As some of you may know we bought our B5.5 with a dodgy boot. Basically the previous garage owner couldn't get it to work so left it with the solenoid disconnected and you had to open the boot with the key. Annoying to say the least as you couldn't use the button on the key fob, the actual latch on the boot or the button on the door. Anyways while the sun was shining I decided to take on the task and venture into my first ever VW home fix. Here is what I did:
Tools required:
T20 male torx bit
Small flat bladed screwdriver
10mm socket on 1/4" drive with a 2" extension. (You can also use a 10mm spanner but it is annoying as I will explain later)
Pozi drive screw driver
Small flat bladed screw driver.
Pliers.
Stage 1:
Open the boot and remove the warning triangle from its hole in the boot liner:
Stage 2:
Get a T20 male Torx bit on a socket and remove the two Torx screws holding the warning triangle holder, and then remove the holder.
Stage 3:
Gently pull the liner away from the inside of the boot lid. There are a series of metal clips that array around the liner that clip into the boot lid. Careful not to pull too hard in case you bend/break the card itself. Its quite forgiving, but too much effort can easily break the card and leave you with splits in it.
Stage 4:
There are four electrical connectors going to the latch, lights, lock and the solenoid itself. The solenoid sits on a rail that also holds the lock barrel, boot latch, and number plate lights. One of the plugs is popped into a hole on the boot lid. I eased this out of the hole (marked "3" in the first picture below) to help unplug it and also to allow room for the rail to be removed. I also un-clipped the loom from the boot lid to allow more freedom to remove the rail. This white clip is quite firmly pushed into its hole (marked "4" in the first picture below) so I used a pair of pliers to get a good grip and eased it out without damaging anything. Unplug the three plugs on the left by the latch and the one on the solenoid itself. In the first picture below you can see a larger plug on the right. This is held onto the rail with a plastic clip. You have to take the plug off the clip on the rail before you unplug it. If your like me and not watching what your doing its easy to break that clip. I swore a bit and then just cable tied the plug back to the rail on re-assembly. Just a word of warning.
Stage 5:
Next is to disconnect the opening cables from the rail mechanism to the actual lock itself. There is one cable to undo. Loosen the grey plastic cable shroud from its notch, then look at the actual cable end. It has a terminal on the end that stops the cable from fraying. This is bent 90 degrees and is clipped into a plastic grommeted hole on the lock mechanism. The photo below shows me very gently prying the cable end from the plastic hole using a small flat bladed screwdriver. Again take care as the plastic part can easily break, but it should pop out. Once you have done that you can fully remove the plastic cable shroud. The photo shows the cable shroud partially pulled out from its home. Reason for leaving part of it located is to make sure the cable doesn't get bent and therefore will not slide freely in the shroud and jam.
Stage 6:
The rail is held onto the boot lid by 4 off 10mm nuts. Undo them and the rail should now be free from the boot lid. The following photo's show all 4 bolts. There is one either end of the rail, and 2 more either side of the boot latch.
Stage 7:
Now the rail should be free from the boot lid. Slide it towards the drivers side (solenoid end) until it clears the boot lid rib, then drop the LH side down and wriggle it past the cables, then place it on the boot floor and have a cup of tea. (Cup of tea is optional). You may notice in the second picture below my solenoid has already been disconnected from the cable. This was the way I found it after the garage owner "fixed it".
Stage 8:
Now you can disconnect the cable from the solenoid. The solenoid is the white plastic box thing on the RH side. The cable is attached to the solenoid by a white plastic cable shroud. You should be able to just push it down and it will slide off.
Stage 9:
The solenoid is held on by two cross headed screws. Undo them and the solenoid will fall into your hands. The screws are marked "9" and "10" in the following photo
Stage 10:
Re-assembly is the reverse of the above.
Notes:
Now the solenoid is a sealed unit so repair is near impossible. As you can see from my pictures above you may notice that the actuator arm of my solenoid is in the return position within the solenoid body. Now I managed to raise my solenoid from the dead. I got some wire and dropped a direct feed from another car into the terminals on the solenoid. I took this from a running car that was pumping out the usual 14.4v at the battery. I think this extra couple of volts enabled the motor in the solenoid to un-stick the actuator and force the it back out again. I blipped the power into the solenoid a few times and it drew in and out again every time. I think in my case I was lucky. If your not, I have read on various forums that you can get a new solenoid from VW for around £25-£30. The part number you need for the solenoid is 3B5 827 061C. The blighter looks like this:
Here to help
RatCav