Mk6 Golf rear door handle won't work

[Mr Creosote]

Hi all,

Hoping someone could help here. I ve got a five-door 2009 Golf with manual rear windows and the rear passenger door will open from the inside but not the outside.

I've taken off the door card, but there's another panel held in with rivets and plastic clips, and before I start drilling this out, I wanted to check I wasn't doing something daft.

So, my question is, is the door handle thing a known problem with an easier solution, or do I need to replace the door lock/actuator itself? AND, how easy is it to remove this inner panel? Will I need to take the window out too?

Thanks in advance.

Edited in bold for accuracy!

Edited by Mr Creosote on Wednesday 11th February 11:57

[jeremyc]

Have you made sure there are no child locks activated and/or you haven't disabled internal unlocking somehow?

[Mr Creosote]

Well this is embarrassing. In my haste, I got this the wrong way round. It's the inside door handle that works, not the outside one. You can get out but not in.

Tbh I've just been living with it for about six months, but MOT time is nearly upon us and I believe it's a fail.

[catso]

Mr Creosote said:

Tbh I've just been living with it for about six months, but MOT time is nearly upon us and I believe it's a fail.

My Son had a Polo on which the rear door handle didn't work, door wouldn't open either from in or out.

It had previously (not in his ownership) passed a couple of MOTs like this but the first time he took it for an MOT, it failed - safety in the event of needing a quick exit apparently.

Needed a new lock mechanism which wasn't too expensive IIRC, the problem of course was getting the door open to change it, he had the MOT station do it for him.

[Polome]

We had similar with our Polo. Easy to remove the door inside cover to operate lock handle from inside car. Investigation showed die cas alloy link in handle mechanism had worn. Secondhand one from E bay connected to outer locking handle( to keep same key ) sorted it.