What is life like with your car? Let us know and win £500 in John Lewis vouchers | No thanks
VW Golf door locks - Rudedog
Hi,
I have a 1998 Golf 4, 5 door TDI. The problems I have had are with the door locks.
1. The rear passenger lock broke, leaving me unable to open it from either the outside or inside. This lead to a costly strip-down of the rear door to remove the lock.
2. Now the drivers door seems to be playing up. The lock has various micro-switches it that tell the car wether the door is open or shut. When I open the door the inside warning light fails to come on(sometimes), it is this light which also activates the lights-on buzzer. And now the red flashing lights that shows that the alarm/immobilser has been activated only comes on when you turn the key twice in the lock, which is the opposite of what\'s supposed to happen!
3. The pasenger door sometimes doesn\'t let me open the central locking, the key just turns and nothing happens.
Has anyone else had problems with their locks?
I am sure that I read somewhere that the locks were redesigned from 1999/2000 unwards can anyone confirm this?
Am I looking at an expensive job in replacing them?
Thanks
VW Golf door locks - Aprilia
Not Golf, but a couple of colleagues who have recent Passats have both had lock problem. One guy couldn't get his driver's door to properly latch shut. And yes, its expensive to fix. I think with parts and labour it cost over £250 just to fix the one lock.

The other guy has had loads of problems with the central locking and associated alarm circuit. Despite many trips to the dealer it is not fixed (when I spoke to him last week he was thinking of selling the car). I think the lock problems are well known, on the Passat at least.