Fitting Central Locking To My 2005 Vibe

[Guest midge73]

have just bought a (central locking, do it your self kit) for my 5 door vibe, off the internet for 25 pounds all in...as soon as it arrives and my partner fits it, will let you know if its money well spent!

[ColinC1]

Its an easy enough job, took me a day, but watch out for the hole where the plastic pull knob for manual release and locking is, through the top of the door card.

 

When you connect the door locking solinoid rod up to the existing metal rod linkage, you may find that when you reassemble the door card, the locking mechanism will jamb up with the hole, as it gives only a small clearance between hole and pull knob.

 

If the rods are offcenter by just a bit (which they likely will be), the pull of the solinoid causes the pull knob to jamb up in the hole, so the doors either do not lock right or do not unlock right.

 

The solution is to make the hole bigger on the top of the door card, for more clearance, but it causes the plastic pull knob to rattle while driving. (that happend to my assembly).

 

Or you can solve the hole by just cutting two slots into the circle with a hacksaw and making a V shaped slot instead of a circle (I eventually did this). This gives plenty of clearance, and you put a bit of foam at the back, stuck on to the metal door, to hold the knob in place and stop rattles, but gives easy movement of the knob.

[red bug]

have just bought a (central locking, do it your self kit) for my 5 door vibe, off the internet for 25 pounds all in...as soon as it arrives and my partner fits it, will let you know if its money well spent!

I fitted a central locking system to my wifes first C1 also a 5 door(now on her 3rd), points I found on fitting:-

From start to finish it took 6 hours to fit. Problems encountered in fitting the kit were few. A few tips from fitting the kit below.

1. Removal of window winder handle. Removal of the clip that holds it on is one of those !*!! moments and I found to be the worst part of the whole job.

2. Finding 12v power. I gave up trying to find a suitable place to take the 12volt supply from inside the car and ran a wire direct to battery with fuse at battery end. In the engine bay I used black plastic pipe that matched in with the other electrical wires.

3. Wiring in door. Make sure the wires that run in front doors to the solenoid go behind window channel as not to catch window when it is wound down.

4. Removal of plastic trim. The foot well plastic trim is very easy to damage be very careful. Removal of plastic trim below upper seat belt fixing point (for running wires to rear doors on 5 door model) undo screws and pull off door rubbers in the area of the trim as the trim is clipped behind the rubber.

5. Receiver position. I fitted the receiver behind the small flat area of grey plastic under the steering column.

6. Plastic door cards. After removing screws (and on the front doors the window winder which is a real pain to remove) I found they needed quite a sharp jolt to the bottom of the door card to start the removal process. Once the door card started to come away I used screw driver to help the removal of the clips in the centre of the card.

7. Mounting of solenoids. I found it easer to drill small mounting holes in the inner door skin rather than try and use the mounting strips provided. These are not seen once the door cards are replaced. I found one extra hole was required for front doors as I could use an existing hole and drilled two holes for the rear doors.

8. Door card modification. On the door cards fitted to the front doors I needed to cut away some of the internal plastic of the door card as it fouled the new solenoids. I also noticed that there seems to be a mounting point for door speakers.

9. Wiring. Wiring through doors and through door pillars very easy as car already has rubber grommets in place which can be popped out and holes cut through them, I protected the wires in a plastic sheath in this area.

In all quite an easy job (except the window winder handle) that was still working well when we replaced the car after 3 years with a new c1.

[Guest acgunner]

had a look at it...the central locking solenoids are to awkward to fit into the doors,, scratching my head a bit until i work out a better position for them....easy job to take the door cards off and window winders,,used to strip cars for a living in a accident repair centre. will post a reply when i get around to having another go...oh im midge73,s better half....lol