Trident Sliding door

I’m on my first outing in the Trident and I’m unable to open the sliding door from the inside. I’m pretty sure that it was opening before setting out. I’ve played about with the child lock switch etc with no luck. Is there something I don’t know about?
Stephen

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!

...when you eventually reassemble the door card, make sure that it fits tightly under the bottom of the window surround moulding, otherwise if it sticks out just a bit, it can make contact with the rear paintwork when the door is slid back, as there is very little clearance between the two.

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.

Thanks all for the help, I will attack the door when I get back home
Stephen

MStevo1949 wrote:Thanks all for the help, I will attack the door when I get back home
Stephen

Cleaning the contacts has got the door working. I replaced the seal under the sliding door cover today           ( what’s it for? Guessing electric door) . I had some floor rot below  the cover. It must have been passing water for many years. I assume that transporter T5 owners have checked this out. If I’d noticed the soggy floor before I bought the van I would have passed on it. However the floor repair was not difficult. Thanks all for your input.

MStevo1949, wanting to check the sliding door cover on my trident, is it the horizontal strip half way up the passenger side of the van? Can you be precise where it is? Thanks

Steve&Veronique wrote:MStevo1949, wanting to check the sliding door cover on my trident, is it the horizontal strip half way up the passenger side of the van? Can you be precise where it is? Thanks

The troublesome seal is behind the cover you discribe.  It is discussed on the T5 Forum. If you remove the cover you need to have new poppers to refit it  To check for a leak, it’s easier to remove the rear trim on the inside of the van, passenger side. My trim and floor were both soaking. The seal is adjacent to the rear light cluster. I pointed a hosepipe at the van and water flooded in.
Hope you are dry.

Was the childlock on?

India Hannaford wrote:Was the childlock on?

No. I discovered it early on.

Sorry - I saw that later. Hope you’ve sorted it now.