Driver's door won't open

[yowie]

Fixed, at last.

I have spoken to a few people now and have found the following, in case anyone else has this issue.

First, Jimmy (Alba) local legend in Brisbane, who worked on Mk3's when they were new, said there is no VAGCom diagnosis for the auto door lock mechanism. Its either the pump, the door lock or an air leak in the tubes. He also said you can test the pump unit via the passenger door lock, which I replaced, including the entire handle as a previous owner had ground off the peg that the key centreing spring sits on so their dodgy bolt and nut was able to hold the cylinder in the door lock so its looked OK from the outside (!)

Second, the Bentley manual says to run a few tests, but if the issue is inside the door lock itself, replace the whole unit. I ran the tests and everything pointed to the lock micro-switches, or one of them.

Third, Matt at Camden GTI is a great source of parts. Mk3 door locking mechanisms are not the same across the years, so you need to make sure its a match. I sent Matt a pic and got the right part back, $80 inc postage and well-packed. Swapped the part out and its all good.

The only thing I didn't get to resolve was where the door lock mechanism links into the fuse box. Must be somewhere but I never found it and couldn't read it in Bentley's either; some of the wiring diagrams are in tiny-as writing, so I may have missed it.

I did manage to kick the brake light off-switch off its holder in front of the brake lever arm while I was poking around the fuses, resulting in the brake lights being ON permanently, but now I can fix that too

Thanks for your advice and support in here. Til next time I guess!

[feenix74]

Glad to read that you have sorted out the problem. I have to hit up Camden GTI for a new power steering rack for the Vento so I can get it on the road, once the teenagers have stopped costing me a fortune.

[dylan8]

Glad to see it worked out