DBJoe996

I also agree, particularly if it is the drivers door. When you go to unlock and stand there and pull on your handle 20 times to try and get the door open, lock, unlock repeatedly and have that truly sinking feeling that you can't get your door open...time for an entire door latch mechanism. I sprung for an OE door latch mechanism because the old one worked for 20 years. Just pony up on this one and move on.
https://rennlist.com/forums/996-foru...-detailed.html

mklein9

To follow up, I got some time today to look at the door lock again with the benefit of the video of the VW lock mechanism. I believe I had misaligned a lever in one section with a hole in the other section while reassembling previously. Everything else was fine. Put it back together and it works great including no more flickering of the red lock LED on the dash.

The original issue I had was definitely cold solder joints on the PC board. They were easy to see. The video helped a lot to make sure the two halves of the lock are in the same state while reassembling (locked or unlocked) and the tests along the way to determine that the pieces are working together.

NOBLman

Just finished this job on my 2001 996. The 2/3/2020 post by mklein9 is superb in terms of showing how the mechanism works. However, the VW part is a bit different from the Porsche OEM in that it is not possible to take off the cover to the electronics section without first taking out the torx screw that holds the locking mechanism assembly together. The Porsche unit has a forked plastic part that inserts both above and below the worm gear that drives the lock. So, if you don't take this torx screw out first, the whole assembly will pretty much blow apart on you when you pull the cover off and you'll spend a good 30 minutes or more figuring out how to put everything back together. Also, you need to pay close attention to how the locking mechanism works in mklein9's video. If you don't pay attention to this, you'll assemble everything and find that the the main cam in the door latch which holds the door closed will rotate using a screwdriver, but it will not latch. That's because the metal tab attached to the unit with that torx screw you undid (the unit has two springs tensioning it: a little circular spring and a heftier right angle spring) is not engaged with the metal receptacle in the other half of the unit. This means you can't lock and unlock the unit without taking the whole thing apart again. You'll know you've done it right if you can latch the unit using a screw driver and unlatch by pulling on the door-pull lever. Do this before putting it back in the car to save yourself some curse words! Finally, I ordered a couple of microswitches from Digikey that were recommended at various places here on Rennlist as good replacements for the door latch switch (CKN10166-ND and SW719-ND). Neither of these has the right package to fit into the receptacle in the OEM mechanism. There are a couple of plastic pins that stick out of the OEM switch that fit into holes in the metal casing. If you don't get a properly configured switch, it won't fit. The OEM switch is relatively easy to take apart by prying open 4 small tabs on the package (use at least 2 screwdrivers when you do this or you'll drive yourself crazy). The problem with this switch is that it has a plastic plunger that rubs against a metal cam every time the door is opened. After many years, this plastic wears down so that the plunger no longer gets pushed far enough to close the switch. In my unit, it went from being an open circuit to having ~50 ohms of resistance. So, it was still a two state switch. But even 50 ohms was too much. The window would no longer jog down when the door was opened at that red light on central dash locking rocker switch was always on. If you can replace the plunger, the rest of the switch will work fine. Unfortunately, neither of the listed Digikey parts have the right length plunger. One was too short and the other too long. So, a sanded down the OEM plunger to make a nice flat end to it. Then I used an exacto knife and bit of patience and cut off the rounded top from plungers of one of the new switches (you have to rip the hell out of the new switch to get the plunger out - it's not made like the OEM with openable tabs. If you do this, be careful to cut far enough away from the plunger that you don't damage it when you open the package). Then I used some epoxy to glue it to the OEM plunger. This worked great.

The OEM switch is a Burgess with the markings 47/00 on it. That's it. It turns out that Johnson Controls in Hong Kong makes it. I contacted them and they told me the switch is custom made for Porsche. They refused to sell it to me or tell me any more information about it. So, this $2 part is being used by Porsche to force you to buy a several hundred dollar unit due to a bad design! So sad.