Technical Electronic Key Not Detected

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Technical Electronic Key Not Detected

Alanw47

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There was I being all smug about my solar trickle charger, till yesterday. The battery seems to have completely died, which I can live with. The dashboard lit up, the dial spun round, but the engine did not. That seems to have taken the final ounce of oomph out of the battery and now it struggles to unlock more than one door. More worrying is the announcement on the dash "Electronic Key Not Detected". The battery will be painful enough with a S/S system, but the thought of something worse is filling me full of dread. Tried both keys, same outcome.

Anybody else had this message of doom?
 
Your post reminded me to check something after a flat battery when abroad.

I can confirm that if you have set the deadlocks and the car fails to unlock with the remote then the Emergency Key does actually unlock the drivers door.

We got caught out in Europe on an overnight stop on the way home. The caravan was coupled to the car and on electric hookup. Sadly during the night the site electrics failed and the caravan discharged the cars battery.

The other point was that it took 30mins+ of our 500X coupled to a kind Dutchman's car to get enough charge into the 500X's battery to allow the body computer to activate the require circuits.

All very scary because one is on a strict time schedule and you just don't know if you will recover the situation.
 
Your post reminded me to check something after a flat battery when abroad.

I can confirm that if you have set the deadlocks and the car fails to unlock with the remote then the Emergency Key does actually unlock the drivers door.

We got caught out in Europe on an overnight stop on the way home. The caravan was coupled to the car and on electric hookup. Sadly during the night the site electrics failed and the caravan discharged the cars battery.

The other point was that it took 30mins+ of our 500X coupled to a kind Dutchman's car to get enough charge into the 500X's battery to allow the body computer to activate the require circuits.

All very scary because one is on a strict time schedule and you just don't know if you will recover the situation.



Hopefully that will mean that a new battery will sort it. The fitted one is 5 years old. Thanks for your input [emoji106][emoji106]
 
New battery should return everything to normal.

What is challenging with these "modern electronic / computer based" vehicles is that every different make and model behaves differently to electrical supply. So just when you thought you understood the topic you get floored the next time around.

Here is a possible (probably true?) situation/scenario.

You flatten your vehicle battery to the point where the "computers" say NO. So you in situe charge the battery. The body computer knows the current battery is poor and fails to track the charge you have been applying directly to the battery terminals. (Start/Stop cars do this with aggression).

If you were to disconnect the battery and give it a charge the body computer would/will note that the "old" battery is removed and "another" is now installed.

So does the body computer change the rules and try to accept and at least try the now present battery?

I'm going to try and remember this for the next time I get into battery difficult. That is completely disconnect the battery, give it a boost charge and then reconnect. Fool the system that some bright spark dreamt up with Start/Stop management who did NOT consider "recovery" etc. situations.
 
Your post reminded me to check something after a flat battery when abroad.

I can confirm that if you have set the deadlocks and the car fails to unlock with the remote then the Emergency Key does actually unlock the drivers door.

We got caught out in Europe on an overnight stop on the way home. The caravan was coupled to the car and on electric hookup. Sadly during the night the site electrics failed and the caravan discharged the cars battery.

The other point was that it took 30mins+ of our 500X coupled to a kind Dutchman's car to get enough charge into the 500X's battery to allow the body computer to activate the require circuits.

All very scary because one is on a strict time schedule and you just don't know if you will recover the situation.
The caravan really shouldn't be drawing any power without the key in the ignition
Not unless it's been badly wired
 
The caravan really shouldn't be drawing any power without the key in the ignition
Not unless it's been badly wired

Chris absolutely right. I did not want to confound the basic issue of vehicle battery draining be that by glove box light permanently on or some other factor.

In my case with the caravan I had a so called smart voltage sensing semiconductor based unit to control the 12V / 50Amp supply to the caravan. This was (as recommended) installed by me in the rear of the car. In the UK there were no issues but in hotter Europe the unit would overheat and thermally shut down. (Inside rear wing baked by sun with ambient 30deg.C+ temps). I had no option but to bypass the unit to keep the 12V supply to the caravan and fridge.

Sadly I got caught out by a site electrical failure.

Since then I have changed from a smart semiconductor rear installed unit to a more traditional relay unit mounted on the 500X's main fuse box. I now have 100% easy access and control. AND if need be I can bypass with little effort comapared to the more traditional rear end installed, behind boot lining carpets/covers/panels/etc units.

You live and learn and I doubt I'll ever use a similar so called "smart" unit again.
 
New battery should return everything to normal.

What is challenging with these "modern electronic / computer based" vehicles is that every different make and model behaves differently to electrical supply. So just when you thought you understood the topic you get floored the next time around.

Here is a possible (probably true?) situation/scenario.

You flatten your vehicle battery to the point where the "computers" say NO. So you in situe charge the battery. The body computer knows the current battery is poor and fails to track the charge you have been applying directly to the battery terminals. (Start/Stop cars do this with aggression).

If you were to disconnect the battery and give it a charge the body computer would/will note that the "old" battery is removed and "another" is now installed.

So does the body computer change the rules and try to accept and at least try the now present battery?

I'm going to try and remember this for the next time I get into battery difficult. That is completely disconnect the battery, give it a boost charge and then reconnect. Fool the system that some bright spark dreamt up with Start/Stop management who did NOT consider "recovery" etc. situations.



As usual you were right, thank you. A new battery sorted everything except 101 fault codes that needed clearing, now all back to normal, cheers.
 
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