Technical Central locking on key not working.

[Holly1314]

Hi all,
I’m new to the forum and looking forward to learning and helping where I can, but I have an issue with my remote key not opening the locks on my Ducati 130 Multijet based motorhome (Bessacarr E560). I’ve been in Shielding for 4 months so haven’t been near it, as a result the starter battery was completely flat. I recharged it and it’s fine but the central locking key now won’t work (I’ve also installed a maintenance solar panel for the van battery so it won’t go flat again). The key starts the van fine so it’s talking to and recognised by the ECU and I’ve replaced the key battery but to no avail. The central locking works from the buttons on the door and dash for all 3 doors.
Any help/advice you can offer would be much appreciated as I’ve Googled it but with no joy. I’ve tried various “hold the button for 10 seconds, stand on one leg with both eyes closed” things but again, with no joy.
TIA.

 

[rayc]

The key signal is received by an aerial connected to the Body Computer Module. The BCM talks to the Central Locking module. I hope that attached is useful.

 

[Holly1314]

The key signal is received by an aerial connected to the Body Computer Module. The BCM talks to the Central Locking module. I hope that attached is useful.

Ray,
Thank you very much for this reply, it’s very informative and hopefully if I can decipher it; it’ll give me areas to check/test. I’m not particularly technically minded but I’ll dig through this in detail and see where it leads me.
I appreciate you taking the time and trouble to look it out.
I tested the F36 fuse but didn’t realise there were more fuses/relays involved so I’ll start there and work on through.

 

[rayc]

You said the " I have an issue with my remote key not opening the locks....."
Does it lock them or is both lock and unlock that is not working?

For what it is worth this is the fault finding process for failure of the remote key to operate the central locking

 

[Holly1314]

You said the " I have an issue with my remote key not opening the locks....."
Does it lock them or is both lock and unlock that is not working?

For what it is worth this is the fault finding process for failure of the remote key to operate the central locking

It neither locks nor unlocks any of the doors and there’s no sound coming of any attempt either.
Thank you again for the info, I’ll try tomorrow when I’m back at the storage facility.

 

[rayc]

It neither locks nor unlocks any of the doors and there’s no sound coming of any attempt either.
Thank you again for the info, I’ll try tomorrow when I’m back at the storage facility.

If you are sure the key battery is ok then possibly connection to the Fiat system may be your best bet. You need to know if the BCM is receiving the commands from the key and it is hard to see any other way of doing so.

I have an alarm system fitted and the fob from that operates the central locking which would allow me a second shot at it.

A useful contact if at the end of the day you need the BCM testing https://www.jccars.co.uk/Fiat/Fiat Diagnostcs.htm

 

[400 Hertz]

Hi, just saw this item and wondered if your dashboard clock reads the correct time/date? If you turn off the ignition to the "OFF - OFF" position (by pressing the small red button and turning more anticlockwise away from STOP), the remote door locking will cease to work similar to what you describe, also the clock will reset to 2010 or similar. The vehicle will still start OK with the key.

Technically, there is a short delay when selecting OFF OFF with the remote fob still working, but after a few mins, it will be dead. The OFF OFF position is a storage mode (probably called PARK) to preserve the main battery life, often on motorhomes using the Ducato chassis.

If the clock is OK, this is not so good. If you have the vehicle secret code for key programming, you could probably do a re-program yourself probably using MES, other than that, it might be a trip to your local Fiat dealer as they can re-program based on your vehicle registration and VIN.

More than likely, my guess is the problem is within the vehicle coding or Body Module rather than the remote fob. Take care with key coding, more than three wrong attempts will lock out the module for 30 mins as it does not like to be mucked about.