Driver's Door Won't Open

We were on a family trip for the Christmas holidays and we were unable to open our doors (the morning of Christmas eve)...any of them. Our three teenagers were in our 2012 Passat, and my wife and I were in our new Tacoma (hauling gifts, of course!).

My muscular 17 year old son was able to get the front passenger Passat door open, and he leaned across to open the driver's door from the inside. In doing so, and not realizing his strength, he broke the cable that runs between the inside latch and the locking mechanism.

The inside latch remained sprung outward, and the door would not latch closed!

Being in a small town in South Alabama (bet many of you folks didn't realize we have ice storms too...) the day before Christmas, there were no automotive shops, body shops, etc. open. And, of course, I had none of my tools with me. Our only option was to hold the door closed with bungee cords for the next three days of travel!

When I got back home, I removed the door panel and found that the dowd cable had broken just where it connects to the inside latch. The cable had frayed and would not retract inside the casing...that is why the door would not latch back.

So I contacted my local VW dealership and, of course, the cable was on backorder! I placed an order for one anyway, and made some redneck (self-proclaimed high-tech redneck) repairs to the original cable, using a torch, some solder and a long bread tie.

So now, on January 24th, my backordered dowd cable finally came in. But my bread tied repair has held the entire time I waited on the replacement cable. I'm sure the German VW engineers would cringe at my bread tie repair, but often I cringe at their engineering too...so it's a mutual feeling!

Took mine to the dealer today for the same issue, they came to the conclusion that it was due to a twisted cable in the door. Ordered the part, I'm supposed to take it up there when they get the part in. I'm skeptical though. I feel like, based on what's been said in this thread, that it's the actuator, and I'm going to be pretty pissed if we have the problem again and it's because they didn't replace the actuator when they needed to.

Has anybody else gotten theirs back from the service department after having this issue? Was it resolved? What parts did they replace?

Justinw303 said:

Took mine to the dealer today for the same issue, they came to the conclusion that it was due to a twisted cable in the door. Ordered the part, I'm supposed to take it up there when they get the part in. I'm skeptical though. I feel like, based on what's been said in this thread, that it's the actuator, and I'm going to be pretty pissed if we have the problem again and it's because they didn't replace the actuator when they needed to.

Has anybody else gotten theirs back from the service department after having this issue? Was it resolved? What parts did they replace?

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2 weeks ago I had my car to the dealership for that issue (-30C).

The mech tried to open the door and couldn't and told me: I saw that issue a lot with the new Passat and the new Jetta. Its the lock mechanism that is stuck. It comes in two part: electronic and the other one is mechanic. He didn't take any chances so he replaced both. Its been 2 weeks now with temperature from +4C to -27C and no problem since.

The dealership had my car for 24 hours until the parts came in.

I'm pretty satisfied with the dealer here!

Update: The cable that they replaced wasn't the issue (no surprise to me), so we took it back the next day and the latch was replaced. I'm not 100% confident in this fix, but I feel better than I did after the cable was replaced. I guess we'll see...


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Took my Passat for 30k miles services today (drop car last night by dealer Reydel in Edison ,NJ) got a call from service advisor that driver door have stuck, he picked that right away- actuator was replaced dealer have them in the stock- been told by advisor you are not first one with same problem, they check them on reg. base

Latch replacement seems to have worked so far, had a couple cold mornings with no problems. Hoping we get a couple more good ones before the season is over for a little more peace of mind, but I doubt that'll happen.


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This happened to me. The door seal was not installed properly and the door lock module filled with water. When it got cold enough it froze and broke the module.

is vw replacing this part free of charge if out of warranty ? i have a 12 tdi passat with 37600 miles on it . Drivers door wont let me out and rear drivers side door doesn't like to lock anymore and wont let the whole car lock .

Same thing for me.....

last month.
Same thing, I couldnt get the door latch to open and had to crawl over the middle of the car to get into the drivers seat.

Now I will say, we have been getting wave after wave of Polar air as have those in the N'east,and it is still that way, but since they have "fixed" it, no problems.

Took it to the dealer, Autobarn in Countryside, and they kept the car for a week and fixed it. Replaced the inner workings of the latch etc. I dont have the name of the parts now, but its the same as everyone else. They gave me a loaner and as long as I had a car, I was good to go.

It does get frozen and will stick, but the VW manager told me he had a few of these, and it is a bad part and they did have to wait for the part to come in.
They were great and so far they have been above what I thought a dealer service dept was . Good place so far, but nothing really has gone wrong with the car. 15,000+ miles.

All warranty work too.

xxl can you give me a pic of the service bill or a list of parts please. I got locked inside my ****ing pos passat again today. 37600 miles of course .

Revived!!! Tsb #TT-57-14-01, passats and Jetta, happened to me today

This got me yesterday morning. Naturally, the car is almost 15 months old w/42k and out of warranty.

After the amazing, disappearing dash creak, the mysterious power steering groan and squeaky brakes, none of which can be heard/fixed by the dealer, I'm seriously considering selling it.

Never again.

mine did it after a car wash in below freezing temps before. inside handle was like a rock. blew the torpedo heater on the door for a few mins and it was good to go

Rained for 12+ hours then got cold in the 20's while my car sat. Passenger side door did the same thing as the OP. Warmed up to about 65 a few days later and it was fine.

Never did this last year in temps much colder, but maybe it was the swing in temps and the level of moisture ?

This just happened on my 2013. It just was in the shop for other service work (Wind noise from rear windows). The next day, I can't get into my car! it happened three times. I only have 500 miles left on my warranty which is less than a week of driving for me. Hopefully I'll get this documented and taken care of. What a bummer.

Acoustics_Guy said:

This just happened on my 2013. It just was in the shop for other service work (Wind noise from rear windows). The next day, I can't get into my car! it happened three times. I only have 500 miles left on my warranty which is less than a week of driving for me. Hopefully I'll get this documented and taken care of. What a bummer.

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Where was the wind noise coming from? I just recently had a Passat that had wind noise from the right rear window area at higher speeds and I couldn't figure it out.

The wind noise is coming from both rear windows. Happens above 55mph. The dealer mechanic could hear it when he rode with me and ordered new window seals for installation at a later date. I made an appointment, dropped the car off expecting the rear window seals to be replaced. Didn't happen, all of a sudden, no one could hear what the problem was and the original mechanic was no longer employed by the dealership. GRRRR. Of Course as soon as I picked up the car and drove home, I could hear the wind noise. And now the front door.

These are very minor complaints on an otherwise nice, reliable car. Just doesn't sit well when the basics are messed up.

I had the same problem with my 2013 Passat. I took it to the dealer this morning and was told I was the third owner with the same problem in as many days. He had the part and was kind enough to fix it on the spot. 800 mile to go on the warranty!

Just had this happen to my '12 Passat with 63K miles on it, a bit out of warrenty. I am not looking forward to paying to get this fixed.

Oh crap, I've had winter door handle issues on every VW I have ever owned, with the biggest pain being the B4 Passat (door bonk, anyone?). I had hoped that VW would have worked this out...

Never had a similar problem in ANY other make of car...

This happened to me last year when it got really cold (~5F) on Christmas break (Chicago). Driver's door, fixed under warranty, same day.

The root cause is water gets in the latch and it freezes. When you hit the remote, the latch won't unlock, so from the outside the handle is still acts "locked." From the inside, you try to pull the handle which is directly connected to the latch (and still frozen) and you do like I did... pull so hard that the cable strips/stretches. I had the added indignity of getting the door open, but it was jammed with ice and wouldn't release the latch so the door would shut. Holding the door shut to the dealer 10 miles away was not the most fun I've had.

So it happened to me again this week when it got super cold (only the passenger door this time). I haven't tried to fix it yet, but knowing not to pull so hard, I haven't muffed the cable this time, so I should be good to go with a thaw. No more warranty though, so this is now a DIY project.

So... as long as you haven't janked the cable like I did, all you have to do is thaw it out, dry it out (WD40) and be on your way. I have to look at my old service invoice to see if the dealer put the new latch water cap on mine or not, but if they didn't, I'm going to order one for each door and add them also. And probably add some speakers while I'm there.

Well I'm back to this issue one year later as same frozen driver side lock not working. I'm out of warranty so probably VW will reject my claim. I'm fixing it my self. Hair dryer and parking in the garage. Also I will try with VW to claim this is a safety issue as the doors can't be opened from outside after the collision. No wonder VW sales are 11% down, can't open doors to show off the car.

JackMars said:

...I will try with VW to claim this is a safety issue as the doors can't be opened from outside after the collision. No wonder VW sales are 11% down, can't open doors to show off the car.

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I was thinking about filing a case with NHTSA on a safety basis. I'm going to start with VW Customer Care and see where it goes, but I'm not confident.

Called VW Canada and was told it\\repair is covered under 80K (km) / 5 years warranty. If this defect was repaired previously than there is 1 year or 20K (km) warranty. In my case I'm on my own so I have filed a complaint against VW with Transport Canada. Let's see how VW reacts to this?

For me I drove many hours in the rain this past weekend and now with the current Ohio temps I too have this problem. Wonder how VW feels about us having to climb out the passenger side in case of emergency? I am 400 miles out of warranty. With how many issues I see here if the dealership won't do me a favor ill be calling VW customer care and and reminding them how I still bought a VW after my previous VW blew a turbo then 4 months this later another turbo. I won't pay a penny for this

I've had the "door bonk" issue a couple of times this winter. The door opens fine but it doesn't close, the lock freezes in open position. The first time it happened I tied a rope around the inside door handle and drove to the mechanic but 15 minutes into the ride it defrosted and closed. The second time it happened a few days ago I drove to canadian tire to get some lock lube non freeze de-icer. When the door defrosted I sprayed the sh!t out of the locking mecanisim and it never happened again and two nights ago it was -21. I still dont trust it so I keep the rope in my car lol...

A bungee works too in a pinch.

Same issue. Outside latch no work. Pull inside handle hard and door opens, but inside handle now has some slop in it. Only did it a couple of times.
Beware. My driver's door now activates the alarm system when parked. Will have repaired at the 20k service unless door opening quits working.

I've just had a new issue. Zero degrees, passenger door opens about 6" and then stops. Trying to move it any further and it feels like I am bending sheet metal. Park car in garage overnight, garage is about 44dF, and door opens fine the next morning. Drive 3 hrs that morning, with temps in the single digits, heading for home, when I get there, again I can't open passenger door more than 6"!!?? I am liking my 02 Golf more and more.

Happened to me with my Passat too. I just pulled it open. Seemed like a frozen hinge or something. Maybe the lube froze?

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