Hello folks,

I've had my 97 Jetta Gt for some time now, and I've come across a problem with the door locks: the alarm won't set any more and the driver door won't lock. For anyone who knows of this situation, the whole alarm/locking system is central to the driver door. Please forward any input on an easy remedy to this problem (if there is one)...the dealer says it's an electrical door switch and charges about $300.00 to fix it. Any possibilities on repairing this myself? Please advise.

tes its probably teh switch, the switch inside the thing the moves with the key aktuator or something

i think its a pita to fix it yorself and you need teh wiering diagram, in teh bently, and thats $100, so teh dealer shud probably do it

i'll post more tomorrow....



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Deakins,

Thanks for the information. I was worried you would say: send it to the dealer, but I guess there's no easy way.


Donno

do you have a bentley manual?
do you feel like taking your door apart? like the whole door, interior, lock, handle? i think not :D

1998 Jetta GLS 100,000+ miles (Auto Trans)
Had simular prob...
Problem:
Parked outside Papa Johns Pizza, when I returned, the alarm activated when I tried to start the car. I unlocked the door to deactivate the alarm(remot died years ago), and when I went to start the car again, the alarm went off again. The car wouldn't start due to the alarms ingition kill. And the drivers window will not move with either using the key in the lock, or the button on the door.
Temp Fix:
Had to use two keys, one in the door held in the Unlock position, and the other to start the car. That was enough to get me home.
After searching for some advice on the web, found that there might be a short in the wiring in the door.
After tearing the door apart, found that when the remote mirror is unplugged, all seems to work fine except the drivers window. When I unpluge the window mechanism, all sems to work fine except the drivers remote mirror. In both carses, cannot open the Passangres(it will roll up, not down) window from the button on the drivers door.
Bonus:
After keeping the drivers side remote unplugged, though the drivers window no longer goes down, the Check Engine light is no longer on after being on for the last two years.

Plea for HELP!!
If any of you VW Mech/Vets have any advice, that would be great. So far looks like I am going to have to replace the door window mechanism in the door.

Also saw this at http://gti-vr6.net/library/electrical/95_Elec_failure.html

"I have a 95 Golf Gl and had a similar problem. while driving all of a
sudden there would be a mass electrical failure. Even the digital
display of the odometer and clock went dead. The engine totally died
and the alarm started going off. The first time it happened the dealer
said it was my alternator and put in a new one. After 500 miles it
happened again. Apparently this happened to a bunch of VW's made around
a certain time. VW central found the problem to be a defective set of
grounding cables from the battery. Since they changed them (and the
alternator and battery again) I have had no problems."

Have't tried, yet, but will let you know what I find.