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Thu Jul 26, 2007 1:19 am

Hello!

I purchased an '89 Wolfsburg last week. The central door locks do not work. I can unlock and lock each of the doors individually inside and out. I noticed a group of three wires with female connectors not plugged into anything under the dash just below the climate controls. I believe they are brown (ground?), grey, and black. I will try to take a picture if no one can give me any incite.

I've also looked for a fuse (should be above the fuse panel) but did not see any blown ones.

There is a small hole drilled next to the cig lighter. I'm thinking a PO installed an alarm system and the hole was where the led light was installed. I'm also thinking the three disconnected wires were connected to a remote keyless entry system.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

Thu Jul 26, 2007 4:42 am

There are a group of wires that are fed through the door jam to power the locks, windows and speakers. These can crack and break over time from opening and closing the doors..

Thu Jul 26, 2007 8:32 am

Check to see if you have juice at the contacts in the sliding door jamb first.

On occasion they get corroded and won't pass the 12 volts to the door lock switch inside the door.

If the contacts & wires to the switch are OK, using your 12 volt testing equipment--chase the wires for power back forward to the source.

Thu Jul 26, 2007 8:36 am

Slunk, I bought an '87 Wolfsburger and the central locking did not work either. I discovered that the devious P.O. had removed three of the four lock motors and the one left in place was dead. You might look behind the door liners for a first step.

Thu Jul 26, 2007 9:02 am

When you look for broken wires in the door jamb be sure to look farther down the rubber tube where it goes into the body of the van. That's where mine broke on both driver and passenger sides, but I didn't see it the first time I checked. I had to go back and cut open the rubber sheath, and look far inside with a flashlight. Then I could see a bunch of broken wires back where they're hard to access.

After repairing them now two of my four power locks work. The search continues . . .

Thu Jul 26, 2007 11:34 am

If just the wire in one door are broken would that cause the whole system to fail?

TK,

Which contacts should I check for power? Is that outlined in Bentley?

I'd rather not take the door panels off, as I seem to (in the past) not have very good luck getting the panels off without damaging part of them. Any tips on getting the panels off in one piece?

Also, is it normal to not be able to lock the passenger door with it open? Seems to me like it could be a stuck actuator, but if I knew, I'd have it fixed by now, right?!?

I'd say this, its much better trying to fix these types of problems, on the '89, rather than figuring out why the idle on my 87 won't stabilize or other mechanical issues.

Thu Jul 26, 2007 12:06 pm

<<Which contacts should I check for power?>>
Look on the back side of the B-Pillar--right in the door jamb.
You'll see the contact buttons.
Put the ice pick on the contacts as you operate the front door locks.

If they look crusty clean them up.

<<Is that outlined in Bentley?>>

If it was, it wouldn't tell you much anyway.
I doubt highly that it would explain how to clean them or how to check them for juice.

<<I'd rather not take the door panels off, as I seem to (in the past) not have very good luck getting the panels off without damaging part of them. Any tips on getting the panels off in one piece?>>

yep--get a door clip tool.
It'll pop the pin clips off in a flash.

<<Also, is it normal to not be able to lock the passenger door with it open? Seems to me like it could be a stuck actuator, but if I knew, I'd have it fixed by now, right?!?>>

I should lock by hitting the interior lock down prior to closing the door.

Thu Jul 26, 2007 1:43 pm

I briefly went and looked at the sliding door contacts on my lunch today. There are four. As to which one supplies power, I'm at a total loss.

I guess the first thing I should know is how exactly the central door locks are supposed to work. I'm assuming when I unlocked the driver's side door with a key, the passenger side, slider, and rear hatch are all supposed to unlock, is this correct? If I lock and unlock from the passenger door (with the key) would this action also lock and unlock all the doors?

When I tried to find the contact that supplied juice, I put the key in the passenger side lock and tried locking and unlocking that way to see if I could get a signal. What should my voltmeter be turned on?

Thanks!

Thu Jul 26, 2007 3:02 pm

put your voltmeter to volts and set it to a range of about 20V. If you look in the stickies section in the manuals online protraing forr the 86 vanagon, they have a whole section on power locks. Additionally, if you want a wiring diagram go to my public folder and download Vanagon Wiring Diagram.PDF.

http://homepage.mac.com/WebObjects/FileSharing.woa...mp;lang=en

Thu Jul 26, 2007 7:05 pm

Here's a quick overview of doorlocks (although you'll still want to look at a wiring diagram):

http://www.gowesty.com/library_article.php?id=314

Fri Jul 27, 2007 9:25 am

Thank you everyone for your information. I'm still working on the issue. I've taken the first three days of next week off, to work on my Vans. The '87 is a priority, as I'm planning on selling that one. As soon as I have it ready to sell (just need to back wash the fuel pump, if I can figure that out).

Dogpilot, I would like to applaud you. I'm sure there are many Vanagon owners out there who have wanted to thank you, but just never did. If it were not for your dedication to the Vanagon community; many of us would not still be owning them. I thank you for your awesome efforts! I bookmarked your personal library, as it is a plethora of Vanagon knowledge.

Thank you very much!

Fri Jul 27, 2007 11:09 am

I do want to thank you for your kind words. I just do what others did for me. The Vanagon community has people who provide a lot of information, gather it up and eventually it goes into oblivion as they lose interest or move on to another challenging project. So we need to keep archiving it forward. I just try to locate the hard to find, but useful stuff and put it in one central location.

To backwash your fuel pump, get some clear vinyl tubing and some lab plugs (in the maze of drawers section of your hardware store). Pull your fuel lines and push the plugs into them to keep fuel from spilling all over the place. Hook up the clear tubing to the suction and output side. It is nice if you get enough to reach out from under the car. Get some diesel fuel, a couple of quarts will do. Put the output tube into the container of diesel fuel. Have an equal sized container on the suction tube of the pump. Go under the car and reverse the leads, + to minus and so forth. Now, your pump will run backwards. Turn your key and it should suck all the diesel up and transfer it and the crud to the other container.

You can reverse the leads again back to their normal position. This time make sure the suction tube, which should be deep in the diesel, in about 2" from the bottom. This way when you do the key again, it moves the diesel back to the original container, but does not suck up the crud in the bottom. If it is still dramatic on the crud outflow, repeat until it is clean.

You can then run a small amount of normal gas to flush the diesel out. Why use diesel? It is somewhat a lubricant to the pump, and it is a great solvent on varnish and crud.

Fri Jul 27, 2007 12:20 pm

Wow, I've just hijacked my own thread, I'm such a jerk...

Dogpilot, this is exactly what I've been looking for. I assumed it was just a matter of reversing the leads, but no one will say that. They just assume everyone knows what they are talking about. I have the pump out of the vehicle, and I will hook the leads up directly to the battery (I think I will put a switch inline between the + terminal and the pump to avoid any sparks...).

Which terminal, on the pump, is + and which is -? There isn't the typical brown wire attached, just a white to the lower terminal (when installed) and a multi-colored one to the upper terminal. Maybe the + and - are on the pump, but there is so much dirt and grime on it I cannot see it.

Thanks again!

Fri Jul 27, 2007 12:32 pm

The screws are different sized, if I remember correctly. For this application I don't think it makes any difference anyhow. One other advantage to diesel, its flash point is very high and a whole lot safer for this in case of spark.

Tue Jul 05, 2011 11:49 am

Does anyone have photos or diagrams of how the stock lock actuators mount in the door?

The p. 60 diagram that Dogpilot posted above is a little too schematic for me...

Sat Nov 30, 2013 7:46 pm

Should the door locks have power at rest when locked ? I know that the red is constant hot and the brown is ground . What I am finding is that when the actuator is locked the circuit stays hot . The system functions properly ,I think I must have a bad actuator with a sticky contact .
Any thoughts .I thought I knew these systems well . Just looking for someone to confirm what I think that there should not be power at rest .
Comments ,laugh ,chuckles all welcome .

Stacy

Sun Dec 01, 2013 12:12 pm

Answered my own question . Found an actuator and bench tested it and found it to be hot at rest, at both locked and unlocked position .
I am wiring up a relay to express my window up from the door lock motor. The relay needs a negative momentary input ,which I have converted with a relay . The problem I am having now is that the input from the signal (door lock ) is constantly hot and the relay is pulling power when locked .
I need to find a way to turn the constant signal to momentary . Or a different place to get a Negative signal from .

Stacy

Sun May 11, 2014 9:06 pm

I have had a non locking issue with my sliding door lock. Nothing, nada, no lock or unlock and have been using the manual button or key to lock that door. Also the hatch door has been a bit dodgy with it working sometimes and not others. So I bought the very last slave actuator available from Van Cafe a couple of days ago and it arrived yesterday. After pulling the sliding door actuator from the van this evening, I bench tested it and found that it seemed to work fine....

So I pulled the contact off of the door and the door jam, ran them under my wire brush wheel and voila, the door now locks as it should with the actuator reinstalled! Tomorrow I will have a go at the rear hatch with special attention to lubricating the sliding pin in the lock mechanism itself. Yes, I have read a bunch of threads on the issue.

An interesting question is why the sliding door contacts have 4 blades and only 3 are used. I am guessing that it is set up to use a master actuator if desired, but this also leaves open the possibility to run another wire into the door for any other purpose as well. Curious if anyone has used this fourth contact for anything.