There are a few things that generally go bonkers with the electro-locks. In your situation, my first guess is that it is NOT electrical, but rather mechanical (the motor is corrroded and the contacts are not functional to complete a curcuit).

As I mentioned previously, the lock actuators (motors) are positioned such that the water drips down the window, and as the boots rot out in a few years, water runs in collects and rusts the hell out of all the little tiny moving parts.

In my experience, when one actuator is siezed... it simply does not move, when the others do.... what I mean, is that your locks may all be ok... except for the one that does not move, but since you are completing hte electrical circuit when you push the lock on the functioning passenger door... it also locks the rear and side doors (these do not generally corrode to push, as their is no water pouring in on them ever.

You can continue to use the door that works, to lock up the whole car... what is most likely happening is that the spring is dust (in the broken motor), which pushes the small electrical contact plate up, so that it can make contact as a switch when the lock is opened or closed. basically, this is no big deal.... but does require at some point a new actuator motor or an overhaul of the existing one.

The other common occurance is that the wire will break at the joint where the door opens and closes. In that black rubber tube, which protects the wires, as they go from the fusebox area, to the inside of the drivers door (happens on both sides), the bending will cause the wires eventually to fatigue and snap. Mine did, and it was a ROYAL pain in the butt to feed a new wire through.

The way I tested to see if the motors worked was to run an "always hot" test lead off of my fusebox... and then go to each lock actuator, and touch your hot lead (with power) to the correct terminal (cannot remember right now which one it is... but you can see the brown ground wire I think, and it is then relatively obvious which it is... my Vanagon is not here at present).

I found that when I completed the circuit at the rear and side doors... they would both lock (no fronts). Then at the passenger side, I completed the circuit, and once again the rear and back locked... no fronts... so the circuit was intact.

Then I tried the drivers side, and nothing happened... leading me to believe that there was a break in the circuit which I then found at the door hinge area.

Good luck troubleshooting. The power locks are ultra-convienient... and it is definately worth it to fix them, as it is not really such a difficult project (if you like to pull things apart).

RSF

IMPORTANT!!! In order to reply to me, you must have the word "FISH" somewhere in the subject line of the email. Otherwise it goes directly in the trash.

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Robert S. Fish Salzburg, Austria 1987 Wolfsburg Vanagon 2.1 GL Weekender 1987 Golf Cabriolet 1991 Golf

AOL IM = robertstevenfish ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dan Barrett" <dan@offthehill.org> To: <fish@SALZBURG.CO.AT> Sent: Monday, July 08, 2002 8:45 PM Subject: FISH: questions about electric locks

> Robert, > Since you're der elektrischelockmeister, I've got a question: my driver's > side lock doesn't seem to send its status to the rest of the system -- i.e. > if I lock the driver's side door, nothing happens to the rest of the door > locks. If, on the other hand, I lock the passenger's side door, all doors > including the driver's side, lock. Can you tell me which wire is responsible for sending to the other units? > I've got the Bentley, but I'm not sure which wire I should be checking for > what. > Many thanks, > d. > 1990 GL -- "Mudskipper" > > >