348 Door locking 'fun'...

This is 100% the cause of the door being locked. No matter how long/short I adjust this cable from the door handle side, it can never go further up than 3/4 of the slot on the mechanism! It must have just been blind luck that it was operating previously, and must have only JUST operating enough.

This will be replaced within the next few days with a genuine one. On the drivers side, it was VERY easy to hook this into the mechanism at it's TOP position, on the passengers side, I had to pull the interior handle a good cm to be able to hook it. We finally have an answer. Whoever did this previously needs a slap. It would also explain the cross threaded bolts into the handle, and the door cards screws not being put in (this thankfully allowed me to get the door cards off, however...)

 

It's all sorted! What a right sod of a job!

A 355 cable will fit into a 348 mechanism, but is quite loose and not as long, I've found.

The interior door handle had little bolt retainers missing, meaning the handle would move up and down when opening, due to the heavy force required. This had a slight bearing on the angle and length of the latch cable. I fixed that. Someone had left them in the bottom of the door..

I also resolved the threaded bolts into the underside of the leather door handle, as well as the side trims being bent and not screwed into the door panel pieces.

So to summarize, the driver's actuator was definitely faulty. The central locking is now almost silent on both sides. The driver's side was making tons of gear/crunchy sounds, which I thought was normal as I've not owned a 348 before.

The other major issue was the passengers side cable being too short, as well as the mechanisms both being terribly gunky and dried up. They both work a dream now, as well as the electric windows now working sooooo much faster. Silicone grease down both rails.

I want to say thanks to you all for the invaluable help publicly and privately, couldn't have done it without you!