Power door lock problem with Passat (2024)

Hey everyone. I'm experiencing a few problems with my power door locks. The biggest problem is that when I lock the doors with the key, all the locks go down but the passenger front one pops back up. The alarm will arm but the door can still be opened. I've taken the door panel off and looked at where the door pull thing goes into (actuator I think??). When I lock it, I see the plunger go down, but it slowly pops back up. Could the actuator be adjusted to keep the door locked when it's supposed to be or is this something that simply is replaced? If replacing it, is this a simple R&R process or is there more to it?
#2 The next problem is when I'm driving the car and I go to lock the doors from the insided, the doors will lock for a moment but after about 5 seconds, all the locks will pop back up.
Could these two symptoms be from the same problem? Is there some other vacuum system that the door locks work on?\

I could live with problem number 2, but definitely not 1. I appreciate any help you all can provide.
-Nick

Nick,

This is one of the most common faults of the Passats. The door handles/locks are just a poor design. This problem has been described and fixes are in the archives, but I'll try and get you started here.

If you look at the end of the door, you should see a large Philips head screw at the same level as the handle. Bcak this out and you should be able to remove the handle partway from the door. Inside the handle, there is a small, hollow pin, lying horizontally. Over time, this can work itself out of its hole, causing the handle to stick and the lock to malfunction. Try and push the pin back into the hole, and pack the whole assembly with grease. New handles ain't cheap, so try all the fixes you find here before getting one.

Search the threads though, this came up inside of the last six months. Any luck with the cargo cover?

Matt

Well, too late now, I brought the car to the dealer this morning and am now awaiting word from them. Just to keep them honest, I think I'll ask to keep the old parts if there are any (hopefully not).

I did look through the old threads and it seemed most of the problems had dealt with the actual handles, not the locking system. Although I have already experienced a problem with the handle on the same door.

Matt, no luck with the cargo cover. Still looking, but I'm patient.
-Nick

brownnugen:

I had the same problem with the passenger front door lock slowly going back up after I locked all the doors with the key, as well as being unable to lock/unlock the doors from the inside. I don't have a clue what actually fixed the problem as I did several things around the same time.

First I took the door handle off and fixed the pin (it's basically a fulcrum for the door handle to opening mechanism) but I put just a dab of Loc-Tite on the end of the pin to keep it from coming back out, no grease.

Second, the 'U' shaped piece in the driver door handle was broken too, so I bought the kit (about $5) to fix the lock mechanism. It was pretty easy to install and I noticed when I had finally fixed that problem that the problem of the slowly rising lock on the passenger door was fixed as well. It's a miracle!

Maybe the act of moving the door handle around (out of the door) was the actual cure, but it has not happened again. Unfortunately I have had to go back in and fix the pin several times since then, but as I said, there has not been a recurrence of the lock problems.

I know it doesn't apply to your Passat, but I had a problem with electric locks on my 99 Jetta that kink of had the same symptoms: