Dead door after replacement.

[RifleMan]

hi Folks,

we replaced the rear passenger side door on our 2013 Polo with one purchased online secondhand - it physically fitted fine however the red warning light on the dash for the 'door open' is lit constantly, and the door is almost completely dead - i.e. it does not lock or unlock, no sound comes from the speaker and the electric window will not work from the door itself however the window will go up / down from the drivers door controls.

when then tried to put the old door back on - but that too was dead with the exact same symptoms.

we have checked the pins and connectors again and again and all seem good - with correct voltages registering for each action as normal.

does anyone have any idea or can shed some light on why replacing a door would leave us with a dead door - and even the old door is now dead when fitted?

please help!

[alexperkins]

Have you swapped the window motors over? They control all the door electrics on these from what I recall.

Alot of it is controlled by the CAN bus rather than an on/off pulse.

have you also had it scanned via VCDS#?

[RifleMan]

hi Alex,

we didn't need to swap anything over as the door was already complete and all parts are riveted in and cannot be easily removed.

the old door now produces exact same errors.

have no had it looked at yet with a VCDS as my friend who has one and codes my Audi Q5 said he never heard of having to code a door and wouldn't know where to begin.

do you think this may require resetting in the VCDS? if so have you any idea as to why the old door behave the same as the new door when we put it back on?

thanks for your help.

[alexperkins]

The doors are intelligent. All the controllers with in are diagnosable with VCDS

The entire plate with the window mechanism comes out as one

However, providing there are no issues with the replacement door inners and the connection between the door and chassis a reset with VCDS should do the job

[iichel]

Why was the door replaced in the first place?

[RifleMan]

the door was replaced because someone reversed into the original one damaging it quite badly and drove off.

it was costing us much more to get the door cosmetically repaired than to buy a replacement and get it fitted.

the old door worked fine until we replaced it - now neither doors work.

i am used to making changes in the VCDS and adding little tweaks and hacks to my Audi with it, but how would i go about recoding a door?
thanks for the advice guys.

[iichel]

Maybe its just a fuse. But for example the door open signal is a ground operated signal. Maybe the ground wire in the connector is bad or there is a cable break? A bad ground could explain your problems

[alexperkins]

Do an autoscan for faults - ensure you can contact the door lock, the window motor and do speaker diagnostics on that door

Like iichel says, it could be a fuse.

[iichel]

Yes but remember, even with a blown fuse the locking, unlocking and door open signal would still work since they are not operated by the door control module.
For example, rear doors without powered windows have no positive power supply at all, but still have working locking mechanisms and possible working speakers (if installed).

Did you already remove the door trim, to see if there is a wiring loom in it at all?

[RifleMan]

we didn't remove any wiring looms, just unclipped the old door, clipped in the new.

have checked the connectors and all looks good, and have volt-metered the wiring loom and it appears to behave as normal.

when we put the old door back on - we get the same result - dead door and 'door open' light on the dash.

the new / old door fails to lock / unlock - all that works on the door is the window when operated from the drivers door controls.

it's in with a 'VW Specialist' garage at the moment and even they are mystified.

it seems Main Dealer may be my only option but that will cost more than the door and fitting and work i have had done already.

was just hoping there may be an obvious / easier / cheaper solution.

[iichel]

Where did you measure exactly? What connectors?

[RifleMan]

not sure - it was the garage who did all that testing.

just seems odd that both the new (second hand) and old doors are both now dead?

[iichel]

It's a bit hard to conclude that. Dead is probably a bit too much, I suspect an electrical failure somewhere. Could be a simple broken cable in the wiring loom of the door. They are known to break in the rubber grommet for example.

[RifleMan]

would that be a big job to fix iichel?

i mean the wiring loom runs through the chassis of the car doesn't it?

i doubt both doors have developed the exact same fault.

i hope we don't have to bite the bullet and pay hundreds more than we already have just because of some careless ar$eh0le who hit us and ran.