hi folks,

My wife's '99 has an inoperative lock mechanism in the drivers' door handle. The key turns, nothing happens at the connecting rod that goes to the lock/ latch mechanism.

I picked up a used door handle (complete- no key) on ebay as a source for parts to fix this issue.

I figure between the original and the parts piece that I should be able to fix it.

Can anyone point me in the right direction to disassemble these units for the most effective repair?

thanks!

 

standard disclaimers, do at your own risk, working on cars is dangerous, blah blah blah.

I managed to get this one off the list today, here's the basics.

1- remove door panel. Easy enough. Once that is out of the way, move the side air bag out of the way, and the silver plate that covers the lock mechanism (3 10mm bolts). This will give you room to get your hand inside. Pull the vapor barrier back about half way, taking care not to tear it.

2- Once you have access to the innards of the door, you will see the wiring for the window dip switch in the upper RH corner of the back of the handle mechanism. Pull it free from the two trees that hold it around the door handle and the lock mechanism.

3- There is a plastic J shaped linkage that connects the top of the door handle to the latch mechanism. It has a sleeve covering the threaded rod from the handle. To release it, pull this sleeve towards the latch mechanism (towards you) which will expose the threads at the bottom of the rod, then you snap the linkage off the threaded piece which connects to the door handle.

4- cover the outside of the door around your door handle with blue painters tape or something similar to protect the paint. Undo the two 10mm nuts connecting the two halves of the door handle mechanism together.

5- there are two spring clips at the bottom of the exterior door handle which hold it to the inner door. Finger pressure will free them, then you need to separate the metal backing plate from the exterior handle and wiggle the exterior painted part down, and rotate it out of the door. You basically pull out on the bottom and pull the linkages out through the opening.

CAUTION.. when I did this, something inside the door or in the handle caused the window to lower itself all the way. My hand was in the door at the time, and it could have caused an injury of some sort. Don't have your fingers near any of the moving parts.

I let the exterior handle hang by the wires, and removing the inner backing plate through the door handle opening was pretty easy. Once you see the inner backing plate and the lock cylinder assembly, you can see how the bladed part of the lock assembly turns the lock at the door latch.

This is the back of the lock assembly from the junkyard part (ebay, $39)


To disassemble, push down on the extension (towards the lock cylinder) and the washer will slide out from the side.



The spring in the left corner goes under the flat washer which holds in the lock rod. The lock rod connects to the cam below the plate, shown here with broken ears, which prevent the key from turning the lock rod.

At this point, I swapped in the cam from the junkyard piece and reassembled. Here are some other pics of the disassembled unit.






reassembled




sheared cam that was causing the issue


I was intimidated by this repair at first, and there aren't a lot of detailed writeups on the web about this problem with the 996 Lock Cylinders.

Also, you do not need to buy a used part that has a key with it. Your door key will engage enough of the tumblers to remove the lock cylinder from the donor part, with enough wiggling/ finesse.

The good news is, most of the German car assemblies appear to be about the same. I found this Passat video on Youtube helpful as well: