I am sure that others must have found the problem of the front door key locks on the Octavia Mk2 being "non-dismantleable"?  I'm new to Briskoda so I haven't yet found out how to search properly for previously posted information on this topic.

All the key wiggling which occurs with the electro-mechanical door lock system on the Mk2 results in a lot of wear & tear to the lock barrel and paddle.  My driver's (right hand) door lock has ceased to operate because the connection between the key barrel and the paddle seems to have failed.  But unlike the Mk1 it seems impossible to get the lock barrel apart to repair it?  Complete brand new barrels and keys for the left hand door seem fairly readily available --- but not for the right hand lock!!  Any ideas?? 

Hey dude. I have exactly same issue. Skoda main dealer no help as they can only sell you complete lock kits and they will need assimilating to your car once received and installed - around £300 odd a side as of a couple of years ago, so I took lock out myself. There are a couple of little pins holding the barrel together which I tapped out, disassembled the inside and made a spacer out of a split-ring 'shakeproof' washer as I thought it might help.

This fixed it for a while certainly but not for long. After a couple of months it became difficult to unlock although easy to lock.

I have a feeling that the main issue is with the assembly that the spade end of the lock barrel slides into, and I couldn't get to that inside the door.

However, I swapped the lock barrel for the passenger side - instant relief!

SO now I have wiggle capability on drivers side but the Passenger side is next to useless. Still going now a year since.

Best of luck friend!

Hi Steve,

Many thanks.  Yes, my Skoda dealer can get me a new right hand door lock with two keys for £165 --- but of course that means that I will have to use one key to open the car and a second different key for the ignition (and pay a lot of money for that inconvenience!!)

I've got hold of a second hand right hand door lock so I'm going to try dismantling that.  Did you just knock those two pins inwards?  I was thinking that I'd have to try and drill them out --- and drilling out a steel pin that is in aluminium is very dodgy!!

Please let me know your method.

Thanks

Hi Ferrogib. As I remember, I think I worked out which direction the pins had been installed and used a thin, broken screwdriver (no head, only the shaft) to drift them out. As I said, it didn't solve the problem completely - the spacer I fitted just helped to stop the spade end from retracting. I think I should have maybe used more spacers, but as the one I fitted made an improvement I left it alone. 

When the lock started skipping again a couple of months later, that's when I swapped the barrel for the passenger side just for speed of getting going again.

I reckon your solution is better, although inconvenient with the extra key.  I was thinking of doing the same thing.

The issue which put me off using our Skoda main dealer was the high labour cost to not only fit the new barrels but the fact that it would involve the ignition barrel as well, then 'retraining' the car to recognise the new key.

That was what they told me, anyway. There may be a less costly method, but yours is a good compromise.

Thanks.  My problem is simply that the lock barrel no longer turns the spade, so the problem is a failure where the helical spring and interconnection between the lock barrel and the spade occurs.  I have a fairly easily obtainable "repair kit" which consists of a new spade and a new interconnecting metal "ring" (but strangely, no new helical spring --- fortunately the original seems fine).  The sellers of the repair kit don't provide any instructions, and they don't seem to realise that it can't be fitted without more drastic dismantling than just undoing a couple of screws!!

I'm going to try knocking the pins out on my s/h door lock, and if that works out well I'll also do the same to the one off my car, so that I can make sure I retain my existing lock barrel, and still only use one key.  My s/h right door lock came off a German Skoda so I'm hoping it will have had relatively little use!!