A3 'T' Reg 1999 - Central Locking

[manstev]

Hello,

Just registered on here, this is my 1st post....go easy on me!

Last week I did not use my A3 (standard 1.6) all week, and as you may recall it was a particulalry cold week with losts of heavy frost.

Came to use the car this weekend and the central locking is not working.

It makes no 'whirring' sound at all. When in the car the internal locking switch does not lock the doors either. All doors and boot are openable manually, but it is a pain as the car is currently for sale too.

Should also add that I have only ever used a spare key for this car, so never used a remote on it. Putting the key in the door and turning it does not activate the central locking.

Can anyone give me some helpful hints as to the likely cause of the problem?

Thanks.

[loki]

common fault, and one I had on my '99 A3.

It is almost certainly the motor inside the central locking pump if you aren't hearing any whirring noise. There's a graphite disc inside the pump that is prone to shattering so you don't have any pressure.

Best solution is to find a cheap central locking pump from any older Audi and take the motor out of it. Sure there's a guide on this site somewhere, not a difficult job and means you won't need to get your keys re-coded.

[manstev]

Should have also added that the electric windows are not working.

Anyway, took the central locking pump apart at the weekend. Am i right in thinking that the disc you refer to is the one that sits just under the lid of the pump chamber when you unscrew it? within the disc is a rotating peice with 4 little arms that get pushed out due to centrifugal force? If so then my disc is still intact.

However what I did notice when I put the thing back together is that one of the leads on the black connector unit had corroded and broke free. Now obviously this will prevent the unit working, but I don't know if I dislodged it or it was like it before. I need to get the lead back into the connector to check if the pump works with this in place (hopefully it will)

Anyone know how to replace the connectors or single lead connector in this scenario?

Thanks.