sliding side door lock

the sliding side door of my duetto is jammed. I have no problems locking and unlocking the cab doors, but the sliding door is completely stuck and does not respond to the key. I have tried my spare key- no luck either. Is this an electrical problem? a problem with the key or something wrong with the lock? How do I get it fixed?

Hi there,

Have you got a child-lock on by any chance? 

Don't know modern systems and the old system wouldn't affect the external operation, but it would stop everything dead from the inside.

Hope this helps. 

Best regards,

No child lock. Also there is no way of manually unlocking the sliding door from the inside, which seems surprising.

Hello
           With respect isn't there an internal lock knob at opposite end of door internally? Ie non lock end ? 
Mark 6 transit?

Dave h

You are a hero! I found the lock knob and the problem is solved. Thanks Dave

The following obervations apply to a Mk 6 transit with central locking.

The most common sliding door problem is to do with a bad electrical contact between the door and the contact plate. If you look on the inside of the door near the locking knob referred to above, you will see three contact prongs on the door and the contact pad on the door frame. They are a bit difficult to get to, but plate and contacts can easily be cleaned up with fine abrasive paper.  This usually solves the problem.

A second, less common problem, is one of door alignment - but you should be able to rule this in or out, by seeing where the contacts are making their mark on the contact plate.

A third problem (which is one we have experienced and not fully solved yet) is a problem with the solenoid.

In our case, the solenoid in the door sometimes activates and sometimes does not.

If it fails to activate in the unlocked position we can manage locking and unlocking the door with the knob in the door.

However, when the solenoid jams when locked, the knob will not turn and you are stuck with the door jammed shut.

We have experienced this and it has sometimes been several weeks before the solenoid decided to start working again and we could open the door.

Getting into the workings of the door when it is jammed shut is a nightmare task!

The last time our solenoid favoured us with unlocking the door, we put a piece of insulation tape over the contact plate. This means that, for now, we can lock and unlock the door manually whenever we want, using the internal knob, without ever having to worry about the solenoid jamming on us.

I thought it was worth posting this information. Just because you have solved the problem for now, do not necessarily rule out the solenoid jamming and preventing you opening the door and releasing it with the internal knob.

We are planning to replace the solenoid (new and second hand spares are available) and we will do this when we are back in UK from our travels.

There is also a fourth (rare, I think) fault that is known to occur, which is to do with the tightness of the cable between the door lever and the lock. There is quite a bit of information about this on the Ford Transit Forum.

thanks for that useful information. Perhaps there was more to the problem than we realised.   I am glad I joined the forum!