The power locks on my 1998 VW Golf have been a real pain in the ass. Originally I went to a local dealership (Volkswagen Waterloo) to buy an extra key remote, since the old one was falling apart.
At the time there was no problem at all with the vacuum pumps or anything, always reliable and power locks were working fine both from inside the car (switch near heater controls) and from outside (door locks and old remote).
The dealership attempted to program the new remote using the car. After they initialized the programming mode, the car then stopped responding to the remotes - both the old and new remotes. The car receives the signal (it will beep and flash the alarm light) but the door locks do not move.
Worse, after that programming attempt, the physical switch inside the car that locks all doors also stopped working on the power locks. Also, the power locks no longer activate when the physical key is used to lock the car. However I do notice that when I use the power lock switch from inside the car, I hear a click near the rear of the car. But the locks don't move.
Basically, the power locks entirely stopped working and the dealership doesn't know what's wrong. Any idea what I should try?