Mk4 Golf 5 door - lock issue

[collyirwin11]

Yet again, I seek the advice of RMS, which has been superb in the past.

Question regarding the common mk4 door lock.

I bought a car knowing the rear door was deadlocked, and I managed to cure this exact same problem on my previous mk4 so I went in knowing it would be handy enough sorted...or so I thought. With some trickery I managed to get it open, disassembled and a brand new lock fitted.

Now, the same issue seems to remain. It will open from both external and internal handles, but will suddenly deadlock again, and with some work (pulling the inner handle and pressing the unlock button on the drivers door) it opens again. This makes me think the lock isnt the issue, and it is possibly some wiring issue.

Can anyone shed some light on it? I have googled this, and I cannot find the same symptoms.

To add to this and give the full picture, the door pin doesnt move at all, and it doesnt sit in the natural position. It was all refitted correctly, including the rod which connects the lock to the door pin. It also does not flash the indicators anymore when locked and I am almost certain it did this before I took to replacing the lock.

@pobmk4 I know you are a VW guru and wondering if you have experienced this before.

 

[pobmk4]

Where did you buy the lock?

 

[collyirwin11]

Its off ebay, I had used the seller before for a drivers door lock on my previous mk4 and never had any issues, but do you reckon that is the issue?

 

[purplea4T]

The door microswitches give bother, I haven’t had the deadlock issue but I had the button on the Octavia door jump up and down as if it was locking and unlocking, new switch sorted it.

 

[DaddyCC]

Still seems weird "the door pin doesnt sit in its natural position". Like how badly are we on about Colly? That would make me think there's a bar not aligned properly. They're a bit sensitive to the position of the bars in my experience.

 

[pobmk4]

I had the exact same issue on one a couple of years back and it ended up that the pull cable from the lock to the outer handle wasn't the correct one on the car as someone previous had fitted a used lock. What you could try, is disconnect the bar on the interior side once you get it open, just leave the door trim etc off and the window down, then open and close the door. As @DaddyC says, they are quite sensitive to the position of both opening mechanisms, so you have have something bent/incorrect positioned and it's ever so slightly pulling on a latch, once you lock it the deadlock mechanism activates but it doesn't get signal from another switch to say it's active, hence why it doesn't open again

 

[collyirwin11]

Thanks folks.

It is odd, it works say 9/10 times locking and unlocking, but now the indicators not flashing on lock would tell me it still thinks something is open or not engaged. The doors all lock, and open when unlocked (with the exception of this p/s rear door which as mentioned would remain locked 1/10 times and it is easily enough sorted). I had the doorcard off, and was watching it work and it didnt appear to be moving the rod from the lock a significant amount. I will take it apart again and see if something is not connected properly

Still seems weird "the door pin doesnt sit in its natural position". Like how badly are we on about Colly? That would make me think there's a bar not aligned properly. They're a bit sensitive to the position of the bars in my experience.

It is sitting about halfway between the normal open position and closed position. It has maybe all got bent on refitting and is sitting out of alignment.

 

[DaddyCC]

Compare against the other rear passenger. The wee screw that keeps the bar in place might have been adjusted too much imo. As you say it sounds like it thinks a door is unlocked.

 

[collyirwin11]

Took to this again today, as it completely deadlocked through the week and magically indicators started working again on locking. Thankfully I have assembled and disassembled them so many times now that I can do them fairly quickly even from the inside with limited space. So door opened and new lock out, compared to other old door lock, changed a few things over (spring which appears to do nothing but its on one and not the other) and tried it whilst the door was stripped down. All appeared to work. I therefore decided to refit without the rods, and its working again, indicators flashing etc.

I await it dying again, but it is working exactly ad it should so far, better than previous, open and locking consistently and indicators flashing on locking.

Thanks for the help folks, as always RMS has been helpful in solving my problems.