Removing The Driver Side Lock

During last weekend's Tim Hortons gathering in Langley, I was assisted by my friend Harrison in installing the blank cover which replaces the lock cylinder on my driver side door. This modification has become quite popular in the Volkswagen community as car thiefs have been opening windows/unlocking the doors on MK4's by twisting a screw driver which is jammed into the lock cylinder.

I've been quite hesitant to attempt this on my own as I have heard many stories of people severely messing up this relatively simple modification. Harrison informed me that the mistake is made when people overly loosen the torx screw holding the lock cylinder in the door. Quite often, this will cause the screw to fall between the door frame. Once this happens, the only way to properly install the blank is to completely strip the door apart to put the screw back in it's proper place.

To begin the install, a small flat head screw driver was used to remove the small plastic cap covering the single torx screw holds the lock cylinder in in place.

Once the torx screw was carefully loosened, we slowly wiggled the lock cylinder out of the door and replaced it with the blank metal piece and painted plastic cap. The Torx screw was retighten and the flat plastic cap placed back. The installation took less than 5 minutes to complete.

Thanks Harrison!