Fuel door gremlin

[atmorris]

A while ago my key fobs stopped working to lock/unlock the doors and open the boot lids. Not wanting to spend a ton of money for that minor convenience, I have just been locking and unlocking the car with the key like any other Joe has to do with his car. However, some strange things seem to happen because of this. The car is a MY03 base. I wonder if some of you could enlighten me what, if anything, I need to do differently to avoid the following:

1) The fuel door occasionally stays locked. I have to get out of the car, close the driver's door, lock and then unlock the doors with the key, then the fuel door will open. Doesn't happen all the time, just once in a while for some reason. Kind of embarrassing at a gas station.

2) When I pull into a parking space and lock the doors with the key fron the drivers side, then go away for a time (like to work), then come back and unlock the drivers door and get in, two things seem to happen: 1) the alarm will go off within seconds if I do not put the key in the ignition and turn it immediately, and 2) I can not seem to unlock the passenger's door from the switch on the dash...it is lit red and stays red no matter how firmly I push it. I have to reach over an open the pass door from inside, then the red light goes out on the lock/unlock switch and it returns to normal operation.

Edited July 8, 2009 by Andy_M

[1schoir]

A while ago my key fobs stopped working to lock/unlock the doors and open the boot lids. Not wanting to spend a ton of money for that minor convenience, I have just been locking and unlocking the car with the key like any other Joe has to do with his car. However, some strange things seem to happen because of this. I wonder if some of you could enlighten me what, if anything, I need to do differently to avoid the following:

1) The fuel door occasionally stays locked. I have to get out of the car, close the driver's door, lock and then unlock the doors with the key, then the fuel door will open. Doesn't happen all the time, just once in a while for some reason. Kind of embarrassing at a gas station.

2) When I pull into a parking space and lock the doors with the key fron the drivers side, then go away for a time (like to work), then come back and unlock the drivers door and get in, two things seem to happen: 1) the alarm will go off within seconds if I do not put the key in the ignition and turn it immediately, and 2) I can not seem to unlock the passenger's door from the switch on the dash...it is lit red and stays red no matter how firmly I push it. I have to reach over an open the pass door from inside, then the red light goes out on the lock/unlock switch and it returns to normal operation.

Andy_M:

The symptoms you are describing could be related to the central alarm control unit, which is located under the driver's seat.

Take a look under the seat and under the carpeting just behind the driver's seat and see if there are any traces of moisture or water there. If the alarm unit got wet or some of the connections or the circuit board have/has signs of corrosion, that will sometimes cause the weird, seemingly unrelated behavior you are describing.

If there is no sign of moisture, remove the control unit and open it up for closer inspection. It is attached to the floor with one small plastic fastener. While you are at it, check the small fuse at the rear of the unit to see if there is any corrosion there as well.

Regards, Maurice.

Edited July 7, 2009 by 1schoir

[bmohr]

i agree with Andy_M. My FOB stopped working a long time ago and i've been doing the same caveman manual door lock/unlocking. No alarm or other gremlin issues.

[pk2]

I'd agree with Maurice. All road lead to Rome. The one thing they all share.

Regards, PK

[atmorris]

I will check those things Maurice, and thank you for the response. At first, it wouldn't seem that any of those things would be an issue in this case, because this car has never sat outside in a driving rain, never gets used in the Winter, is garage kept - in my basement - in a heated garage, and only has 28k miles on it.

However, these things never happened prior to the day my key fob stopped opening the boot lids and unlocking the doors , and have intermittantly happened ever since. Also, it just hit me, as I wrote this, that it was my key fob that stopped working all of the sudden one day. My wife's had a dead battery so I could not use it at the time. I got a battery the next morning for my wife's and tried it, but it also did not work. I knew that both fobs had weak buttons in them, so I wrote that off to the buttons giving out and ordered new tops for the fobs, but that didn't solve the problem either. I never connected the fact that both fobs had stopped working essentially at the same time. The liklihood of 2 key fobs dying on the same exact day must be quite remote, so perhaps this does point to the control unit.

Edited July 9, 2009 by Andy_M