Recently, on my 1994 Golf, the door locks stopped working properly. I don't have remote entry but, rather, you use the key to manually turn either of the front doors and all 4 door locks, the hatch, and the fuel door are supposed to engage. I figured out after doing some reading online that it uses a vacuum pump located in the hatch area to accomplish this.

When I put the key in the lock and turn it just far enough to engage the vacuum pump (not far enough to manually engage/disengage the lock on the door), the rear drivers side door, fuel door, and hatch all lock/unlock. However the front doors and the rear passenger side door do not.

I figure there must be a leak somewhere. I pulled the carpeting away from the hatch area and looked at the pump and visible hoses. There are two "T"'s visible. The first "T" sends one line to the fuel door actuator and another across the back side of the car to parts unknown. The other "T" is before the fuel door and I suspect goes to the hatch lock.

So...anyone have a diagram of this system or suggestions on where other "T"'s are so I can try to isolate the possible leak? Thanks.

 

The quickest way to check is to pull off the rubber boot that connects the rear car door to the car. There you will see the speaker wires and an orange tube. Usually this tubes slides out of the connection and thats where your vaccumm leak is. Check all doors.

For me, it was the left rear door connection. If you just plug it back in, it might come out again. I put a bit of crazy glue on the tube and the rubber socket and it works great. About the only thing that works great on my car

If none of the 4 doors are disconnected or you are lazy to check yourself, go to a mechanic who has a smoke machine for just these occasions and they can check the leak that way.

 

I just bought my son a 2001 Golf. It also has a problem with the door locks. The only external locks are on the hatch and the drivers door. The rear hatch works fine, but when you put the key in the driver door it just turns...all the way around as many times as you want, but the door never unlocks. The driver door also does not engage when you hit the doorlock inside the car. It appears that it tries to lock, but it can't for some reason.

I read this thread and would like to find out more about this vaccuum thing. Are all Golfs the same as this? I thought the lock was electrical. Where can I find out more about this?

 

your 01 is electric you have a broken key tumbler it has a flat blade end (like a screw driver) that fits in a slot on the door latch assembly
you could pull the handle off and conferm this verry easy

 

Cool. That's what I thought initially, but when I read about this vaccuum thing it made me wonder.

 

Oh, and thanks for the input Jrailer.

 

I just noticed this thread had some posts. Just for future reference to anyone else...my leak was at the hinge area of the front passenger door. I was able to just pull the boot back and re-connect the hose. Worked like a charm. Of course, I had to start at the back and unplug and re-plug all the tees to systematically isolate the problem. I got it isolated to the front passenger door and proceeded to take it apart only to find it wasn't at the door lock. Working back from there I found it in the hinge boot. Wish I would have known there was a fitting in there...would have saved me some work. Oh well, now I know.