Passat 98 1.8T Door Stuck Closed - FIXED

[chinje]

Finally got my door open. This may save some of you a lot of grief and expense if you have the same problem.

With the driver's door open I noticed a rubber bellows/trunking which carries the wiring loom into the rear O/S passenger door from the B-Post.

This can be pulled back from the B-Post to expose the wiring and connectors. On the off chance I thought I'd re-seat the two connectors in there. However, before I got that far it was obvious most of the wiring was damaged.

The insulation on 4 wires was cracked/perished exposing the copper strands inside and 1 wire was snapped in half completely.

I repaired the broken wire and taped up the rest to protect them and then reconnected the wiring. The door was able to be opened as soon as the central locking was unlocked.

I couldn't believe the state of the wiring, I'd expect this sort of thing on a 15-20 year old scrap-heap not a modern German vehicle. It's not as if this area is particularly exposed to the elements or road salt etc. Makes me wonder about the wiring in the rest of the vehicle.

Anyway, hope this helps someone.

[drpellypo]

central locking went on my tractor at 127,000. Garage ended up having it for nearly a month, and replacing almost the entire wiring loom covering doors/bot etc.

VW's and Audi's are solid cars, but seem to be the most prone to problems early on. Same with Mercs!

My next car, dare I say it, is probably gonna be another Jap. The MX5 has not had a single hick, and it's already got 72,000 on the clock.

[chinje]

Although I have been frustrated by the problems with this car there is a lot to like about it. I am seriously considering getting a newish (6 - 12 months old) Passat, probably another 1.8T.

Even on my '98 the quality of the interior trim and materials is excellent. The car is also very 'solid' as you say.

It's very roomy and a nice motorway cruiser. I'm willing to to chance it that the problems suffered by early Passats, including mine (front control arms, turbo bearings, wiring, alarm, N75 valve, diverter valve, MAF, CAT), have been ironed out by now.

I think you still get a lot of car for the money.

[Soundside]

Can anybody shed some light on what to do if this problem shows up on a front door? My passenger side front door is stuck and sounds like identical problem. The lock knob tries to move up and down when you operate the key latch, but does not unlock. I can't get to any of the wiring or mechanisms with the door shut. I haven't tried jimmy-ing the lock with a coathanger yet. Maybe that's the only way.

[jmon]

I've got the same problem with my 1999 1.8T Passat. Drivers door has stuck locked closed. I've managed to get the internal trim off & into the door (past the panel that holds the window winding mech in place). However no joy at all with the locking mechanism itself, the door is firmly locked shut and there seems nothing I can do to fix the problem. Apart from causing serious damage to the door to get at the lock. Any help that anyone can provide would be much appreciated!

Many thanks, jason

[Totally Loaded]

I had a similar problem with a rear passsenger door on my 99 passat. The door stays locked and even using the interior or exterior door lever , the actuation will not overcome the deadlock , so the door plunger stays down. I did a search and there was a suggestion that these faults are mainly a result of a weak solder joint in the electronic servo module that locks the door lock. The only way to fix the servo module is with it removed from the car , so you need to get it to work one last time before a fix can be done. The method I used (which is also posted in another thread ) was to bang the rear door on the outside skin about 4-6 inches below the rear door handle using the bottom of your fist , whilst actuating the central locking on the key fob. You need to bang the door quite hard and quite quickly , but after about 30-45 seconds I got the required result. Once the door is unlocked the splined bolts that hold the lock into the door panel and the screw that holds the lock barrel can be accessed. Unless you can access these three fixings (found on both front and rear doors) there is no way of removing the lock mechanism for repair or replacement.

One word of advice regarding removing the splined head screws that hold the lock to the door , that are visible on the edge of the door when its open. These are held in place with loctite , so using a spline tool on its own will not overcome the loctite seal and will probably round off the internal thread of the screw head. The best method to remove these screws is to use a small centre punch to make a dimple on the screw head , then drill a small hole. Use the center punch in the hole angled in an anticlockwise direction and tap firmly with a hammer, This will break the loctite seal and allow the screw to be undone with little or no effort.

Removing the front door lock is well documented , the rear doors are similar but with one difference , that being the window glass. The rear door glass is held in place by a two part plastic dowel. You need to remove the center part of the dowel using a small cross head screwdiver as a punch before you can then remove the outer dowel in a similar way. The dowels will drop into the door skin void , but can be fished out later when the aluminium skin is removed. Refitting is best done using a pair of long nose plyers to keep the outer dowel compressed whilst being fitted through the window lift mechanism and into the glass. The haynes manual has a pretty good write up on removing the interior trim and aluminium skin , the most fiddly part is getting the door plunger to line up with the top os the door card hole.