removed the actuator and put a 12 V supply onto it (8 x 1.5V AA batteries in a bank) and the part still works, the motor turns and the actuator can freely move in our out of its casing.

 

I put a multimeter on the connector from the loom and watched it as I operated the central locking. I could see a flash of 12V or -12V as the central locking was operated.

 

From this I know there is a voltage being sent to the actuator, I know the actuator works on its own. putting the connector back into the actuator..... still no movement.

 

I am thoroughly confused. The connections are quite corroded, they are fairly in accessible to clean on the actuator due to the connector socket they are housed in.

 

any ideas why they are not working together? Internal resistance?

Try to see if it works with that black connector unplugged. The one at the very top nearest the boot handle