My Octavia has obviously had a life changing experience! It has always been a little nervous, especially in damp weather but now it is constantly firing the door locking mechanism. Sometime it is so quick I cannot unlock the door quickly enough to open the door.

 

Is there any cure other than CBT?

Does the door led flash when locked?. I must admit, sounds like water ingress in the control unit in the drivers door - this seems to become a bigger problem each year now, as they are now old enough to catch this condition much more often.

 

YellowCar has a really good how to in the guides section which should tell you most of what you need to know - http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/336309-how-to-check-and-protect-your-door-multiplugs/

Cheers Phil. Yes another big spate of these at the moment. I'd say if the pins and sockets look good and the loom is sound it could be an internally goosed unit. Chances are it's a pin or two, could be loose wires going into multiplug from loom as a result of corrosion which is effected by water when damp. Seek and ye shall find...

Cheers everyone. When I get the time I will dig into the door. I did have to replace part of the door lock a while ago.

 

Phil, I have seen the led flash but don't often lock the doors (pretty safe in this part of London!). The remote has never worked and I don't think it has a functioning alarm.

 

Yellowcar, you have dampness problems in Wales? My previous cars were SAAB's (without turbos). Watched the Top Gear episode last night where they dropped a beloved 900 on it's roof just to show how strong it was.

Cheers everyone. When I get the time I will dig into the door. I did have to replace part of the door lock a while ago.

 

Phil, I have seen the led flash but don't often lock the doors (pretty safe in this part of London!). The remote has never worked and I don't think it has a functioning alarm.

 

Yellowcar, you have dampness problems in Wales? My previous cars were SAAB's (without turbos). Watched the Top Gear episode last night where they dropped a beloved 900 on it's roof just to show how strong it was.

Haha yeah but fortunately I got to the plugs and protected them before water took hold!

Must admit I do feel pretty safe in the Saab, prefer the vrs though...

Gave the multi plug a good decorroding, finishing with ACF50 and lots of silicon grease. Didn't seem to like the grease so much. Finally got the panel back on without releasing the door handle cable only to find that I have two black plastic brackets left! Think I'll wait until next time before finding out where they came from.

 

One day on and the auto locking has gone quiet while the locking system has returned to it's normal quixotic self - not locking, locking some doors or locking all and then releasing one. But I can live with that....

When it does the random locking bit, what does the led on the door do?, does it flash normally or bursts of flashes i.e, 1 flash 2 flashes etc etc?.

Don't know about the random flashes bit as it out of my line of sight, but there are currently no flashes at all.

Edited 16 October, 201510 yr by King John

No flashes normally means the control unit is doing a Titanic impression and is full of water internally once the connections have been checked and ruled out.

Is there a cure that doesn't involve removal/ replacement?

Not for the motor unfortunately although it is an easy swap out, there's often used ones available at a fraction of the new price. But if it doesn't match your part number exactly ie same model year it would have to be coded in with vcds.

How was the loom and plug/pins by the way?

The plugs looked OK. Seemed to work with the cleaner & ACF50 but the grease seemed to be a step too far! Current annoyance is the central locking button where one of the near side locks either reopens or doesn't lock. That is why my daughter christened the car Chantelle because it may or may not work but she 'shan't tell' why!

A 'female' locking button playing up could just be a sticky mechanism. Well worth trying. Door card off though unfortunately and look round to the mech and soak it in wd40 spray grease and whatever else you can find. Lube the hell out of it and work the locking repeatedly. Could be an easy fix. My front nearside door got fixed that way, occasionally the pin wouldn't drop when locking.