B8 rear door won’t open

[Jemma GeithnerBehan]

Hi guys I’m looking for a bit of help. My cars just failed it’s MOT. The rear drivers side passenger door won’t open from the outside and there’s quite a bit of slack in the outside handle. I can open it from the inside but obviously that doesn’t help the fail. Any ideas would be appreciated

 

[spartacus 68]

When you unlock the car can you hear that door in particular? If not, and assuming you don't have VCDS to scan the car, worth picking up a new lock actuator unit. Seems to be a common problem so second hand may be false economy. The slackness in the door handle may have exacerbated the problem. You can take a look at that with the door card off.

There's a bit of work involved to get to the door actuator, so trim tools, torx bits, etc. Slow and steady gets there.

 

[cashutt]

Open it from the inside, then slam it shut, repeat till it works again. This reseats the plastic doodah in the handle. It’s not a long term fix but it’ll get though the MOT. (I have to do this every few months as I’m too tight to fix it properly!)

 

[pelhamsdetailing]

Had a similar issue, just much further gone, and had people climbing through the window for half a year until I bit the bullet. The unit was around the £110 mark, and the garage I regular locally to me made sure to do a proper job of it, being careful not to damage the door card or pins. Just over £200 to be done with parts. It's worth splashing out for peace of mind, and the fact that your door opens properly day to day. It's also nice to pass your MOT

 

[audiwaterpump]

I believe they can be fixed, if you are that way inclined. Iirc, I think the microswitch gets muck in it and stops working, once cleaned it is ok again.

 

[Turbo100]

Old thread but I have the same issue, could not open from outside but after opening from inside it started to work from outside as well until I locked and unlocked, then same issue.
After exercising Lock/unlock with opening from insida, slam door open outside a few times it started to work properly again.

Wopuld a VCDS tool indicate what is wronghere? - I assume all wires and such is OK since it started to work and should be a electrical issue I guess.
How big is the risk that it failes from both inside and outside? - That would give me a severe issue I think... or is the inside opening mechanism hard wired for the opening?
I would hate to rely on electronics to be able to open a car door from inside in case of fire or accident... so is there a real risk that the door maigh fail to open from inside due to this electrical issue?