Door Latch Wont Latch!!!!

Terr

Member
Joined
Jul 1, 2002
Location
Milwaukee
Hi all, I have a '97 Jetta TDI with about 56000 miles on it. Runs fine, great mileage. However on this past Saturday night when I parked at work, upon closing the front passenger side door, I found that the door would NOT latch shut. There is nothing blocking the path of the door closing. I see nothing obviously broken on the locking mechanism, viewing it externally. The door will not latch shut and so the lock will not lock. The locks are the type that the one door will lock or unlock when the key is turned once, and all 4 doors will lock or unlock when its turned twice. The other doors will lock, but not the front passanger door, since it wont latch at all. I had to take a coat hanger and tie the door handle to the seat adjuster before going home so that the door wouldnt fly open on the highway. Have you ever heard of this problem? Do I need to go to the dealership to get this fixed and pay their prices or do you think that a general car repair place like Car-X would be able to handle this? Please reply soon, as I have to get this fixed before the whole door goes flying open on the highway
Thanks a lot. --------Terry
 

bmike

Thread Killer
Joined
Jan 3, 2002
Location
central CT
TDI
1998 Jetta - sold, 2010 A3 - sold
you might try to unlatch the door by pulling the handle. I've had it before where the latch has somehow closed before the door was shut, then it just bounces off when you try to shut it.....
 

Terr

Member
Joined
Jul 1, 2002
Location
Milwaukee
mike, Ive tried that; thats happened to me in the past as well. This time, though, it isnt the solution. I took it to the repair place called "Import Minded". They say the latch needs to be replaced and it costs $140, plus labor of course. Its on order and Im going back tomorrow(Tuesday), but Im going to tell them I want to see whats wrong with the old latch first, before they replace it. Thanks for the reply. -------Terry
 
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