Driver side door lock question

[steampunk]

When I bought my Beetle last month, the previous owner told me what she has to do to lock the doors with the remote is push unlock first, then lock. If you just push lock, the driver side door doesn't always lock. If you unlock with the remote and wait 30 seconds, it re-locks itself (like it is supposed to, yes?), and from what I have seen, both doors lock fine. I browsed through this forum before I posted this, is this a problem with that microswitch and it's just on its way to eventually dying, or does it sound like there something going on with my remote instead? It's not awful hitting 'unlock' before 'lock'- it's just a little annoying, and I'm always standing next to my car, looking in to make sure both doors lock like they are supposed to. Thank you!

[Smileybug]

I would say microswitch. Have you tried using the key and get the same result? Microswitches can cause a lot of quirks when they start to die.

[fohveh]

Microswitches, I dealt with this issue in my drivers door twice and now once in my passengers door. Basically its slowly dying and eventually just won't lock. It could last a week, it could last two years, moisture seems to be the culprit most times. With mine moisture slowly creeped in over time and caused the components inside the module to start sticking or not responding until finally it just didn't work anymore. If you live where road salt is used in winter its worse than if you live where no road salt is ever used. Another reason is the circuit board inside the electronic portion of the door lock has poor solder joints, this can be easily fixed by resoldering.