Passenger's door fritzy lock switches
 

Hi all,
This is just in case this helps someone else. For a few months now, I've been dealing with a situation where the passenger door lock mechanism on my '01S sometimes works right, sometimes doesn't know the door is open when it is so the window doesn't stay dropped, causing difficulty closing the door (put the window down or hold the latch up to the last second to workaround), the alarm randomly going off if you lock the car, sometimes the red light on the door lock switch on the dash staying on, and other weird behavior.

I finally took the mechanism out of the door, and noticed while I was doing it (with the door open, of course), the window kept switching back and forth between dropped and not dropped position, suggesting a loose connection. A little more investigation revealed that it was internal to the door lock mechanism, so I took the two halves of it apart (one larger Torx bolt, one clip) and removed the cover from the electrical half that has the motor in it (lotsa smaller Torx bolts), exposing the PCB. Reflowing all the solder joints on that PCB solved my problem. I added a little extra solder too for good measure but it probably wasn't necessary.

I hope that helps someone!

Also I noticed when I was taking it apart that the door lock mechanism says VW and has Audi's four rings on it, but no Porsche markings. Anyone know if it's the same part as on some VW or Audi?

It is the same part as VW polo, just saw another thread with the information abd part number yesterday, on the forum.

Only for the 1997 986. :(

The correct VW part for later models is still unidentified, to my knowledge.



.

Thanks for the correction! I didn't realize it was year specific, good to know.

Hi WM,

Thanks for posting this. I have what I think is the same issue and based on other posts as well I am going to go looking for a broken solder joint. I plan to take the door panel off etc and have purchased some door clips in anticipation of breaking a few as I have taken door panels off before! How long did this job take you? I would like to get it done, but some tips on how long it took etc would be helpful so I work out when I can do this.

Cheers,

Paul.

I'd say it took me about 3 hours all told, but if I were to do it again, it would only take me an hour. Most of it was messing up. Here are some tips:
1. No need to remove the airbag - just remove the lower right bolt, which also holds the little metal plate that is in the way if you getting your hand in the door to really get at the lock mechanism
2. Reach in and slide the outer sleeve of the piece that goes to the outer door handle back towards you, then push down to disconnect.
3. Before trying to take the top off the part of the lock mechanism that has the PCB, separate the two halves of the lock mechanism - then you can get at all the bolts.
4. Reflow all the joints even if they don't look bad. Why not? I don't know which joint was bad in mine, but it wasn't the one I thought it was.

This fix is still holding several days, 1000 miles, and many passenger entry/exits later. Good luck!

Do you have pictures of this process?

Tony

I don't, I'm sorry. I should have taken some.