jaybo Posted October 22, 2011 Report Posted October 22, 2011 Hi everyone, I'm new here and I'm hoping someone may be able to help me.... I have a VW Sharan, or "Sharon" as she has been very originally named by yours truly, 1997 Mk1 VR6 Carat... she may be old, but she's a good girl and has never caused me any troubles...... until now.... Last night, after getting out the car, the key would not lock the drivers door (no I didn't get a remote fob when I purchased her and actually didn't know I had an alarm until today... more on that later..) so I went round to the passenger side, and tailgate and that wouldn't work either. The interior lights stayed on also. In my haste, the drivers door then failed to even open.... at this point, with the interior lights still on, and no daylight left, I popped the bonnet and disconnected the battery and left the car open all night! So, this morning, I have grabbed all my tools, and set to work on her. Eventually, probably more by luck than judgement, I managed to get the door open, and therefore managed to get the door card off. I removed the locking mechanism and door handle. The door handle and barrel seem to be fine but the locking mechanism seemed to be jammed. After a couple of hours of trying my best with it - I gave up and went down my local ford breakers and got a new mechanism. Great. All fitted now, door opening and shutting beautifully.... but not locking. The central locking is however, now working from the passenger side and tailgate, and locks the entire vehicle with exception of the drivers door. When I found this out and the drivers door opened, the very, very loud alarm went off and scared the hell out of me! So.... does anybody know why this might be happening? Could it be a wire? Could it be the central locking module under the passenger seat (which is bone dry before anybody asks)? Or something else I may be overlooking? I haven't checked fuses but as all the other doors are locking and unlocking fine, I presume this is not the answer. The only other thing that may or may not be worthy of mention, is that the wire gaiter between the body and tailgate, has deteriorated, and the wire for the rear wash wipe recently snapped. I have since fixed that and bound with insulating tape to keep moisture out of the loom etc etc... but could there be another wire within that loom that may have something to do with the central locking (except obviously for the tailgate lock which works fine) and may now also have snapped. Many thanks in advance. Jaybo Quote
jaybo Posted October 22, 2011 Author Report Posted October 22, 2011 edit: Just went back to "Sharon" to put the door card that i'd left on the drive away, and guess what... the drivers door was locked??? How strange, but no... as hopeful as I was, when I unlocked her, she would not re-lock from the drivers or passenger doors, or tailgate. When I tried locking her from the passenger side, the alarm went off again? So, with daylight fading again, she is unlocked with the battery disconnected.... again! One other thing I did notice though, and having read a few other threads on this forum feel I should tell you all, is that the door LED seems to be very faintly glowing constantly at all times (ignition off or on). Immobiliser is fine though - she still starts fine, just can't take her anywhere as I'm obviously worried about security, but now also with the LED on constantly, the battery going dead too. Please help...... Quote
seatkid Posted October 22, 2011 Report Posted October 22, 2011 (edited) The interior lights will switch off after about 10 minutes automatically to stop the battery being drained. If your lights are not turning off when you close all doors (after about 10 secs) then one of the door switches is faulty/pushed in or more likely the rubber cap on the switch has fallen off. This is whats preventing you locking the car - it thinks one of the doors is still open. On the Carat you should have a dash display thats shows which door is "open". The doors lock automatically after 3 or 4 minutes under certain circumstances. e.g. if you unlock the car but dont open any door. The door led problem indicates a wiring problem in the door rubber gaitor. Pull this back and check for wbroken wires and insulation. Full guides with pictures in the technical section FAQ (3 topics) Edited October 22, 2011 by seatkid Quote
jaybo Posted October 23, 2011 Author Report Posted October 23, 2011 Thank you seatkid - I have located the problem in the door gaitor, and looked at the faq's to go about fixing the broken wire, and got the plug out of the door pillar fine, but do you think I can get it back in to the pillar socket having fixed the wire??? No. Any top tips? I've cursed and cursed some more so I'm having a pint in my local to relieve the stress - back to it after this.... Quote
jaybo Posted October 23, 2011 Author Report Posted October 23, 2011 Right.... all done! Perhaps not as a VW mechanic would have done it, but done none the less! What a great weekend off work.....! :) Happy motoring everyone, and thank you again to seatkid! Much appreciated! Jaybo Quote
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