Choose you're pattern door locks carefully!

**Gary03** · 07-06-2019,02:14 PM

A tale of woe!
This thing had been driving me nuts for weeks.
Long story short, bought a door lock (OSF) from ebay. (I had good luck with these pattern locks until now but from other sellers and not this one!!)
Straight after fitting, Car not recognising door was open, que re-locking, no interior light, now lights on buzzer etc etc. (the outer micro switch was not the problem here, confirmed by my test meter)
Lots of two-ing and throwing of emails backwards and forwards to seller. The questions got so stupid, I was half expecting him to ask me what the weather was like when i fitted the lock!

Today, i finally got around to stripping this "new" lock down to find the following.

20190607_123935.jpg 20190607_123452.jpg

One of the cheap and nasty toy town micro switches was missing a tale. This resulted in the slider not even operating the switch, it was permanently in the 'open' position. The tale was not broken off as you could see that it was a machined end and not simply broken away. Not sure how they though it would work as it was in fresh air no matter what position the lock mechanism was in.
2 solder tracks on the PCB completely burnt through, the tracks are microscopically thin at any rate, not good enough to carry just a 1 amp load of the motor!
Look at the solder joints on the PCB, absolutely shocking. I would think that if this POS was ever to work, it wouldn't for long!
Lesson learnt for me.

**Crasher** · 07-06-2019,04:56 PM

I see lots of these with problems, some where it is impossible to open the door. I keep telling people not to buy them but when you dangle a cheap price in front of most people they can't help themselves, that is until they have had a big bill to sort out a cheap part screwup.

**Gary03** · 07-06-2019,05:07 PM

Originally Posted by Crasher

I see lots of these with problems, some where it is impossible to open the door. I keep telling people not to buy them but when you dangle a cheap price in front of most people they can't help themselves, that is until they have had a big bill to sort out a cheap part screwup.

I can well imagine.
How much is decent alternative Crasher?
The deal breaker for me is that its a few hundred quids worth of car so its not worth spending £200 on a genuine one. I have been lucky until now! Just fitted another pattern one, slightly more expensive than the above crap and it all works as it should.

**Crasher** · 07-06-2019,05:16 PM

The only good ones are genuine at £194.92, the value of the car is immaterial when fixing it to be reliable from a garages point of view, they just can't afford to mess around as time is money, DIY is very different-you can afford to ponce around with £22 part from China but if the door sticks shut your world turns to **** and if you are a garage doing this that cheap part you made £20 profit on suddenly costs you four hours labour, a damaged door card and a sketch so you won't find many pro's stupid enough to do it.

**Gary03** · 07-06-2019,05:34 PM

Cheers Crasher,
is that trade to you or retail?

**Crasher** · 07-06-2019,11:16 PM

Retail, we (as with all trade) get around 5% discount before VAT.

**beelzibus** · 01-08-2019,10:52 PM

So, I came on here tonight to ask about an issue I'm having with a pattern lock I've just fitted to a mates car. This thread popped up and it seems logical to add to the discussion.
I'm no longer in the trade as such, but I was, and over the years I've replaced a few door locks, in Passats, Boras and Golfs. Usually I fitted a used genuine lock, last time I think I fitted a non gen, with no ill effects, this time I didn't even bother looking for a genuine one, I just went for an eBay special. Fitment went as usual, and it operates fine, however as with the OP it doesn't switch off the puddle light or the dash door open indicator. My mate isn't really too fussed about either, and the puddle light is easily sorted by unplugging or removing the bulb, anyone know how I can fool the cars dashboard into seeing the door as closed instead of open all the time? TIA door any assistance.

**Crasher** · 03-08-2019,03:44 PM

Front or rear?

**beelzibus** · 03-08-2019,03:47 PM

Sorry I should have said, it's a rear. Drivers side. (RHD)

**Crasher** · 03-08-2019,05:44 PM

And a Passat 3B? I can’t remember how a 3B rear door lock communicates with the central incontinence unit under the passengers floor but I think it is by LIN signal through the front door control unit so you would have to open up the lock and make the position contact work. The biggest issue we see with the Chinese copies is them sticking shut and you not being able to open the door which becomes a serious sketch, we have seen it so many times we refuse to fit them now even if people ask us to as we just don’t want that feeling of culpability you naturally have when one packs up, even if you have warned them, it just makes you feel bad.