Drivers door not opening due to DEADLOCK.

[indyandy]

Hello All...

Recently I have noticed that my driver’s door has not been locking/unlocking properly.
The plunger was not moving every time and so I suspected the solenoid was on its way out.

I had a similar experience with the passenger door last year and the fix back then was to replace the lock.

I did the same again this time. I purchased another lock and fitted but this time I made one big mistake. I didn’t thoroughly check operation before I slammed the door shut!. And yes you’ve guessed it the door doesn’t open.

The plunger does go up and down and the levers are connected.
There’s a lot of advice on here and I’ve read a fair bit.
I’ve tried the usual remedy of thumping and pulling levers but no luck so far.
My suspicions point to the deadlock somehow being jammed/not working preventing the levers from working.
Since this is a new lock with no track history of it ever working then I’m not sure if any amount of thumping/pulling will ever make it work.
What are my options?

I see two. Use a hammer and chisel and attack it from the inside. I see this as a high risk of things going wrong and so I’m treating this as a last resort.

Another approach is to remove the interior trim from the B pillar by the seat belt and cut off the two bolts holding the lock plate in place. (maybe also the called Kick plate?)
This looks do-able and I like the idea due to minimal damage. However, I have no experience of this and I would appreciate any comments of wisdom in removing this lock plate and any other ideas.

I am so annoyed at myself for not thoroughly checking operation (like I did with the other door!) before slamming shut. I can only assume that at the back of my mind I was thinking that the key would open the door no matter what happened......How wrong I was.

[indyandy]

Forgot to say.....its a 2002 Golf....4 door.

[Tabs]

Have you double checked the wiring is connected and there's power to the unit?

Been there myself with a Bora. Both rear door locks failed within a week of each other. I managed to get them open but carefully pulling the handle and thinking the area where the lock is situated. Got lucky and managed to shift it that way.

[indyandy]

The unit is certainly getting power as when I press the remote, the vertical plunger works. The same happens if I use the key and turn manually. Also if I use the key and turn, I can open/shut all the windows.

[indyandy]

Hello All. I thought I would take the trouble in posting a follow up post stating what I did in the end to solve the problem. It just may help others further down the line in years to come.

Before I did anything, I went round all the garages in my area asking for advice.

I decided to open the door by attacking the backing plate for the “D” shape lock. This is the piece that is bolted to the “B” pillar.

To do this I removed the interior trim by the driver seat belt mechanism and moved the driver’s seat fully forwards and tilting it forwards too.
This gave me enough access. I then used a dremel to create a small flat spot at each of the two bolts sticking through the “figure 8” looking plate.
The flat spots gave me a good platform to start drilling a small hole right through the bolt at an angle of 45 degrees. This might not make much sense and so I will try and upload a picture with this.
What we are trying to do here is remove as much of the two bolts as we can.
Eventually the hole was drilled with a 6mm diameter bit and both bolts then snapped and the bolt plate (shape of a figure 8...or the gold looking plate shown in the picture below) was then removable.
Unfortunately what’s left of the bolts are still too long to be pushed through and so I used a dremel again and slowly removed more bolt material to reduce the length.
The bolts at this point are loose and so to stop them rattling around when using the dremel, I used the cardboard box that was used for the electronic lock part. It was about 4-5 inches square and jammed in perfectly between driver’s seat and driver’s door.
Luckily the bolts are made from stainless steel and this is slightly softer material than ordinary bolt steel and so with a bit of time and patience, I was able to whittle these M8 bolts down to about 10mm in length. The bolts were then able to be pushed through and presto…the door opens. Damage was none existent.

Upon investigation, in my case, the lever for the outside catch was not returning to its proper rest position by about ½ inch. This was enough to stop the lock from opening no matter what I did.
The lever was actually catching on its own mechanism and so we could call this a faulty lock or just crap design.
I replaced the whole lock unit with another new one from a different supplier and this time checked thoroughly before slamming door shut.

The moral of the story is always thoroughly check the door before slamming shut and don’t assume that the key will open the door no matter what.

And finally a tip…use a rag or something to cover the seat belt mechanism to prevent swarf from contaminating the seatbelt mechanism.

Picture....IMAG0003_BURST002.jpg