Last Saturday in Boulogne we parked in the old town for a delicious meal (I have recommendations if anyone's interested) and the Jeep's remote locking wouldn't work. Locked manually and meal duly enjoyed. Had to unlock manually afterwards too. Before and since there's been no problem.
This has only happened once before - oddly also in France, at Dunquerque. That time we were, er, outside another excllent restaurant. The point is we were parked under HT lines, which I thought could be causing the problem that time.
I could see no obvious HT lines or mobile phone masts in Boulogne, so unless these were very cleverly disguised I have no idea why this happened.
Anyone got any ideas?
Terry
"Just because I don't care doesn't mean I don't understand"
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Maybe the Jeep takes exception to your breath smelling of French Food! :0)
The only serious explanation I could think of is disguised mobile phone masts.
I had this problem once with my aftermarket cat 1 alarm in a car park in Plymouth. Fortunately I have an override key as well. In addition one of the remotes became unsycronised with the car. Only when I took the battery out then put it back in again did it work properly.
That has never happened since.
H
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My Avensis used to do this whenever parked in Wimborne. It was within a matter of yards of the local Police, Fire and Ambulance stations, accompanied by a dirty great UHF mast. Never had the problem elsewhere. It used to reset the rolling code on the immobiliser. I got quite deft at resetting it, standing there with the key in the ignition muttering "one, two, three , pause, now four pause....."
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Terry,
Did you go on the ferry?
I used to travel to Calais almost weekly - a few times I had problems with my central locking and it was suggested to me by friendly ships crew that HM Customs might have an explanation.
I had not been pulled at Dover for about 5 trips(the average was 12 as they recorded registration numbers) - at my office in Belgium I left a note on top of my case in the boot "Dear HM Customs, Feel free to have a look, but please try not to ****up my central locking".
Guess what - I got pulled as I left the ship...the Officer insisted on reading the note, which I had tried to pocket..he of course denied that HMC had anything to do with it.
Just a theory...
Matt35.
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Matt
Yes, went by ferry but I always lock manually on the boat. Gives me carte blanche to laugh at the ones who set their alarms and give such a musical crossing in choppy weather!
Last time I was pulled at Dover was 4 years ago - first time on a renewed passport. Co-incidence? I think not.
Strange thing was UK Immigration checked passports at both Calais and Dover. Dunno what differences they expected to find!
Terry
"Just because I don't care doesn't mean I don't understand"
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Terry,
One time I got pulled by a lady with a sniffer dog at Dover - put my Passport in her back pocket while she searched - found zilch - and said OK, carry on.
As I started the engine, she remembered my Passport - 'You will need this' - Stupidly, 7.30 Friday night - I said 'Its OK I have another one'.
Another half hour passed while she called somewhere to check why I had (still have) 2 Passports.
Following week, I got 2 Bonio dog biscuits in Belgium and wrapped them in tinfoil, drove into the Red bay at Dover and gave them to a male officer for the lady with the dog - he threatened to have me charged with me with something like 'Abusing the uniform' but had a smile on his face.
I was motivated by the old Billy Connoly story of the man at a bus stop; dog widdles on his shoe, he opens a packet of biscuits and drops one for the dog - lady asks 'Why are you giving it a biscuit when it just widdled on your shoe?'
'I'm waiting to see what end eats the biscuit so I can kick it on the pink fluffy dice.
Matt35.
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Same problem used to happen with my previous car whenever I parked it at out of the way at the extreme end of our local Safeway supermarket, trying to avoid door bashing toe rags.
On the roof of the adjacent building was a forest of aerials...
If I parked the car a few metres nearer the supermarket, the central locking always worked fine,
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SjB
Funny you should mention that. I've previously parked in the square on the other side of the road with no problems at all. More and more I suspect hidden phone aerials.
Terry
"Just because I don't care doesn't mean I don't understand"
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The old 'hold the remote to your head whilst pressing the button' trick works wonders in situations like this, by using you as an aerial. Of course it may well be frying your brain by degrees, but that's the price of progress for you.. ;)
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Probably the high powered (maritime) radars employed at the various locations.
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Believe the area round Fylingdales is notorious for this!!
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Sometimes there are electricity cables under the road which can have this effect too, so you might not even see it.
Gareth
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