Rear door locked shut. How do I open ?

[mal_t]

Hi,

1999 Passat saloon.

Central locking appears OK, but door handle on outside or inside or rear door dont work so I cannot open the door.

I have taken the door card off to expose inner panel. I have removed all bolts on inner panel but it wont come off. The window winder and I think door lock are stopping it. I think I know how to remove the window winder, but even if I do that I think it will still be stuck to the door lock - is this so ?

Is there any way that the door lock can be opened by triggering the mechanism from where I am at the moment ? Else what can I do ? What would a garage do in this situation ? I am so so so frustrated .....:aargh4:

Many Thanks,

Malcolm

[kenney]

The lock is still attached to the door,depending which door it is ,but look to the top rear of the plate,you will see 2 black plastic plugs you need to punch these in,In the center of the plate there is a rubber plug,remove it and you can access the fixture which fits the window to the Window lifter

[mal_t]

Got the door open by pulling the internal cord and pushing the door whilst repeatedly locking/unlocking with the remote key fob.

Sprayed with WD40 and white litium grease and its working OK now.

Only trouble is the external handle is not lying correctly - I have pulled something out when trying to open the door from the outside I guess !

[kenney]

You have pulled the cable out of the handle,you will need to remove the plastic cover and then the housing to access the cable

[mal_t]

Kenny,

Thank you for the help - much appreciated :D

When you say 'remove the plastic cover' - is that on the door handle ? If so is it removed by flicking it off with a screw driver or something ? And will the handle then just come out - and it be obvious how the cable fits in ?

:beerchug:

Thanks again,

Malcolm

[kenney]

http://www.taligentx.com/passat/maintenance/doorlockmechanism/ look at 15 - 18 although this is the front door the rear door is the same except for the locking barrel.Note Do not screw the torx screw out more than necessary to remove the housing,and keep the handle pulled out through out the complete operation.

[mal_t]

Had a look ....
On the rear door there is no Torx bolt holding in the lock (I can see it on the front door). So I cant understand how I can get the lever out to expose where the wire clips in ?

Thanks,

Malcolm

[martin1810]

Pull out the bung in the door. Torx bolt is inside on the lock housing. Unscrew with torx screwdriver.

[mal_t]

Thanks for the help guys :beerchug:

Its possibly just me - but I cannot find the plug in the end of the door to remove. See the following photo:

http://s595.photobucket.com/albums/tt40/Shoe_string/vwpassat/?action=view&current=IMG_0392.jpg

The door handle is shown in the following photo:

http://s595.photobucket.com/albums/tt40/Shoe_string/vwpassat/?action=view&current=IMG_0393.jpg

Can anyone confirm how this door handle can be removed/fixed ?

Many Thanks,

Malcolm

[kenney]

it's behind the seal

[martin1810]

Have you tried pulling the rubber door seal out of the way.

[mal_t]

:beerchug: Found it !!

Thanks guys ....

Malcolm

[limecc]

Repeatedly unlocking the central locking didn't work for me.

Stripped the door down to the inner panel and wondered about my next move. One morning arriving at work a couple of days later I noticed it unlocked. Unconnecting the wiring harness from the window winding mechanism prevents operation of the central locking, so this is what I did and left the one door unlocked until I could do the fix.

When I stripped the unit down I could find no evidence of bad solder joints so it must have been a faulty microswitch. £104 + £5 for VW's overnight shipping got me the new lock I needed.