Usually the door lock problems come from two sources:

1. Wiring for door lock
2. door lock acutator itself

In my experience about 80 percent of the time these problems are caused
by broken wires.  If you pull back the rubber boot that goes between the
driver's door and the body and the passenger's door and the body you
will probably find at least one or two broken wires or wires on the
verge of breaking.  Repair these and you should restore your locks.

If this doesn't work or you find no broken wires then it must be the
actuator itself (since the other locks are working).  You can get these
new for around $73.65 but you also have to buy a conversion harness for
another $25.25 (unless you just want to cut the wiring and splice your
old connector onto the new actuator).  The need for the conversion
harness is due to the fact that VW discontinued making the Vanagon
specific acutator and now only sells the one for the Eurovan and a
conversion harness to make it work on the Vanagon.

We have brand new actuators for the sliding door and rear hatch for $55
(Vanagon, and made by VW).  If you like to solder you can actually make
these into the ones for the front doors by just splitting the units open
and wiring in a fourth wire into the acutator (you can take your old one
apart to see what I am talking about).  It is pretty easy and would save
you some money.

Hope this helps,
Ken Wilford
John 3:16
http://www.vanagain.com
http://www.strictlyvwauctions.com
Phone: (856)-327-4936
Fax: (856)-327-2242

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf
Of Denis-F. Bastien
Sent: Friday, December 05, 2003 8:56 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Electric door lock

Tha passenger door do not lock on my Vanagon 1988 when locking from the
driver side.  Can someone tell me about possible failure causes, the
parts to be change ?

Much Thanks

Denis