VW Golf Mk 4 Central Locking Opens Drivers Door Only

Our VW Golf TDI 130 Mark 4 has recently had a problem with the central locking where the key remote fob only unlocks the drivers door not the other doors or boot. You can open the rest of the doors using the switch on the drivers door so it is clear there is no actual fault with the central locking wiring or control unit.

Normally with a VW Golf (and indeed other VW cars such as the Passat) a single press of the key fob will remotely open the drivers door and a second press will open the rest of the doors and the boot. It appears that when the car battery is getting low a fault can develop where only the drivers door unlocks and the rest of the doors remain locked even when you press the key fob twice.


The suggested cure to fix the problem is to disconnect the battery for 10 seconds and then reconnect it. This should resolve the problem and get all doors unlocking together again. In our case the battery was nearing the end of its life and occasionally proving difficult to start the car so we also took the opportunity to replace the battery at the same time.

New battery fitted and the doors on the VW Golf are all now opening as expected with one or two presses of the key fob.

More info about the VW Golf TDi 130 available here

VW Golf Mk 4 Central Locking Opens Drivers Door Only