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The central locking mechanism in a rear door of my 2002 Polo has stopped working and stays in the locked position. Garage has said they may need up to three days to replace it! Sounds like loads of money. So I just wondered if anyone has done this job and can help with a bit of guidance?
We had a go at accessing the locking mechanism on the rear of a Golf on my driveway. Let's just say it was WAY more complicated than it needed to be. The door had another bolt on "skin" behind the door card, and attempting to remove this caused the electric window mechanism to unspool and the glasss dropped...
We were able to bodge the window closed by clamping the wire, but then the car was off to VW. The bill was £850, but this did include some other stuff lile pads and discs.
I would not touch another without a plan. I naively thought it would be as simple as every other car door I have dismantled. No, overengineered VW.
2002 polo? do you need to use all the doors? treat it like a 3 door car (4 including the boot) until you get a new car. That is what we did with our Freelander until I could be bothered to fix it.
Can you unlock it using the mechanical lock from inside?
Strewth! I wonder if it would be easier to get a replacement door from the breakers?!
No way that job takes three days. You take off the door card and replace the central locking solanoid/acctuator. It's probably 1-2 hour job max. It's a common fault on the Polo.
However, you really need to be able to open the door to get the door card off. If the door is permanenly locked shut then they may have to destroy the door card and replace.
My best guess for why they need it for three days because there are multiple options for the parts. They won't know which parts to order until they they take it apart. Not convinced that's the case though - I would suggest you question further.
Andyl, I think it's an MOT failure. Sometimes we can get it to open from the inside using the latch.
I used to have a 2 door 98 polo, central locking deteriorated and eventually stopped. If I remember right the faulty bit was in the boot, some sort of air valve bit, rubber seal had gone. Part had to be ordered from germany, think it cost under 200 all fitted by main dealer, but that was years ago so all my facts may be wrong as my brain is not what it used to be.
Pretty sure its the mechanism in the door that's gone as that's where the noise came from before it gave up.
I would not touch another without a plan. I naively thought it would be as simple as every other car door I have dismantled. No, overengineered VW.
Oh, you mean badly engineered? See the unreachable nut on the end of boot strut on every Touran. Proper repair of this fault means writing the car off. 😕
In hindsight I think my 98 had an old air central locking system that was updated a couple of years later to electronic so my info is probably no good to you. Sorry
I had a central locking that failed on a peugeot. The door would not sense that it was locked so unlock all the other doors. I unpluged the actuator and put a jumper wire across the input for "locked" to the central locking unit. Result: 4 central locking doors and one manual.
Like andy4d said, the older Polos have a air fed system running off a pump behind the offside rear light.
That can fail but also the air lines to each door can get damaged.
The older Polos had a very distinctive whirring noise has they were locking rather than a positive " click " of modern cars, don't know anything about your shape polo has I've only had 6n shape but my Mate had a Golf that had the previous mentioned steel skin inside the door so yours may be the same.
May be a PITA but the garage having it 3 Days, is that assessing then stripping and waiting for the parts, or 3 Days labour sorting it ?
If it's waiting for parts, ask how many hours labour they are going to charge. May only be a few hours.
If you can get the door open;
to get the doorcard off. Locking mechanisms are cheap enough on eBay. Job done.
this type of fault affects all vag cars of that vintage
google microswitch repairs and door loom faults
it's piss poor I think - I mean how long have cars had central locking for vw to have such a design fault
would have been far easier to use traditional types of door sensors
fortunately the repair is fairly straightforward but can be complicated by removing the door card and internal seal.
This polo has been a pain in the arse since we got it. I think after getting this sorted its off to the auction with it!
Recently I nearly got stung £1300 by our local VW dealer when they diagnosed a faulty ABS pump. Turned out, after asking a few questions on here that it was just a split fuse on the top of the battery. The dealer couldn't have looked more embarrassed when I went in to buy the 50p fuse!
If it's just the lock then you just need to leave it unlocked for the MOT as long as the outside door handle works.
I fixed out Freelander before the MOT. Needed a whole new sealed unit as it was riveted together and not worth faffing for the sake of £70. First time I took it out to diagnose it took me about an hour of fiddling and faffing and messing with the lock to see if it was fixable. When the new part arrived it toom me about 15 min to remove the old and replace it. I can't imagine a Polo being any more difficult if it's an electric unit but I could be wrong.
It is worth checking the wires to the door for breaks but normally safe to go with the most common online diagnosis from other peoples experiences.
Recently I nearly got stung £1300 by our local VW dealer when they diagnosed a faulty ABS pump.
You'd spend that on a 2002 Polo?
I had the central locking go sticky on the passenger side door of our 53 plate polo, work ok one day and stick locked the next Some WD40 and silicone spray on the locking mechanism in the door sorted it. Loads of black gunk came out of it that must have built up over the years, that was 9 months ago now and we have not had the problem since.
This only worked once we got the door open, that was a comedy affair of me pushing from the inside with my feet and my mate trying the handle on the outside whilst repeatedly pressing the unlock button till it popped open.
Definitely going to have a look myself. I guess the tricky bit is removing the seal under the door card? Once that's out of the way then hopefully getting to the unit will be easy enough. Will be taking photos as I go though!
"You'd spend that on a 2002 Polo?"
Came close to scrapping it at that point!
Just to followup on the ABS fuse - it is worth replacing all the fuses in that row of links on top of the battery - I found the radiator fan fuse link was
broken on our Fabia , just like the ABS one a couple of years before.
The ABS fuse give you a light on the dash - but the radiator fan will not ,
you may notice the a/c not working due to no fan - or when you get stuck in traffic on a hot day your engine cooks if you do not notice the guage.