Rear door central locking problem
 

My wife's xc70 has remote fob central locking, as I'm sure they all do. When you lock it the alarm is armed and the doors lock. Or so we thought. Our rear drivers side door does not lock. The alarm will go off if you open it but it definitely does not lock.
Any ideas please before I strip the door down? Is this a known issue?
We only noticed when the I phone we leave in the cubby box as a music player and a tenner of pound coins/ parking change disappears from the car with no visible signs of a break in .....
Thanks, John.

Mine had been doing the same, and I get round this issue by clicking the lock button twice on the remote.

So at present, the first press of the remote lock button appears to lock all the doors, but I notice the RHS rear door lock indicator 'knob' seems to half pop-up again at the end of central locking cycle - and like you, I can then pull it open setting off the alarm. But if I press the remote lock button again, this door 'knob' goes down and stays down, and I then can't open the door.

I'm not sure if the 2nd press of the button is an actual function or not, for example, on my Focus, pressing the remote lock twice does a 'dead-lock', or something like that.

That made a lot of sense so I just went out to test the theory.
When you lock the car the rear doors pin moves down but not all the way- only halfway. If you press the lock button again it sort of shivers but won't lower anymore. Door remains unlocked and the alarm is all working when you open it.
I have squirted a good dose of lubrication down the edges of the knob to see if it may have been catching but it's action is smooth and not sticking.
If you manually push the knob down and then lock the car on the fob it stays locked.
The lock is moving but not engaging properly.
The knob remains a cm above the door panel so it is obvious that the door is open I guess to anyone who is looking out for an open car to rob. Anymore ideas please?
Any idea how to get the rear door to stay locked manually and not respond to the fob? We generally never use the rear doors- two of us and the dogs in the boot.it would be a cheap fix I guess if we could leave that door locked u till you operated the rear interior handle.

You don't mention what year you car is, but on mine you have option in the car settings to just open the drivers door or all of them when you unlock. It would help when its just the driver using it.

Coincidentally, before I bought my XC70 from a garage, I plugged in VIDA and it picked up faulty O/S/R door actuator so I was able to get the seller to replace it before I collected the car. Probably wouldn't have spotted it otherwise, especially as the rear windows are tinted so you can't see the button was not going down.

The car is a 2010 xc70 lux. It would be a reasonable assumption that the central locking actuator on that door is not working correctly.
I guess vida is a computer system for diagnostics? Would my bog standard code reader work on a Volvo please?

VIDA and Dice are the software and hardware parts of the Volvo diagnostics equipment used by main dealers. You can pick up 'clones' for reasonable money and will pay for themselves in no time. Unfortunately, no other code readers will give you a fraction of the functionality.

Have a look if there is someone near you who could help you out: https://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showthread.php?t=136759

Hi,

There was a post recently on this issue on an S80 I think. The member opened up the lock unit and replaced the motor.

I had a similar issue. Car locked but the rear door didn't fully pop the lever down, the door was still open! I got my unit replaced as one of the plastic items within the lock was broken.
It is also a PITA to remove and refit!

Des. . . ;)

You don't necessarily have to replace the motors. The motors are cheap brushed jobs like those found in cheap toys and finding the correct one might be difficult.There are two motors per door,one to lock it and another to deadlock . The reason for failure is usually the grease or lubricant gets into the motor and onto the commutator. Easy job but may take a while to find your way around. The motors can be stripped and cleaned with white spirit. The commutator may I need cleaning with very fine wet a and dry like well used 2000 grit but go easy.Tip.plenty of pics when dismantling the lock assembly to refer to when reassembling.

Did you sort.. Got a similar fault.. Sometimes 2nd press gets it. Sometimes 4 or 5 by which time I'm climbing through from the other side to do it manually!... I think the settings option might get used to tide it over 'till fixing time...

My old 59-reg had both rear locks replaced when it was 5 or 6 years old! Seems to be a less than sturdy item...