Ellis98
New Member
Hi guys I have purchased a J reg golf gti with central locking, both front door handles need replacing however I don’t know where to get the handles from as they need to be for central locking model and also how tricky are they to replace ??
Thanks.
I believe that the door handles are the same regardless of whether you have central locking or not.
Central locking is triggered by the drivers door lock which if I remember correctly moves a rod which activates the solenoid in the driver's door. This then triggers the vaccum system to lock all the locks. Hence you hear the doors locking one after the other. I suspect a vacuum leak in the tubing that goes round the car could cause a problem....
Mine has worked faultlessly throughout the 24 years I've had the car.
Yes manual and central locking handles are the same. Very easy to replace with 2 screws, lift the handle insert off and undo the screw underneath, then with the door open there is another screw in there, undo that, push handle towards front of car and lift out, 5 min job to swap them over, easy to find on Ebay example https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/402777175599?hash=item5dc763f62f%3Ag%3A28sAAOSweG5gaNsn&LH_ItemCondition=4, also the original lock barrels are easy to change over also to keep your original keys
Thankyou it’s just that when Iv searched for the handles on eBay a lot of the ads say ‘not for central locking models’
Thankyou it’s just that when Iv searched for the handles on eBay a lot of the ads say ‘not for central locking models’
Heritage don't specify, I am sure they are all the same as I have taken a non CL one off a donor and use on a CL model https://www.heritagepartscentre.com/uk/191898081-door-handle-and-lock-set.html
The C/L part goes on the rod. No difference on the handle part. Only difference I’m aware of is the boot lock. So if you’re looking at a complete lock set maybe that’s why it’s listed as non-c/l.
I’d recommend good 2nd hand original handles. Aftermarket ones seem to get bad rep.
repro work fine, just dont yank like a tank... have only broken 1 in 7 yrs of messing with my fleet of mk1,mk2s . you may need to keep the internal of the lock and fingers to let engage on the door lock flipper finger. but thats a small screw to remove.