tubthumper
New Member
Hi, I've recently bought myself a lovely 1998 P38 4.0SE with 71k on the clock. It's mostly fault free but there are a couple of niggles but most of those are known issues (heated seats for example) which I'll get around to fixing one day!
The issue with the key is a strange one and not one I've read about in all my trawling of the interweb so I thought I'd post it here and see if anyone can help.
When I got the car, the remote unlocking from the key worked fine but the range on the remote was pitiful (this was before I understood about the RF interference issues) so I replaced the key fob batteries.
After that point it wouldn't unlock the car - both buttons locked the vehicle. A local LR specialist told me that a terminal in the key had been damaged and that was the problem.
I decided to play it safe and sent the key off to be repaired and it came back working - hurray! However a week or two later I was back at the "lock only" stage. I sent it back to the people that repaired the key and it's come back again and _mostly_ works so I'm wondering what else could be wrong.
The symptoms are - I can normally walk up to the car, press the unlock button near the o/s rear quarter and the door will unlock. Sometimes it won't unlock but the whole central locking system clunks and the car has basically locked itself (despite already being locked and the unlock button being pressed). At this point, it's rare that it will unlock itself even if I try the unlock button repeatedly.
If I use the key to unlock the car, it will unlock the drivers door and then when I put the key into the ignition, it will enabled the engine and start perfectly. At the point that I turn the ignition on the car seems to recognize the key and the doors unlock with the central locking. Once I've done with the car I lock it remotely and most of the time the next time I try and unlock it, it will work.
Locking the car with the remote always works.
I've tried using the EKA procedure to unlock the car and that works - the central locking unlocks as expected and the car will start without an engine disabled message.
The fact that the central locking always does something when I press either of the remote buttons seems to suggest that the car is recognizing the remote but it's not always doing the thing I want it to.
I'm thinking of replacing the rf receiver next and seeing if that helps but I thought I'd ask the knowledgeable folks here before spending that money!
Any help greatly appreciated
The issue with the key is a strange one and not one I've read about in all my trawling of the interweb so I thought I'd post it here and see if anyone can help.
When I got the car, the remote unlocking from the key worked fine but the range on the remote was pitiful (this was before I understood about the RF interference issues) so I replaced the key fob batteries.
After that point it wouldn't unlock the car - both buttons locked the vehicle. A local LR specialist told me that a terminal in the key had been damaged and that was the problem.
I decided to play it safe and sent the key off to be repaired and it came back working - hurray! However a week or two later I was back at the "lock only" stage. I sent it back to the people that repaired the key and it's come back again and _mostly_ works so I'm wondering what else could be wrong.
The symptoms are - I can normally walk up to the car, press the unlock button near the o/s rear quarter and the door will unlock. Sometimes it won't unlock but the whole central locking system clunks and the car has basically locked itself (despite already being locked and the unlock button being pressed). At this point, it's rare that it will unlock itself even if I try the unlock button repeatedly.
If I use the key to unlock the car, it will unlock the drivers door and then when I put the key into the ignition, it will enabled the engine and start perfectly. At the point that I turn the ignition on the car seems to recognize the key and the doors unlock with the central locking. Once I've done with the car I lock it remotely and most of the time the next time I try and unlock it, it will work.
Locking the car with the remote always works.
I've tried using the EKA procedure to unlock the car and that works - the central locking unlocks as expected and the car will start without an engine disabled message.
The fact that the central locking always does something when I press either of the remote buttons seems to suggest that the car is recognizing the remote but it's not always doing the thing I want it to.
I'm thinking of replacing the rf receiver next and seeing if that helps but I thought I'd ask the knowledgeable folks here before spending that money!
Any help greatly appreciated
