Hey all 

Got probably a common thing for the Fabias, my car is the SKODA Fabia I Combi (6Y5) 1.4 16V, front passenger door was acting weird for a while now. Locking and was not unlocking either with the key or handle inside. The way to fix it sometimes was unlock/lock throught the button of the drivers door while pulling the inside handle. Last march door locked and never unlocked again. Tried spraying WD40 tried hitting the door outside/inside while unlocking locking, thried the square plastick thing inside the handle trick, removing the battery nothing works so far.While searching online found a video that someone suggested to check wiring however door is shut and cannot check the loom/gator (or however the rubber housing with the cables is called, sorry for my ignorance..)
Tried pulling the wire from the inside handle the safety does not stay on also. Checked the fuse box also everything seems to be in order.

While checking the cables from drivers side I found some damaged ones almost cut. When sometimes toucking the rubber housing the locks seem to go on and off without touching the key. Also windows sometimes dont work properly, the auto up and down doesnt work sometimes and sometimes it goes all the way up and intantly comes down to the mid and I have to manually push it all the way up with the button I mean.

 

I think I have found the problem but my question now is: Is it possible that the cables from the drivers door are causing the front passenger lock to stay shut or passengers doors cables are the ones to cause the failure. 

I dont want to proceed to any repairs because I am not sure yet and also if the passengers door cables are the fault I am not able to open it at the moment and check, however they are asking me from a garage 250euro to open the door and replace lock. The thing is I dont know if the lock is actually the fault.

I tried to explain as much as I could any help will be welcomed. I am attaching a photo of the drivers door damaged cables.

Thanks in advance

Edited 23 November, 20241 yr by Neronas

3 hours ago, Neronas said:

Is it possible that the cables from the drivers door are causing the front passenger lock to stay shut

That is not merely possible but actually probable. It's also good practice and cheaper to get a fault like this fixed.

Some of those wires show clear damage to the external insulation, exposing the possibly intact inner cores - your issue may be with wiring that has breaks in the inner cores, causing a intermittent connection.

Copper wiring often has a tendency to work-harden when repeatedly flexed, the inner core then can break, sometimes without any obvious sign of damage to the outer insulation.

A wiring colour code list will help in identifying the wires to look for.   

Edited 23 November, 20241 yr by Warrior193
correction

What year is the car, and does it have RF remote central locking, or just key in lock C/L?

I think it's quite unlikely to be the damaged wiring in driver's side, unless you can see broken wires inside the damaged insulation. Usually the wires last a long time even when the insulation is cracked, in dry locations.

Edited 23 November, 20241 yr by Breezy_Pete

It's from 2006 and I got a key for remote central locking 

So when you try to unlock with remote keyfob button, all doors except passenger front door unlock?

Exactly! Also when touching the rubber cover of the driver's side the locks go crazy locking unlocking except of course the passengers 

OK, so there is a bad connection in the driver's door wiring, but with remote-activated unlocking, I believe that would not affect the passenger door lock.

 

With RF remote central locking, the individual lock motors are driven by relays in a central control unit, which is also the receiver for the remote radio signalling.

If you only had key in lock central locking, a fault on driver's side could affect others, as the lock/unlock command signals (key position really) come from that door lock module, rather than central convenience unit

So on your opinion what do you think might be the issue here?

Passenger front door lock or wiring/connections to it. Everyone reading should note that the time to address such issues is when they are intermittent, before the door cannot be unlocked.

If you can wrestle the door card off, despite the door being shut, I can tell you which wires (which will now be accessible on inner side of door) drive the lock motor. You could then pierce insulation and measure voltages to see if power is getting that far.

Edited 23 November, 20241 yr by Breezy_Pete

What I understand is to remove inside panel and try to check right?

 

Will try thanks for the information!

Yes, I believe it is possible to reach the 3 Torx head screws at the bottom of the card, but not easy with seat in the way. 

Then door handle unscrewed, window switch wiring disconnected etc. then pop out the 3 clips at rear and front edges  from bottom upwards.  Front edge will be difficult where dashboard overlaps doorcard, I think.

Will check wire colours to lock motor now.

Maybe there's another screw up near the door opening handle on inside, can't remember?

Edited 23 November, 20241 yr by Breezy_Pete

1 minute ago, Breezy_Pete said:

Yes, I believe it is possible to reach the 3 Torx head screws at the bottom of the card, but not easy with sest in the way. 

Then door handle unscrewed, window switch wiring disconnected etc. then pop out the 3 clips at rear and front edges  from bottom upwards.  Front edge will be difficult where dashboard overlaps doorcard, I think.

Will check wire colours to lock motor now.

Thanks!

Red/blue and blue/purple are the wires going to the motor in the passenger front door lock. Slightly thicker than the other wires going to the lock (except the brown one).  

 

They will be polarised oppositely depending on whether the door is in the process of being unlocked or locked at the time of measurement. You will probably need an assistant to be pressing buttons while you try to measure voltage between these two.  If one wire never shows a voltage it may be broken at the door hinge. Feed volts directly in at the points you can access, until the door unlocks.

If you do see reversing voltages in the wiring, then the problem is the lock module itself.

 

The accessible section of the lock wiring is shown in the green rectangle here (passenger side on a UK/RHD car): 

 

 

Thank you very much for the input. Will try this and get back.

Back once again after a lot of tries to open the door. Could not take out the panel and on my effort to open i broke the inner handle. Bought a used one and this week replaced it. Luck will have it and after that the door opened! However the power of habit had me lock the car from the keyfob and of course door did not open again. On last desperate tries I used while pulling the handle the keyfob to lock unlock the car while pulling the inner handle. After 2 days of trying door opened again. 

This time I had time to inspect the cabling inside the gator(i think its called like this) and found that some were taped suggesting that there was a repair. Photo 1

When i took the tape off the cables looked fine so i guess? it is a factory tape or something else but cant be sure. Photo2

The tape actually hade some writing on it I cant really make any sense of it if someone has knowledge about it would appreciate it. Photo 3

Also checked connections and reseated the four connectors nothing out of the ordinary, except when removing the blue connector heard the locks trying to open. Dont know if its the battery or some residual charge.

My question now is how can I be sure what it is and troubleshoot correctly? Is it wiring or the lock itself?>


 

It'll be the lock.