Door lock fault

[dan_b]

I have an intermittent fault with one of my doors not locking correctly - the plunger widget that sticks up occassionally physically won't go down and lock the car. If I use the central locking remote the boot and other door will lock, then they'll pop back up and unlock because the other door hasn't worked. You literally can't push it down, it's like it's stuck.

What's going on? Does anybody else have this? How do I fix it? Bit of a security issue!

I have a Thatcham CAT1 alarm and immobiliser and nothing of value is left in the car so hands off!

[AUDI9020V]

id change the plungers on all the doors easy to get to and as you have the door cards off you can make sure all the lnks and rods are movng free.

[dan_b]

I've not taken the door cards off before, where are all the screws to do so?

[s2avant95M]

http://www.s2forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4326&highlight=door+card+removal

[dan_b]

Cheers Tim, I really should use the search button more often

[Jamo]

Sticky made for that thread , Dan *tut tut*

[dan_b]

[Robatron]

I have an intermittent fault with one of my doors not locking correctly - the plunger widget that sticks up occassionally physically won't go down and lock the car. If I use the central locking remote the boot and other door will lock, then they'll pop back up and unlock because the other door hasn't worked. You literally can't push it down, it's like it's stuck.

What's going on? Does anybody else have this? How do I fix it? Bit of a security issue!

I have a Thatcham CAT1 alarm and immobiliser and nothing of value is left in the car so hands off!

Dan did you ever find out what the fault was with this?

For the last 2 or 3 days this has been happening an awful lot with me and I really need to fix it as I am taking the car away for the weekend!

All else failing, does anyone else know what it is and how I can fix it?

[dan_b]

Hi Rob
Ooh - it was a bit of a cludge, but what I found was that if I took an allen key to the lock mount nuts on the inside of the door and just loosened them off a teeny bit, that it would then lock properly. Goodness knows what the problem is, it's like something's got ever-so slightly out of kilter, but I couldn't work out what. I re-greased everything and took it all apart, but ultimately that seemed to be the "workaround".

[Robatron]

Ok thanks Dan, I will have a fiddle with this one tomorrow when the rain hopefully stops!

[~Delta]

I've got the same problem, on the passenger door. Locks fine, until you open the passenger door from the inside, then you have to loosen the 2 Allen bolts, re-tighten then it works.

I have to carry an Allen key in the car for now, till I find the cause.

[Robatron]

I think we have got to the bottom of this one finally as we had the door in pieces for about 2 hours on friday night before I set off to silverstone.

Firstly, please excuse my lack of technical words because I dont know what half the stuff is called!

The initial theory was that the pneumatic solinoid was knackered in the door, but we tested it (as best as you can!) and it seemed fine, so we stuck it back in the door and everything worked fine, SUCCESS!!

We put the door back together, pressed the button on the keyfob and the bloody plunger stayed up, and all the doors unlocked! BLAST!

So off came the door card again in search of the next fault. We stripped everything down again and put things back on one by one. We found that everything operated perfectly well until the moment we attached the cable inside the door that connects the door handle to the locking mechanism via the sprung loaded arm.

We couldnt fully work out why this would affect the locking of the car, but upon closer inspection we realised that things change alot with this cable attached. When the lock is unlocked a bar is moved beneath the plunger holding it up so that it physically cannot drop down of its own accord. However once unlocked, the sprung loaded arm returns to the flat position which pulls the bar clear of the plunger allowing it to lock.

Now I realise I am finally getting somewhere and I just needed to establish what was causing the plunger to foul the bar. So off came the lock and it become apparent instantly, the silicone gasket that sits on the underside of the lock had come loose, this meant that it was fouling the bottom of the sprung loaded arm so it was never fully returning to the flat position, consequently the arm was never being pulled clear of the plunger so it wouldnt be able to lock itself.

Now we had to put the gasket back in place which was much harder than it looked, so we heated it up in hot water, dried it off and then used some adhesive tape to get it to stay in position. We stuck the lock back on, hooked everything back on and it worked a treat!

So anyone else who has this problem, upon up your door and see if the gasket is visibly disturbed around the lock, if so then this is your problem.

I would love to give pictures to this but I am petrified of taking the lock off until I can source a new gasket.

[dan_b]

Wow, good detective work there Rob!

What were you doing up at Silverstone?

[Robatron]

Unfortunatly nothing too car related, well tell a lie, it was but I wasnt at the circuit.

I went to a pistonheads Black Tie meet, and I have to say it was bloody fantastic! The venue was perfect, the setting was perfect and the country roads on the way were perfect to have some fun on.

I was leading a convoy of quite a few cars, I had a Supra TT, TVR Chimera, TVR Griff, 911 C2, TVR Cerb, Golf GTi, BMW 523 and a focus 1.6 When we hit the 15 mile stretch into Tocester I did open the car up abit without fear of losing all of the convoy, and I had a few suprised supercar owners asking me what kind of power I was running.

The other great thing was strolling down for breakfast and seeing the exotic cars in the carpark. It was like the Virginia Water meet except I was able to go and have a chat with all the car owners and drowl over their cars.

[dan_b]

I was leading a convoy of quite a few cars, I had a Supra TT, TVR Chimera, TVR Griff, 911 C2, TVR Cerb, Golf GTi, BMW 523 and a focus 1.6 When we hit the 15 mile stretch into Tocester I did open the car up abit without fear of losing all of the convoy, and I had a few suprised supercar owners asking me what kind of power I was running.

can I have my car back?!
you go for it Rob sounds like youve really got the S2 under your skin now, great car isn't it