Central locking was draining my battery

[molgrips]

Anyone had this issue before?  The central locking keeps activating the whole time.  If you stand by the car you hear the noise every 30 seconds or so.  At 6amps for a couple of seconds each time, it was draining my battery quite fast.  I've disconnected the central locking pump in the boot, and it's been fine.

So, any ideas?  Some kind of switch in the door lock that's stuck closed?

[the caveman]

Since it's the electric switch in each front door that activates the pump, your problem is probably there. Do you have door lock cylinders on each side ? Open one side . Disconnect the big connector at the pillar and plug the small vacuum connection on the body side so the pump doesn't run longer than normal. Now go on the other side and operate the cylinder, either open or close. Does the pump run longer than normal ? [like the way you mentioned in your post]. If it works normal, the problem is on the other side. Connect everything you removed and do the same on the other side. The problem could also be anywhere else the vacuum/central lock operates-fuel door flap, trunk , rear doors.
Normally when there is a vacuum leak the pump has an internal shut off so that it doesn't just keep running. Usually they stop after 30 secs or so. I don't know if Europe or the UK have a different one than here, but perhaps you can try another pump from the scrap yard. Of course that doesn't really solve the problem, but it depends if you want to go through the trouble of finding it.
Basically the way to trouble shoot those systems is to isolate sections i.e. disconnect

[molgrips]

Ah yes, I was forgetting the procedure of isolating things bit by bit...

I don't think there's a vacuum leak (my first thought) since the pump doesn't continually run for the max 30 seconds mentioned in Haynes, and all the locks open fine.

So yes, if it's an electric switch in the door lock cylinder, then that should be it.  Thanks for the tips