Hi everyone,
I’m having a strange issue with the central locking on my 2009 Skoda Yeti and was hoping someone might have encountered this before.
The Situation:

• Remote Key: The remote buttons do not work at all (I can't lock/unlock remotely).

• Physical Key: The key works perfectly to start the engine and can physically lock/unlock the driver’s door.

The Problem: If the car has been sitting for a while (an hour or more), turning the key in the driver’s door only unlocks that door. I then have to use the central locking button on the dashboard to let everyone else in.
However, If I lock the car and then unlock it again within a short window (about 10–15 seconds), the key successfully unlocks all doors. It seems like once the car "goes to sleep," the physical key loses its ability to trigger the full central locking system.

Is this a known coding issue, or perhaps a sign that the door lock actuator/wiring harness is failing? Any advice on where to start looking would be greatly appreciated!

Hello, welcome to the forum.

Does the red indicator led on the key fob flash when a button is pressed?

AFAIK, the emergency (physical) key only unlocks the door it is mounted on.

Right, the good news. I've just been out to my Yeti and using the physical key the first unlock only unlocks that door, in my case the driver's door. The other doors and tailgate remained locked. If you then try and open any other door the alarm goes off!

I then tried unlocking, re-locking and unlocking straight away, All the doors unlocked - I could hear the "bolts" click back and I physically checked they would open.

This seems to reproduce what you have been experiencing and hopefully this says that all the expensive stuff inside the car is working as it should.

Your post says 2009 Yeti. Do you have more than one key and if so do you have the same problem with both? For the sake of a few pounds I would replace the battery in both key fobs and see what happens before I started looking for anything more serious. If they still have the original batteries I'm not surprised they have stopped working, even the one that you might think of as the "spare". (I'm remembering problems I had with one of my laptops which wouldn't hold the correct date and time. Someone more technically minded told me to change the CMOS battery, a button battery costing about £2, which took five minutes and the problem was solved). Even if the key fob is flashing the battery may be so exhausted you don't get a clear signal from it. (This may sound like I know what I'm talking about; don't be fooled, I don't).

Hopefully it's going to be a quick and cheap fix for you - a good way to start the New Year.

Let us know how you get on.

24 minutes ago, Paul52 said:

Right, the good news. I've just been out to my Yeti and using the physical key the first unlock only unlocks that door, in my case the driver's door. The other doors and tailgate remained locked. If you then try and open any other door the alarm goes off!

I then tried unlocking, re-locking and unlocking straight away, All the doors unlocked - I could hear the "bolts" click back and I physically checked they would open.

This seems to reproduce what you have been experiencing and hopefully this says that all the expensive stuff inside the car is working as it should.

Your post says 2009 Yeti. Do you have more than one key and if so do you have the same problem with both? For the sake of a few pounds I would replace the battery in both key fobs and see what happens before I started looking for anything more serious. If they still have the original batteries I'm not surprised they have stopped working, even the one that you might think of as the "spare". (I'm remembering problems I had with one of my laptops which wouldn't hold the correct date and time. Someone more technically minded told me to change the CMOS battery, a button battery costing about £2, which took five minutes and the problem was solved). Even if the key fob is flashing the battery may be so exhausted you don't get a clear signal from it. (This may sound like I know what I'm talking about; don't be fooled, I don't).

Hopefully it's going to be a quick and cheap fix for you - a good way to start the New Year.

Let us know how you get on.

Thanks Paul, sounds like a really useful discovery if it works across other models and years - I'll try it out on our Octavia and Fabia.

Edited 31 December, 202531 Dec by Warrior193
added information

Zenga, in case it will help anyone else in the future, did you find out what the problem was with the central locking?