Drivers Door lock problems

[AndyN01]

Hi all,

My neighbour has a B6 except his is a 2.0 auto not a 1.9 manual like mine. Nice car with a lovely cream leather interior. It's one of the reasons I opted for a Passat when looking for a good estate car.

He's been having some door locking/unlocking problems.

As far as I can find out on a search it's likely to be the bowden cable which is either sticky from grease getting too cold or stretching. There's a possibility that it might be jumping out of its guide? I don't think it's the nipple that's become detached as the issues are intermittent, not terminal.

VDCS is showing absolutely no errors whatsoever (except an intermittent parking sensor fault) on a scan.

A garage has mentioned that it's a pig of a job because there are air bags involved.

Am I missing something because in all the threads I've read I haven't seen anything about air bags. Yes, it's time consuming because of getting the door card off and getting access but nothing about air bags.

Erm.......

Thanks in advance.

Andy.

[Quatrelle]

Have you read this thread?

Please Help Problem opening rear door

[AndyN01]

Thanks for that, much appreciated.

I still don't see any reference to air bags.

Suspect the garage either (a) don't know what they're talking about or (b) simply don't want the job as it looks like it can take up a great deal of time.

Cheers.

Andy.

[Quatrelle]

According to my driver's handbook, there are airbags in all four doors, but, as you say, there's no mention of them in any of the other threads, quite a few of which describe dismantling the doors.

However, I can't believe they're not there!

[tubdub]

I'm not sure there are actually air bags behind the door cards. There are airbags that run along the roof lining above the doors, but I'm not sure there are any inside the actual door - how would they delpoy as the door card is solid?

With regards to the door lock, the cable stretching or coming out of it's guide is related to the door handle, rather than the lock I believe. Is it a case of the lock operating but the handle not opening the door, or is the lock itself not working? If it's the former, it maybe related to the cable, if the latter then it's probably the locking unit itself.

[Quatrelle]

Yes, I can't see how they could deploy, but there's a diagram showing the car side on, with, apparently, air bags at the handle end of the door.

However, reading the (French) handbook again, I'm guessing the air bags are in the outsides of the seats, front and back. The diagram's misleading. I've got an English handbook in my car, but it's in the garage and raining outside . If you're still unsure I'll have a look in the morning. Then again, I didn't know that my car had air bags in the seats!

Hopefully, in the meantime, someone will come along with some accurate information.

[VdoubleYa]

Is it the front or rear door? I’ve just literally replaced a snapped Bowden cable on my seat Alhambra sliding door which was a pain in the back side. I had intermittent problems with it streching due to sub zero temperatures and trying to force it open. Then when the cable finally detached from the T bar the door outer door handle just moved without unlocking the door so had to open from the inside. There’s usually two cables one for the outside handle and one for the inside that both feed to a distribution block then onto the actual locking/unlocking mechanism. If you have a copy of the workshop manual it will show you the internal diagram of the door and how the cables are laid out.

[AndyN01]

Thanks for all the help.

To clarify, it's the drivers door. The problems only seen to happen when it's cold so I'm suspecting the bowden cable.

I do know that there have been times when the door rubbers have frozen so it's now all starting to add up.

The links to the "How to" posts with photos are much appreciated. It'll make life much easier when we come to trying to sort it out.

Any more hints & tips very welcome.

All the best.

Andy.