Drivers side door - unable to open from outside

[H]

Hello,
Unfortunately, this week I have been unable to open from the outside, the driver side door. To get into the car it has been necessary for me to open one of the other doors and lean across to the  inside door handle. When operating the remote fob all the interior door handles move as normal. I should point out that I also have no side lights - all other lights work though. Having done a bit of searching on here during the week  I have this afternoon pulled back the drivers door gaiter and found that with two wires, a  brown wire and a red/yellow wire, the insulation had failed and the strands were exposed . Due to lack of time I did a quick botch repair with insulation tape so as to prevent the two wires being in contact with each other however this didn't solve the problem.Is it likely that a fuse has blown? In addition I have noticed a relay clicking noise coming from the relay box area is this likely to be related in some way ?
I intend to cut the wires tomorrow and splice in a short section as suggested in other threads but I would be interested to know what anyones thoughts are on what fuses to check and the relay clicking . Apologies for rambling on any advice would be appreciated .
Regards
Howard

[Mirez]

Hi Howard and welcome to our forum!!

Can I clarify the nature of the door fault: You can't unlock it by key (physical unlock) but if will unlock by remote? Or if you operate the remote then the interior handle moves to the "unlocked" position but the door still can't be opened?
And also the lighting fault: No front sidelights or no sidelights at all?

As for the door wiring the colours do a vary a little between spec and year however brown wires are nearly all ground. A thick Red/Yellow wire is most likely the supply for the electric window controller. You may well find another few on closer inspection though and I certainly wouldn't rule that out at the cause! There are 6 wires in total for the CL so have a good search.

The central locking circuit has got a fuse, however it protects the entire circuit and not just one door so that can be ruled out since the other doors still work. The relay could be any number of things as there are so many in the CJB - you would need to do further investigation to find out which one the noise is coming from unfortunately.

Other possibilities are - door contact switches have been known to break, these sit within the door lock mechanism and tell the controller if the door is in an open or closed state - that said they normally cause the opposite to your issue in that you can't lock the door rather then can't unlock it! Other possibilities are the barrel switch has broken, this is actually two switched that the physical key turns onto - again somewhat unlikely given your symptoms. Possibly faulty motor or mechanism. When the doors been unlocked from the passenger side, can you open it using the external handle?

[H]

Hello and thanks for the welcome and  prompt reply.
Just to clarify,when I  use either the key or the remote key fob you can see all the internal door handles moving as they should do.  However with all the doors unlocked it is only the drivers door that will not open when using the external handle.
Regards the lighting fault, it is the fronts that don't work , the rears are fine.

[gregers]

 
you also might have to take the door card off to inspect.
other then that 

[Mirez]

Humm, I have seen the exterior handle's "bar" inside the door become detached from the handle on some models (esp if the handles been allowed to flick back). I'd probably start by removing the exterior handle (Its only the one torx bolt and slide) and see if its attached to the bar. After that you may have to pop the mech out and take a look. Again though, start with the wiring

I assume you've changed the front lamps and they still aren't working? I'll dig out a wiring diagram for them if so...

[Chrispb]

Once outer handle has been removed you will see the lever that engages with the outside handle.
Check the lever for sideways movement, if there's to much the outside lever can slip off when the outer handle is pulled.
Check remaining screws are tight on side of door
As one of these screws pivots the lever.

[H]

Thanks for the advice. The limited time I had this afternoon was spent on examining the wiring within the gaiter, that seemed the quickest and easier option rather than trying to get to them sidelight bulbs ! I'll look at  the bulbs  after repairing the wiring tomorrow. If the wiring repair does not sort out the the door opening issue then i'll look to remove  the handle to see if the issue lies there with the sideways movement.
I need to revisit the technical section as the mechanism isn't something i'm familiar with.

[Chrispb]

Its only a single screw to remove the handle, once that's out the way you can operate the lock lever with your finger.

Its easier to take out the headlight unit (4 screws) than struggle through the access flap in the wheel arch.

[H]

Thanks once again for all the advice .Thought I should give a quick update on how I got on .
Firstly it would seem that the failed insulation on the brown and red/yellow wires behind the door gaiter may have been a bit of a red herring, more about that later.
The exterior door handle not being able to open the door was simply  () down to the torx screw (T30 size) which secures the handle to the internal mechanism being loose .This is the screw that is below the screw which secures the door handle to the door skin. The screw has a LH thread and so is tightened in an anticlockwise direction - problem solved.
The sidelight bulbs not working was due to them both having blown . I wasn't looking forward to removing the headlights so i  persevered in making a "fork type" of tool out of wood that located on the plastic body of the bulb holder and made it possible to make the anticlockwise turn to detatch the bulb holder from the rear of the headlight . This worked well, changing a sidelight bulb wont seem as daunting next time.

One question I do have is, it possible to buy just the piece of plastic that slides up and down inside the wheel arch that gives you access to the bulbs, the sliding piece on the off side of the drivers wheel arch is missing.

Finally the wiring behind the gaiter. This was a bit of a nightmare in that due to the position of the failed insulation access was difficult with the soldering iron and I cant say that I am 100% confident with the soldering repair that I have done to the brown wire, so much so that I didn't bother (for now) with the red/yellow wire . A question I do have is, is the connector that that goes into the door A pillar a bayonet type and if so is it a case of just rotating the castellated type moulding to release ..... and finally is it possible to push the connector and the gaiter back through behind the where the door card would be so that I can gain better access to the wires that need repairing.Sorry if i have not explained this well - I will try and add a picture later.

[Mirez]

Good work! Would love to see a photo of the tool!

I would have thought you can buy the flap, probably not from Ford but VW tend to list bits like this...

Wiring wise yes, the loom can be seperated at the chassis join and once a few clips are removed it can be withdrawn into the door or even fully removed.

[SilverBeast]

I made a door for my passenger side out of a piece of plastic from an ice cream tub, using the drivers side as a template.  Then covered it all in Gaffa Tape in the hope it would stop the mud clogging up the grooves it is supposed to run in!

[SilverBeast]

I made a door for my passenger side out of a piece of plastic from an ice cream tub

....obviously I mean a door to access the sidelight/indicator bulbs, not the one to get in/out of the car!!

[Mirez]

Lmao, I have a wonderfull mental image of that lol!

[SilverBeast]

..well it would be a bit silly using the drivers door as a template as the passenger door is a mirror image...


I aim to amuse....usually unintentionally.

[Chrispb]

VagCat not listing the flap separately, personally speaking you can only get the indicator bulb out easily as it has the extended holder, can't get my hands in there, the O/S one is worse to access as the air intake pipe also lives in there.
There are benefits to having the headlamps out especially the N/S as there is a major earthing point there that's subjected to corrosion if not treated.

[H]

Thanks for the info on the flap - looks like i'll have to wait until all the ice cream has gone.

I'll post a picture of the side light tool up tomorrow.

[H]

Not exactly Snap On quality but it did work

[attach=1]

Using a bit of wood measuring 32mm x 10mm and about 9" long I cut out a slot about 12mm wide (so it was a snug fit on the side light holder plastic body). The slot was approximately 12mm deep . The blue insulation tape was only there to strengthen up the wood , otherwise it would  split along the grain when rotating it to loosen or tighten the bulb holder.

[gregers]

if it had snap on printed on it it would cost about 95 quid.

[Grant2012]

lol thats awesome I used a pair of bbq tongs last time and chopped those up to fit. whoever designed that flap must have had girl hands is all I can say!