Problems Opening Doors
Asked by afrey29 Jan 02, 2009 at 07:23 PM about the 1998 Volkswagen Cabrio
Question type: Maintenance & Repair
My husband and I were in my car the other day and we went to open the doors and they would not open. We sat there for about 25 min trying different things because he thinks it is an electrical problem. Finally the passenger side door opened. (I was about ready to crawl out the top!!!) This has happened before with just the drivers side door and I end up having to crawl over the passenger side to get to the drivers seat. This is the first time that it has happened with both though. Any one else have this problem or know what could be causing it!?
8 Answers
Probably a bad linkage with your door handle or something. You'll have to dismount the door and take it apart, then check if anything looks broken.
would that make the inside and outside handles not work properly? Will getting an all new exterior handle set up correct the problem? It seems to do it the most when it is cold out too, I dont know if that means anything or not.
Door Latch Assemblies.
elizabeth31392 answered 15 years ago
It's a Volkswagen thing. I have a 1997 Cabrio and my car does the same thing sometimes. My mom has a brand new '08 Beetle Convertible and during the winter, she has the same problems with her doors.
I had the same problem with the driver's side door. I had to exit from the passenger's door, which was rather a pain until I could get this fixed.
Cabrio2012 answered 6 years ago
I have the same intermittent issue with just the drivers door. Neither inside or outside handle open the door. What needs to be replaced?
Found the answer to this on You Tube but looking it up again now. There's a cable that gets stuck. You can use a screwdriver to loosen the cover to the door lock portion. Then you can put the screwdriver in to get the cable to move. Will post the link if I find it.
Here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fy3KbKkAZZ0 The first two minutes show the locking mechanism and how it works. Getting it to reopen starts at 2:10 min.
