My car was rear-ended and was taken for repair. After the accident and before it was taken for repair the central door locking system was behaving perfectly.

3 weeks later the car was returned to me. The repairer's driver refused to wait until I had checked the condition of the car. Instead he told me he didn't have time to wait and he would sign the acceptance form himself. I found this behaviour very suspicious.

I decided to check the lights were working so started the engine turned the lights and hazards on and stepped out of the car closing the door behind me.

Having checked the lights I tried to open the door to get back into the car. I found it had locked itself. I had to get someone to come from home with a spare key to rescue me.

I found that with or without the engine running with the key in the ignition, the car locked itself as soon as the door was closed. It could not be re-opened using the blipper on the key but only by putting a key physically into the lock. The audible warnings now work only intermittently.

When I complained the repairer told me these symptoms are due to wear and tear of the central locking system. I am very sceptical because the problems appeared only after the repairer had my car in their care. It seems a remarkable coincidence.

I don't know exactly how central door locking systems work but I assume they are controlled by some kind of electronic controller. My guess would be some kind of PLC. If that's true, I would have thought the program might have become corrupted by a spike or static on the power line. The kind of thing that might have been caused by the battery having been disconnected for example. Alternatively could it be down to a problem somewhere in the wiring harnesses?

Has anyone got any comments or suggestions? Is it possible wear and tear could have caused these problems or am I right in suspecting it is likely to be due to something the bodyshop has done?

I have locked through the forum posting, I was not able to find a similar case to mine. Apologies if this question has previously be answered somewhere else.