Central locking - key driven

[MattW]

Hi All

My parents have an 06 (I think that makes it Mk6) plate Polo that has a central locking fault - I've searched and found a few but they seem different to this one.

The central locking works perfectly if operated from the passenger door lock, and also if operated from the rocker switch on the inside of the drivers door.

However, if it is operated from the drivers door lock, then it doesn't work. If you manually lock / unlock from outside it will operate that door, but the others don't kick at all.

So it seems to me that the central locking "works" when it's told to, however, for what ever reason it's not being told to when locking / unlocking from the drivers door. It appears that it's worse when it's wet / damp outside - so at the moment it fails all the time. In the summer it was working the majority of time and only failing some times.

They took it to a local small independent garage a few months ago, and he thought it was the door lock unit, so replaced that. Basically that made no difference. I spoke to a chap at my local VW dealership this afternoon and he suggested the same thing.

Does anyone have any other ideas - as it seems kind of unlikely that it's this as it's been changed once. I'm thinking a wiring connection (based on the change when it's damp) but don't have any real idea where to look.

[john.p.clegg]

Matt

Pain in the bum this...my 05 plate (9N3) was intermittent on the passenger side,(central locking and from inside)it has been good now for a few months after diving under the steering wheel and unplugging/plugging the wiring connectors...

May help?

John

[MattW]

Thanks John.

I'm not sure if the Polo has the same arrangement, but talking to a friend of mine about the way VW generally "do" things, most other models apparently have a multiway connector that sits inside the door. Looking at pics of where it is on other cars, it's ripe for water collection, and apparently this is common. So this looks like a good place to start, if I can work out how to get the door card off.

[vc-10]

Door card isn't too hard to remove- if it's got manual windows, prise off the forward/outer part of the door pull, and there's 2 screws there, and 3 along the bottom edge (and the window winder inner ring slides away from the handle to remove it). The ones with electric windows, I think it's fairly similar- not quite sure though. Haynes would tell you, but I don't have my copy with me. Then slide a palate knife around the edge, starting at the bottom, to unclip it. It lifts up, make sure not to snag the wiring connectors! The clips are a complete pain in the neck- I broke several.

Incidentally, a 2006 car would be what this forum calls a Mk.7, but is actually a Mk.4 phase 2, according to VW (who should know, seeing as they built it!). However, they're pretty similar cars.