Motoring question - central locking fault!

[jackDEFECTORbauer]

My 2000 (15 years old, 48k on the clock) VW Polo has developed a fault with the central locking system and I'm wondering if anyone has any ideas about the cause.

A few days ago, central locking stopped working but I was able to open and lock the drivers side door without issue.

Today when I went to unlock the car both the driver and passenger side doors wouldn't unlock properly using the key. It soon turned out the vacuum pump which locks and unlocks all the doors seemed to be stuck on trying to suck all the locks into the locked position.

I have now disconnected the pump from the power so I have no central locking at all right now but can otherwise still use the car as normal. I tried reconnecting the pump and it did nothing – it doesn't seem to work at all now (although I only checked the once).

Does anyone have any ideas as to what is causing the issue? Until I unplugged the pump - it was working in that it kept all the locks in the locked position so I'm not sure its the pump at fault. Could it be the drivers side lock? The lock was replaced a good few years ago and is one of the newer parts on the car.

I also noticed some sort of residue partially covering the pins of the power connector on the pump – almost looked like battery acid from a leaking battery but I'm not sure.

Any help would be fantastic as I don't want to go ordering replacement parts when I don't need them and I'm not yet at the stage where I want to pay for a garage to sort it.

[shutteh]

years ago I got problems with the central locking system on my old Audi A3 (12 years old). I changed the vaccum pump and everything was fine In germany there was a shop who reselled the old one and delivered you a repaired one.

[jackDEFECTORbauer]

Cheers Shutty I may look into that - unfortunately this fault just became a whole lot more urgent to fix as I've now noticed the fuel cap is locked and with no central locking to unlock I can't put petrol in! Shit!

[shutteh]

u can! normaly u have a red plastic device inside your boot. is your tank left or right? open your boot. remove inside the boot the cover on the side where the tank is and there must be a ring or something else to unlock the lock.


maybe google said it is for your polo a little bit different:
under your vaccum pump should be a bar which you can pull to the backlights and it opens your tank cap.
But you can read it in your manuel

[jackDEFECTORbauer]

Haha yes I've done exactly that today, pulled the pump out to get to the locking thing and removed it. Filled up on fuel and replaced the lock so all good for now.

I think I will replace the pump itself and hope that is the cause of the fault!

Cheers.

[jackDEFECTORbauer]

Fixed! Took a punt on a 2nd hand pump and it's paid off, central locking all working as soon as I installed it - Happy days!

[shutteh]

good work
happy like a boss!