Audi A4 central locking woes

[Rav]

Hi All, Really need your help. Ive got a 1999 Audi A4 1.9tdi SE.

Since i bought it a couple of years back the interior lights never came on automatically when the door is opened. Doesnt matter what position the switch is in they refuse to come on. If put on manually all the lights do come on.The driver information module doesnt show that the doors are open (as it should) only that the boot is open.
The only light in the car that comes on when a door is opened is the footwell ilumination.
So i have lived with this for a while.

Then a year or so ago, the remote central locking gave up. The local dealer couldnt find any fault, but told me that a new central locking pump might do the trick. I bought a second hand unit and hey presto the central locking worked again. But still no lights etc.

Now the remote central locking is bust again, the windows have a mind of their own, the car wants to lock itself with me in it and not let me out and the alarm keeps going off whilst driving.

With the car in this condition i cant even sell it or part exchange it....Ive lost all faith in it and that is bad when i drive 700 miles a week !

Please help?

[Silverbullet767]

I would get rid.

Once you start with electrical problems they never seem to end.

[Rav]

Thanks Silverbullet.

I guessed as much.
Its now sitting on my drive with the alarm going off very 5 minutes.
The neighbours have been round twice already !

I hate cars.

Edited to add: Do Audi have electrical problems in general? Just scrolling down the forum threads and i can see someone with problems with an Avant door?

Edited by Rav on Tuesday 22 January 19:49

[Mikey-S]

Give a decent electrician a wiring diagram and he'll have this sorted in no time. You'll find the A4 has a pretty basic central locking system, and in my opinion it'll probably just be a sticking key switch on the door handle, or something similar. Don't lose faith in the car over a silly (although annoying) electrical problem. I've had lots of A4s, and not once have I had an electrical problem. Top cars!

[Rav]

Thanks Mikey-S. Ive got it booked in with an auto electrition tomorrow. Lets see hwat happens. I will update you by the end of the week.

Rav

[Rav]

Ok, they got back to me.

An area in the boot has been letting in water. A central locking module is full of water and broken.
They have quoted £439+VAT for repair. I asked if they could just bodge somthing together. But they cant.

Have to bite the bullet and go with it.

[Mikey-S]

That's a lot of money, so before you just bite the bullet I'd chaeck with some breakers yards first. If I remember rightly, there are only two variants of central locking control unit for this car, one with remote central locking, and the other without. I reckon you'll find plenty of these around, and probably pick one up for less than 50 quid too, and coding the remote is literally a five minute job on a B5 A4.

[skid-mark]

they suffer with a really common fault of broken wires on the door hinge looms which stops sending signals to the central locking etc (where to look; is open the door look between the two hinges you'll find a rubber conduit coming from the piller into the door, pull this back and check for any broken wires which you'll probably have to solder) boot hinge wires suffer from this as well but you'll have to unroll the electric tape.
hope this helps its usually the simplest faults which causes the most problems.

[hallsie]

Rav

Dont do anything yet mate!!

I had the same trouble with my locking module, but after stripping it down it turned up to be the actual mechanical part of the pump, made of carbon, that had worn.
Basicaly, i bought one from fleabay £80.00 out of a similar year A3 and changed the PCB board over.

Hey presto,
Good mechanicals from the A3 pump with the good electrics from the A4.

I still have the electrics for the A3 if you want to try them?

Im in north Kent.



Stu

[Rav]

Hi Hallsie,

Many thanks for your response. I have given the go ahead for my autoelctician to fix the car. Gulp £600 ish.

I really need to sell the car now and couldnt with the alarm and windows playing up.

Thanks for the offer. Lets see what happens, you might never know, i may need to borrow the A3 parts from you.

Thanks again.
Rav

[Rav]

Morning all,

Last night i picked the car up. Total cost of £515. The car alarm has been disconnected and the remote key locking no longer works (apparently has to be programmed by Main stealer?).
The interior lights still dont work, and the DIM doesnt show the doors open.

Looking at selling the dam thing fast.

Are VW golf GT TDI's any good?