Door deadlocked

[passathelp]

Hi all

Any help you can give would be great.

I have been having the usual problems with one of my rear doors! Its deadlocked and i cant open from inside or out.

I have tried all the banging and pulling handle etc but still no joy.
i have seen on you tube a video,the guy slips a coat hanger down the side of the handle to the lock inside, pulls and opens the door !


my question is, with the current state of my door, if i manage to get it open, will it close again?

I dont want it stuck open. But I need to do something as mot is imminent and I believe it will fail for this.

hope someone can help

cheers

T

[KrashBandiKoot]

Deadlocked doors are usually a nightmare on front doors but rear doors are harder because the seats are in the way.

As a rule the best way is to remove the rear seat, (if you can that is, you should be able to even if they're tip forward seats as it's just a hinge and bolts holding the hinge in place), then start removing the door panel screws. This could be a problem though as more often than not the retaining screws are actually in the outside area of the actual door frame meaning the door needs to be open to get to them. You might be lucky and able to get to them though.

Now getting the panel off in one piece is tricky but can be done with a bit of care although you'll still need to use a lot of brute force. Now depending on when your car was made, it could have a sealant and a plastic cover between the door frame and the inner panel or it could be just a well insulated inner panel.

Deadlocks work by pulling the mechanism out of the lock itself so operating the door handle inside or out does nothing because the actual release bar doesn't push against anything. Now you may be able to manually push the deadlock bar forwards, (or backwards depending on which ever way it needs to move to disengage the handles), and get the door open that way. If not, then you need to look at the lock itself, there's often a little bar that pushes or pulls to activate the lock spring so the door will then open. You'll need to locate the actuator itself and push/pull the bar that comes off of it and goes to the lock itself.

The main issue with all of this is getting that inner panel off to get to the mechanisms so you can open the door. As for a repair, it's usually the lock/unlock actuator that fails so the lock mechanism won't activate or disengage, worst case scenario with this is that the actuator will lock but won't unlock the door so doing all this work then locking the car might lead you back into the same situation. A lot of the time, the door panel itself pushed against the sealing rubber so won't move meaning the panel has to be cut open to get to the mechanisms.

I had a similar problem on my BMW 7 series. I found it was the child lock switch causing all the problems so taking that off when the door was open cured it until I replaced the actuator. Sadly I had to cut the panel out and replace it as it wouldn't come out no matter what I did.

Hope this helps.

[passathelp]

Cheers for your reply, some very good advice there.

Thanks
T

[Flash2]

I've never had this problem on a Passat but I've had to fix several Golfs where this has happened. If all the banging, pulling, etc doesn't release the lock then (in my experience) you usually have to split the actuator casing to get the door open. Once you've done that the chances are the door wont close, so I wouldn't do it until you have a new actuator to fit. On the cars I've done, getting the inner door panel off hasn't been much of a problem. There is a Torx T20 right on the bottom of the panel that can be a bit tricky with the door still closed. Splitting the actuator casing usually involves attacking it with a big flat blade screwdriver and a hammer. Just be careful. You don't want the screwdriver to slip and punch it's way through the outer door skin

Regards.

Jim.

[KrashBandiKoot]

I've never had this problem on a Passat but I've had to fix several Golfs where this has happened. If all the banging, pulling, etc doesn't release the lock then (in my experience) you usually have to split the actuator casing to get the door open. Once you've done that the chances are the door wont close, so I wouldn't do it until you have a new actuator to fit. On the cars I've done, getting the inner door panel off hasn't been much of a problem. There is a Torx T20 right on the bottom of the panel that can be a bit tricky with the door still closed. Splitting the actuator casing usually involves attacking it with a big flat blade screwdriver and a hammer. Just be careful. You don't want the screwdriver to slip and punch it's way through the outer door skin

Regards.

Jim.

Why would you have to split the actuator casing? All the ones I've seen have a little bar coming off them which activates/deactivates the deadlocks which should move OK whichever way it needs to to release the deadlock off.

Is the actuator built into the actual lock then and not attached to the door frame?

[allan_audi]

Have you tried with the engine running?

My passenger front actuator failed but normally a good thump made it work. You could see it trying to lock, but the unlock failed to do anything.

But by the time I had come round to replacing the actuator no amount of thumping would work.

As a last resort I started the engine (raises the working voltage), sat in the passenger seat and thumped/pulled against the door while operating the door handle and drivers lock unlock button, suddenly the door opened!!

Might be difficult for the rear, but you could get someone else to operate the lock unlock button at the same time.

Needless to say I replaced the actuator straight away :-)

Hi all

Any help you can give would be great.

I have been having the usual problems with one of my rear doors! Its deadlocked and i cant open from inside or out.

I have tried all the banging and pulling handle etc but still no joy.
i have seen on you tube a video,the guy slips a coat hanger down the side of the handle to the lock inside, pulls and opens the door !


my question is, with the current state of my door, if i manage to get it open, will it close again?

I dont want it stuck open. But I need to do something as mot is imminent and I believe it will fail for this.

hope someone can help

cheers

T

[passathelp]

Hi all, thanks for your advise. I must admit I haven't tried it with revs on,just on tickover! I will give it a go. Cheers T

[Flash2]

Why would you have to split the actuator casing? All the ones I've seen have a little bar coming off them which activates/deactivates the deadlocks which should move OK whichever way it needs to to release the deadlock off.

Maybe they do have a little bar to release the deadlock and it just didn't work after I smashed the actuator to bits

Is the actuator built into the actual lock then and not attached to the door frame?

On VWs, the actuator is part of the lock assembly.