Another stuck passenger door problem!

blippy

Member
Hi All,
My son’s A2 has been standing for the past 3 years while he’s been at Uni, but the time has come to get it back on the road. After a quick once-round and replacement of the front discs and pads I took it for its MOT, and was very pleased to hear there was only one issue – the Passenger door wouldn’t unlock.

I though this would be a fairly easy fix – sticking lock or something – but quickly found out after looking at the forums this is potentially quite a big issue.

I’ve tried disconnecting the battery but that didn’t work. It’s fair to say the battery has been a bit neglected while it’s been sat. I’ve charged it every now and then when I had to move the car, so I thought that the CCU might have got a bit confused, but no such luck.

I’ve done a VAG COM diagnostic on it and it’s reporting that the passenger door won’t de-safe.

I’ve pulled the door card and wiggled all the plugs, and lifted the floor and wiggled the plugs on the CCU. No joy. I’ve removed all the screws I can on the aluminium panel inside the door and can see the lock but don’t want to try prising anything and make matters worse.

The key in the driver’s door does everything it should for the three remaining doors – they all lock and unlock as they should. The car has electric windows all round. These all work fine.

I’ve replaced the CCU in the past – it went back to Germany for Lau to fix it for me, but there were further problems with the original unit so he sent me a ‘C’ unit which does everything I need but doesn’t work with the alarm.

I have noticed that the multi-function display on the dash shows the passenger door is open when the driver’s door is open, but this may be something that’s to do with having a mis-coded continental CCU installed in a RHD car – I’ve never noticed this until now.

I’d be really grateful for some pointers as to where to go now as I really need to get this thing MOT’ed and away.

Many thanks in advance,
Chris
 
Most prob cause is the micro switch in the door mech.. quite common to get a dry joint fairly easy to swap out also..

I’ve got the part you need, pm me if you would like.

Wouldn’t think it’d got anything to do with the CCCU either where ever it was coded won’t make a difference..

Hope that helps

Ian
 
This is going to sound like a daft question - directed at Ian and others here. If the door is stuck and cannot be opened, is it possible to strip enough interior trim bits off to get to the lock mechanism to do the above? I replaced the knackered electric window switch on my other half's car a few weeks ago, and not being able to open the door would have made getting the necessary trim bits off really difficult, let alone the additional steps needed to access the door mech.
 
If the door is stuck and cannot be opened, is it possible to strip enough interior trim bits off to get to the lock mechanism to do the above?

I think this is a very good point. The lock is currently latched to the chassis of the car. Whilst you can remove the door trim, ally panel, etc, you cannot physically remove the lock. Access to the two XZN M8 bolts that hold the lock in place is blocked, and you cannot access the interior electrics of the lock without removing it.

Chris, I know that some garages have resorted to angle-grinding the car to fix this problem, but I've had success on a few occasions by driving the de-safe motor directly with a 12V power supply. This at least allows the door to be opened and the lock replaced/repaired in the normal manner, without doing any physical damage to the car.

Cheers,

Tom
 
question is you can not unlock the door or you can not open when the door is unlocked.

If the second try opening the door when pushing the door or knocking with your hand. It may help if problem is with handle mechanism.
 
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question is you can not unlock the door or you can not open when the door is unlocked.

It has a 'won't de-safe' fault. The door is deadlocked.

If the second try opening the door when pushing the door or knocking with your hand. It may help if problem is with handle mechanism.

This is true. If there is a problem with the exterior handle mechanism (specifically, if it's not fully returning to its 'home' position against the door), then it can stop the door unlocking. A firm push (or even a good bash) can be all that's needed.

Cheers,

Tom
 
Thanks for all of the above replies guys.

Tom, do you have the pinout for the door lock multi-connector so I can try driving the motor directly? I've tried pulling and pushing while locking and unlocking without success.

Can you cut the door from the inside to get to the lock if need be? I really don't want to have to find a new door or re-skin the existing, but have contacts who could weld up the inside of the door if required if I could just get the thing open.

Starting to get worried now........

Thanks again
 
Quick update this morning...

I spent half the night on YouTube looking for ideas, but I couldn't find any vids with exactly the same lock mech.

The motor is definitely firing - I can see it properly now I've fully stripped the ali panel.

I've sprayed a bit of penetrating oil in there just in case it's nothing more than a sticky swivel or something.

I've also stripped the b-post trim so I can see the nut plate on the back of the catch. My current thinking is to carefully dremel across the nut plate to split it where the catch bolts attach, then to cut the bolts off flush with the inside of the door post. I think that should give me just enough space to open the door.

Is it possible to force the lock mech to release the catch without using the release handle when it's deadlocked? Otherwise I'll need to cut the catch off too before I can withdraw the lock from the door to find out what's what.

I'd appreciate any thought or comments on the above before I start hacking things about.

Thanks in advance once again,
Chris
 
This MAY be worth a try after trying Timmus method of direct voltage to the motor connection. Fully charge the battery off the car. Reconnect it and cycle the locks 4 or 5 times, pressing the remote may not work as the car may need to resync the keys. Sometimes placing the locks into deadlock then unlocking can unstick the motor in the lock. Are you sure wont de-safe = deadlocked? You could also try the double pull on the interior handle, and with the engine running cycle the door locks button on the drivers door card. If all this fails then you may well have to cut the door catch.
 
Well the good news is that you can cut the nut plate and open the door without damaging either the door or the chassis. The bad news is it's not a five minute job, access is shocking and I'm going to need another striker! But at least the darn thing is open now.

It's actually just about impossible to cut the plate, I did the bottom bolt that way, but it took ages. The top one I ground a flat on the chamfer of the bolt, got a decent centre punch mark on it and drilled diagonally into the bolt so as the destroy the threads in the nut plate and sever the excess length of the bolt. Worked a treat and was massively quicker.

Thanks to everyone who offered ideas as to how to open the lock. I tried everything. It's deadlocked for sure and just didn't want to know. Now I just need to work out how to get the lock out of the door and get it fixed/replaced.

I'll report back once I have it all done.

Thanks again to everyone who offered their help,

Chris

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Well the good news is that you can cut the nut plate and open the door without damaging either the door or the chassis. The bad news is it's not a five minute job, access is shocking and I'm going to need another striker! But at least the darn thing is open now.

It's actually just about impossible to cut the plate, I did the bottom bolt that way, but it took ages. The top one I ground a flat on the chamfer of the bolt, got a decent centre punch mark on it and drilled diagonally into the bolt so as the destroy the threads in the nut plate and sever the excess length of the bolt. Worked a treat and was massively quicker.

Thanks to everyone who offered ideas as to how to open the lock. I tried everything. It's deadlocked for sure and just didn't want to know. Now I just need to work out how to get the lock out of the door and get it fixed/replaced.

I'll report back once I have it all done.

Thanks again to everyone who offered their help,

Chris

Sent from my LG-H815 using Tapatalk

Good to hear that you got the door open, do you have any pictures of the ‘carnage’ as this may help others if they have the same problem?
 
Great to read that you've got the door open. Apologies that I didn't reply with a pinout for the lock; I'm currently 'on tour', so only have sporadic access to A2OC.

Cheers,

Tom
 
Photos as requested!

No significant damage to the chassis, just a small amount of scratching on the B post from the rough end of the cut screw as I opened the door. That will mostly be covered by the new striker and it's price I'm prepared to pay given the pickle I was in to start with. Will try a local scrappy tomorrow to get a striker (think it's the same one on A3s and maybe golfs?), but worst case it's a tenner on ebay.

I think I'm going to use a spreader plate with long bolts and regular nuts to hold the striker - that way if it ever happens again I can just pop off the B post trim, release the nuts and cut the bolts flush.

Next step is to strip the lock mech to see what broke.

Thanks to all for the encouragement, I was a bit concerned for a while there!

Cheers,
Chris
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Hi Guys,

Unfortunately this has just happened to me ...
The front passenger door it´s stuck on "locked" and doesn´t open from the inside or the outside. The windows and other doors work fine.
I´ve already tried:
-opening both handles (interior & exterior) at same time;
-taping around the lock mechanism area and pushing the handle;

I would like to try at least other possible solutions before putting vaseline and go to Audi or other garage :)

So, although the door doesn´t open also from inside, I will try to open the door card from inside and remove the inner plate to access the lock mechanism. Getting there, is there something I should be aware or any signs of what can be the problem?

As Timmus stated above, the door should now be latched to the chassis of the car, so is there a way to clear this?

Thanks
 
Hi,

Sorry to hear that this has happened to you, but I resolved it and so can you!!

My problem turned out to be in the door module/window motor. If I had had one of these on hand I could have saved myself a world of pain and frustration. As it was it took a bunch of time and about £35 to fix.

My approach, having been there, is as follows:

First thing to try before anything is to lift the carpet in the passenger footwell and re-seat the plugs to the Central Convenience. A long-shot, but doable in 5 mins.
If that doesn't work you have to get the door card off. Just follow the instructions on the forum and be prepared to be pretty brutal to get the bottom past the A and B posts and inner cill. Follow with the ali panel.
I would next try to steal the door module from another door to see if that opens it. You'll need to check if this is possible - others may know - but I paid £10 for a used one on ebay and if i'd have tried this first would not have had to replace the lock and strike.

If this doesn't get the door open you need to play with the lock. I discovered (after i had fixed it all and by playing with the mangled bits) that by undoing a single screw you can remove the locking function from the lock mechanism. I'm 99% certain removing this screw will let you open the door without additional hacking about, but you need to drill a small hole in the inner door frame to do it.

The attatched photos show the lock with the red bit attach (lock works) and unattached (no locking). I think this is deffo worth a try, but you'll have to work out where to drill the hole to remove the screw. The screw you need is in the middle of the steel plate over the red bit.

Once the door is open it's just a matter of replacing bits - lock, door module, door loom and central convenience module until it works again..... Haha.

Hope this helps,
Chris
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Thank you very much Chris.
I will try and post the results.
Just a dumb question, to see if I understood.
If I manage to remove the red attach, I will manage to "break the lock" and open the door...... however the locking mechanism is now useless and the door will not lock again right?
 
No, if you can collect all the bits it should go back together again!! You'll have to get the lock out of the door to put it back together and that in itself is not a small job.

If you remove the rod from the outside handle you would be able to close the door and open it from the inside, but not the outside. That would get you going while you sorted out the real issue.

Chris

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I guys....so I decided to give up the job....I simply dont have the spare time to dwell in this undertaking, so i left my A2 with an auto electrician/locksmith. He called me today saying that he got a new locker for the car, but when he installed the new locker and made some tests, the new one also locked immediatly and doesnt open again....
Meaning .....that the fault seems to be in a component other than the locker itself. He says that he will replace the window motor, as he believes that is the reason why the unlock signal is not being transmitted to the door lock.
Im having difficulty to perceive the correlation between window motor and door lock. What do you guys think? Is the guy correct ir the problem lays somewhere? Confort module???
Thanks !
 
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