One of the first tasks I have always completed with my vans is fitting remote central locking it just makes life a lot easier and lessens the risk of overusing a key and snapping it.
I have never bothered fitting central locking to the sliding door or rear doors, just due to the fact as it was not much of an inconvenience to either lean over and unlock or use the key. Now with a dog and just generally using the van a lot more I decided to give in and fit it to make my life easier.
The thing that has always held me back on this task is the amount of work needed to fit it not outweighing the benefits so here is a walk through of my battle.
I had already purchased a Right Click Central locking kit so I had a left over solenoid, I also had a genuine rod from the kit I had previously bought. I will re iterate that it is well worth buying the genuine VW central locking rods to save a lot of hassle these will also come with the little plastic clips.
I did however need to buy a Sliding door contact to get power to the solenoid, you can then easily spot the space on the door jambs you will need to fit it.
First step is to drill a pilot hole somewhere near where you are going to fit the sliding door contact I then used a larger drill bit followed by a Step Drill bit to get the whole to the size needed.
Then to tidy things up File the hole of any burrs and smear some paint on the exposed metal to prevent any rust issues. Now to offer up the contact and drill some pilot holes to attach the sliding door contact I then use some felt tip pin on the end of the contact and shut the door this transfers the mark across so I will no where I need to attach and repeat the drilling process.
Up next is fitting the solenoid using the existing holes in the door I have used the bracket metal that comes with the kit as a washer / spreader initially I do this up loosely so I can make any minor adjustments. The Central Locking rod will the attach to the locking pin bar using one of the adaptors from the Right Click kit. I can now fit the rod and tighten up the solenoid.
So that is the easy part and hooking it up to a battery to test it now before putting things back together is a good idea. Next overwhelming task which is actually simple it just takes a while and a bit of patience is to remove Glove box and any trim that will be in the way from running the wires. As said I had the wires coiled up waiting for me behind the glove box when I had fitted the front Central Locking originally.
The wires are run up where the trim will cover and they then go down the seat belt pillar I find it easiest to remove the seat belt and run some rigid wire up from the bottom I can then tape the new wires to that and pull it back down through. At that point I can connect it up and put the trim back and rejoice in the now unlocking and locking side door. While I was in this deep I decided to have a quick look at the heater blower as it was making a bit of a squeak on low speed I managed to pry it out enough to squirt some lubricant on which cured the problem for a few months.
Thanks! I’ve just fitted the front locks from the same kit to my T4 and was wondering how the sliding one was going to work. Interesting tip about the VW rods as well – those clamps that come with the Right Click kit are a bit chunky and inclined to catch on the edge of the hole that the rod comes up through. I solved this by cutting a piece of garden hose to use as a guide sleeve for the rods, but I’m a bit wary of it – may well invest in some rods if I get any problems down the line.
Where do you take your +ve feed from? I took a junction off the unswitched power to the stereo but wondered if there was a better option…
I have fitted many kits to different cars in the past and i have always had problems with the generic rods and clamps bending or coming loose, so the T4 is the first time I have used genuine rods and the difference is immediate. I wish I had fitted one to sliding door as well but was unsure what rod or how it is fitted. As it is the sliding door lock when locked does lock but doesn’t pull it all the way so if you try the handle it can jam as the lock isn’t fully clear.
I found a feed from the ignition I would prefer to connect to the fuse box but mine was very difficult to drop so I didn’t want to break anything, I also needed to drop it so I could get the indicators to flash on lock and unlock but again not managed to do it.