Help .. I moved my car yesterday afternoon to allow some builders to deliver some bricks and an hour later after they had gone I tried to move the car back on to the drive and could not unlock it in anyway. Googled it and tried the holding down the open button on the key phob for over a minute , tried also entering the key in the driver side door and turning anticlockwise .. Still wont open. The battery is fine as I have been using the car before.

My only guess is that after parking the car close to the wall on the driver side I then straddled across to the passenger side and exited the car that way - may be I pressed on the child lock or something and it locked the car . I have tried using the second key as well that is fully charged and still no joy .. Thanks god I didn't have a child trapped in the car or the dog in this heat.

Any help would be appreciated as I am mistyfied .

WBMIB

You may well have already tried this but if your car is set up to only open the driver's door on one fob button press you need two presses about 1/2 second apart to open the other doors.

Hi Mike , yes I have tried the double tap and single tap of the key fob. Nothing opens it

Are you completely locked out?

have you tried the boot?

are they lights flashing when you hit the fob buttons?

that sounds like a really unlucky case of the bcm/ecu losing its connection to the key.

but if even manually turning wont do anything thats very odd

Hi Mac, yes completely locked out .. The key fobs flash a red light when pressed down and eventually stop flashing after a minute. The boot is also locked and can't be unlocked. Yes in the distant past I have had to use the key to manually open it , but now that doesnt work either .

are the indicator lights flashing on the car working though, when you press the fob buttons

Edited 29 March, 20251 yr by mac11irl
clarity

Thought I would try to remove the plastic cover on the Passenger side to see if there is a key hole I can try the key in but cant seem to prise the plastic cap off. . There may not be a key hole there any way .

No lights are seen on trying to unlock the car

Just now, WBMIB said:

No lights are seen on trying to unlock the car

okay, that definitely says its not communicating with the car. so...

do you drive the car much? is it possible the battery in your car has died? that the short move earlier was enough to flatten it. might explain the lack of comms.

but.. given the key also wont unlock it, says to me the deadlock has stuck.

try the following -

key in the lock and turn it to unlock.

while turning it, use the palm of your hand, or side of fist, to hit the door panel between the grab handle and the door edge. thats where the lock mechanism is located. could get lucky and loosen it enough to release manually.

im also thinking you may have wiring loom issues in the door panel or the pipe between the the door and the car body. frayed/broken wire in there can cause a short or stop the door module communicating with the rest of the car

Hi Mac, will try you suggestion , now. I think you may be on to something the driver window does not wind down but can be lowered by pressing downward on the glass but I know this and havent bothered with it as I have air con and the rest of the windows working . I was using the car the day before and drove long enough that the battery would have fully charged. The car started fine yesterday too before the incident.

okay, definitely pointing towards wiring issue in the doordoor loom or a dead control module then.

does the boot have a lock barrel on the estate? i cant remember

Tried it and no luck. The petrol Cap door is open though which I would have expected to also be locked. I wonder if there is another key hole I could try on the passenger side , but would probably have the same problem with manual unlocking

No the boot doent have a lock barrel .. pulled the rubber sealing off around it and ther is a hole the size for a key but it has a filled in metal pin it looks like

Can you manually push the door window down enough to slide in and release the bonnet? If so you can then start to check the battery and work out from there.

1 minute ago, WBMIB said:

Tried it and no luck. The petrol Cap door is open though which I would have expected to also be locked. I wonder if there is another key hole I could try on the passenger side , but would probably have the same problem with manual unlocking

you may have to hit the panel several times.

fuel flap should be locked .. so, more evidence of the wiring failure.

i dont know if theres a key barrel hidden in the passenger door

noticed last night when inspecting the boot for a lock that the Tail plate lights were flickering orange . but they are not now or this morning. Will ring my insurance people RAC to see if Iam covered , im fully comp but with excess of £350 , but not sure how it works for this problem where a lock smith may be required .

Try spraying wd40 or similar into drivers door key hole. It may be seized due to lack of use. You could also try and pull window down a little bit. Put on rubber gloves to get a grip of the glass and see if you can hit the unlock button inside the car with a stiff bit of wire or similar.

Alasdair

ok , will try the window slide , and WD40 into key hole. Thanks

The flickering tail lights as reported earlier do strongly suggest an electrical problem of some sort.

OK , i m in , sprayed WD40 in and also found if the key is pressed in abit harder it allows the key to rotate 180degrees clockwise and anticlock wise . So turned it fully clockwise and then anticlock wise after pressing it in hard and after the WD40 and the door has opened .. Thanks team . Was just about to call RAC car breakdown

Next job - tackle those electrical gremlins..

Glad you got it sorted. Just don't lock it again until you know what went wrong.

Alasdair

well managed to insert key into ignition and turn it but there are no lights . Looks like the battery died. I think because I left the side lights on when I locked it .. but it normally has a lights on reminder and I don't remember hearing it go off to warn me . Can't reach the bonnet opening handle to access the battery and charge it as the car is parked against a fence. Although I have manage to open the driver door, I assumed the other doors would open , which they are not - due to the battery being drained.! Might have to take the fence down

can you not climb over the centre console into the passenger seat to reach the bonnet release? didnt think the door needed to be open to pull it anyway??

wait..

is your car a pre or post face lift?

because the bonnet release is on the drivers side - Right hand side - on my 2013 hatchback.

and definitely works with the door closed

Edited 29 March, 20251 yr by mac11irl