Hello,


I'm new to the forums, so please go gently. I have very little mechanical knowledge, but a helpful other half!


I have a 2006 Panda, and have recently started having a problem with the central locking, which is key-operated.


When I lock with the key, it clicks as if it's locked, and mainly the problem is that it then clicks again, and all the doors are unlocked. I can't lock it at all at the moment. If I open each door the interior light comes on, and when I shut the door the light goes off. Occasionally, I've had the problem that it has locked, and the driver's door does not seem to be shut properly, then I struggled to unlock it again. I've also had the issue that locking the driver's door resulted in that door staying unlocked and the others locking. At times, the passenger door won't shut, because the handle is stuck in the pulled-out position on the outside (easily-remedied by pushing that handle back in from the exterior).


I'd be grateful if anyone has any ideas/what I should try to fault-find. Many thanks.

You can lock the car manually with the key. Check the handbook.

Central locking will bounce out if a door is left open so (assuming they are all closed) get inside and listen to every door when you press the key. The one that's not clicking is the trouble-maker.

It could be a slight alignment issue with one of the locks inside a door or even the 'hook' part that's on the pillar, have you checked that they are all properly secure for example?

Other than that, it's remove each door card and try and work out what's catching/not moving freely, could be a rod or linkage that needs lubricating.

DaveMcT said:

You can lock the car manually with the key. Check the handbook.

Central locking will bounce out if a door is left open so (assuming they are all closed) get inside and listen to every door when you press the key. The one that's not clicking is the trouble-maker.

Click to expand...

Pretty much my take on it.



My right rear lock has started to act oddly also

Having considered a little... maybe this might help:-


When fiddling with tailgate latches I used a large rod (screwdriver) to mimic the door catch plate .. and so move (pivot) the catch..

So you can physically SEE the mechanism lock.. and then KNOW how it opens with the handle :trigger.

It MIGHT be worth 'locking' the suspect door catch.. with the door itself wide open.. so you can view the mechanism yourself.

My panda is an Active.. so no remote..

Not sure what the physical locking differences might be.


Fifi66

Maybe try the locking off the key with All the doors open.. but locks 'set shut'

It may well be an alignment issue with your drivers door.. whereby the latch struggles to actually close well enough to lock.

This method will hopefully test the basic lock function

Charlie

Edit - Open all five door locks and close the doors. Lock the tailgate with the key. If the remote now works you have found the problem. If it still bounces, you'll have to go through the list I've just laboured over


The doors lock from inside by pushing the latch inwards (towards the door card). The easy job is to see if they unlock. Lock all four manually and see if they all unlock via the remote. The one which wont unlock is faulty.

If that seems ok, lock one door manually with the other three unlocked and try the remote. Do each door one-by-one. When the central locking engages you have found the one that's refusing to lock electrically.

If the four passenger/cabin doors work, your problem is in the tailgate. Using the key to lock the tailgate should allow you to remotely unlock the cabin doors.

Thank you all very much for taking the time to answer. There is no remote, only operation is with the key for the central locking (don't know if it ever had a remote, but all I have is the key). The boot lock appears not to be on the central locking, but has to be operated separately I see (the car is pretty new to me).


That said, you've given me a number of things to try out. The other half will give it his full attention with me this weekend when we have some daylight, and we will be locking and unlocking open and shut doors to try and see if we can see where the problem arises! I'll show him your replies. Thanks again.

Our 2004 active has NO REMOTE.

AND ONLY 2 LOCKS..

1 0n drivers door

1 on boot..


AFAIK.. the boot is just the boot.. NOT linked to the Central Locking

This is from the factory

Charlie

Assuming the car has central locking, the same procedure applies. Set the lock on one door and see if the others follow.


If none will work you will need to take off the driver's door card and probably replace the central locking motor/switch.

All locks can be set manually and the door locked with the key. If that's not working you may need a new lock.

Anybody give pointers on DISABLING CL.

So they can leave rears locked.. for example..

You could unplug the rear locking motors or fit remote isolating switch(es) to select them out of use.

No independant fuse?

DaveMcT said:

You could unplug the rear locking motors or fit remote isolating switch(es) to select them out of use.

Click to expand...

Thinking again, you would probably need a double pole switch to break the LOCK and UNLOCK circuits. The seemingly simple job of isolating the rear door locks could get into quite a task.

This a remote locking kit on eBay
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/REMOTE-CENTRAL-DOOR-LOCKING-KIT-FIAT-UNO-PUNTO-PANDA-/380208666535

Fifi66 said:

Thank you all very much for taking the time to answer. There is no remote, only operation is with the key for the central locking (don't know if it ever had a remote, but all I have is the key). The boot lock appears not to be on the central locking, but has to be operated separately I see (the car is pretty new to me).


That said, you've given me a number of things to try out. The other half will give it his full attention with me this weekend when we have some daylight, and we will be locking and unlocking open and shut doors to try and see if we can see where the problem arises! I'll show him your replies. Thanks again.

Click to expand...

Hi. Any news?

I had a similar issue on my 54 plate 1.2 Dynamic with remote locking, where the boot would unlock itself, so the boot lid would be free to open whilst driving around!

I replaced the rubber buttons on the key fob as they were in a sorry state, and have never had the problem since. I can only guess the mangled, collapsing boot lid button rubber was interfering with the switch on the remote fob (?).

(As others have mentioned, the cheap eBay specials are fine for the door buttons but the boot lid button is inexplicably completely the wrong size. Fair but of crude hacking about on my part to get it to fit...)


I know this is a slightly different issue, but just thought I'd add this in case someone else has the same problem

rmjbn1 said:

I had a similar issue on my 54 plate 1.2 Dynamic with remote locking, where the boot would unlock itself, so the boot lid would be free to open whilst driving around!

I replaced the rubber buttons on the key fob as they were in a sorry state, and have never had the problem since. I can only guess the mangled, collapsing boot lid button rubber was interfering with the switch on the remote fob (?).

(As others have mentioned, the cheap eBay specials are fine for the door buttons but the boot lid button is inexplicably completely the wrong size. Fair but of crude hacking about on my part to get it to fit...)


I know this is a slightly different issue, but just thought I'd add this in case someone else has the same problem

Click to expand...

Hi. That is interesting.

I am about to do a re.shelling of a key from this generation.

Would you please explain.. demonstrate..

The mods necessary to achieve a fully working key.

Either in the Panda.. or a general section thread.

My key is for a Grande Punto..

Cheers Charlie

Don't know if GP keys are the same, but a word of warning...
Some cheap shells have a plastic moulding which crushes the immobiliser coil if it is not cut out. It looks like they are designed to fit the separate glass chip like in panda standard keys, rather than the on-PCB one in panda remote keys.
Inspect carefully, and if there is a section at the "hole" end of the casing looking like a round-ended oblong, then it will crush the PCB enough to stop it deactivating the immobilized.

Hi Charlie, I only replaced the rubber buttons, not the fob casing. The part I bought came from Hong Kong.
If it does help at all, if I was to do it again I would know to slice half the underside off (maybe 1mm), then to slice equal amounts off the top and bottom edges, as I've tried to show in the diagram below.

The problem with the boot release button is it's too deep in section, and too tall top to bottom. The width left to right is fine, and the door buttons are fine, so still 99p well spent
Best of luck getting your remote fob sorted, and I hope you can make a neater job than I did of mine!