Rear Driver's Door Lock Replacement

171,800 miles, 4th June 2016

Background

This was the second door lock module I've needed to replace on my Golf Mk 5. I replaced the module in the driver's door almost exactly 4 years ago.

The first indication that the rear driver's door lock module was starting to fail was when the door did not unlock along with all the other doors. I had to reach inside and use the interior door handle to open it. A quick check with VCDS confirmed the fault:

"Address 46: Central Conv.
1 Fault Found:
00931 - Locking Module for Central Locking; Rear Right (F223)
012 - Electrical Fault in Circuit - Intermittent"

As the VCDS log states, the fault was intermittent. It seemed to be temperature dependent, working if the ambient temperature was warm and not working if cold. As I didn't need to open the rear doors as often as the front, I wasn't in a rush to fix this problem and lived with it for about a year. Then one day I noticed that the car's indicators did not flash when I used the key fob to lock the car. This usually indicates that a door has not been closed properly. My first suspect was the rear driver's door and sure enough, it hadn't locked. Unlike the driver's door which you can manually lock with a key, the other doors do not have a key hole and so you have no way of locking it. It was therefore time to replace the door lock module.

Buying the replacement door lock module

My local Volkswagen dealer charged me £120 for a genuine replacement driver's door lock module 4 years ago. I suspected another for the rear driver's door would cost about the same. However, before I went ahead and bought one I thought I'd check online.

Brand new replacement
Rear Driver's Door Lock Mechanism.
Click on photo to enlarge.

Brand new replacement
Rear Driver's Door Lock Mechanism (rear).
Click on photo to enlarge.

I was pleasantly surprised when I found a brand new replacement door lock module for the rear driver's door (part number 7L0 839 016) on eBay for just £21 with free delivery! True it probably wasn't a genuine VAG part (brand new, genuine VAG door lock modules seemed to be available for around £80). It looked to be made in China and sold by a UK distributor. I figured at that price I would give one a try. I ordered it and it arrived within a couple of days. When the replacement door lock module arrived, it looked pretty much identical to a genuine VAG part. Compare to photos of old and new genuine VAG parts.

Fitting

The steps involved in replacing the rear door lock module were exactly the same as those for replacing the driver's door lock module. It's worth noting that whilst only the driver's door has a key hole, the cover/cap on the other doors has to be removed/refitted in exactly the same way.

I found access to the door lock module inside the rear door was more restricted than inside the front door. This was because one of the guide rails for the wind-down window slightly overlaps the module. This makes extracting and fitting a module and the clip-on white plastic cover much more difficult. However, with a little giggling about the new module was fitted and began working straight away.