Trident Sliding door

There are several things that can go wrong with the mechanism, and it's not always easy to figure out the cause.

On the Trooper, we had a similar problem where it became impossible to open the door from the inside, and the outside handle would only open it at the full extent of its travel. In our case it appeared to be stretching of the release cable, probably combined with wear in the mechanism itself.

Unfortunately it's not possible to buy the cables separately from VW, and the complete central lock assembly is really expensive (IIRC about £140 + VAT three years ago). So the cheap but slightly labour-intensive solution was to make a small lengthening bar to fit onto the release lever on the catch at the back edge of the door, which compensates for the slightly reduced pulling distance on the cable.

You can probably diagnose this yourself by removing the inner door panel and feeling the movement of the release lever at the catch at the back. If you find that the inner handle pulls it ok but will not release it, try pulling the lever yourself a little further to make it release. If so, you may be able to fix it similarly. If not, it may be something else wrong with the central assembly, which IIRC is a bit of pain to replace, as well as being expensive!

Indeed - our bodywork still bears the scars from a related incident...

Hi

Today I have had a new Actuator fitted to my Sliding Door which cost £303.17. I could not open the door outside or inside it was remaining on dead lock. With VAT the Actuator cost £129.00 Labour Charges £174.00 2.5 labour hours.

Thanks - so a bit cheaper than I remembered.