Corsa unlocks itself!

Help! My 2002 Corsa keeps unlocking itself. Quite randomly. Parked outside
my house overnight, in town. even at work parked in a garage. I took it back
to the garage (Not main agent), they had it for three weeks and said they
could not find anything wrong. It stayed locked for them. Now I have it back
and it is still unlocking itself.
Anybody got any ideas? All help gratefully acknowledged.
Thanks.
Chris.

 

first port of call would be to check the car battery IS good.
low volts will cause it sometimes.

the other thing to check is all the door switches.

is this doing it with the key & with the remote?

i'e if you lock it by turning the key in the lock,
or if only by the remote?

etc.

mike

 

WHAT ?!!!!!!!!

Three weeks?!! Did they supply you with a spare car for all that time?

Cannot suggest solution - sorry - but suggest you contact local Vaux dealer,
or Vaux HQ, to see if they have any experience of similar problems.

When you leave car, are you always certain the thing has really locked - not
just that the flashers flashed?

Do you "play" with the key as you walk away from the car, inadvertently
unlocking it?

Since it happens all over the place, sounds like a prob with the car, rather
than its sensitivity to other sundry signals.

Does it unlock _and_ disable the alarm?

Have you tried recoding the key fob to car (not that I can imagine why this
should solve the prob, but anything's worth a try).

As an aside - why hasn't anyone nicked it? Makes me wonder if locking cars
is ever worthwhile :-(

(I assume you haven't got one of those extended warranty things?)

 

My Cavalier had a similar problem except it kept locking at random - I found
the wiring loom to the boot lock ran across the boot hinge and a sharp edge
had worn the insulation off one of the wires and it was earthing the system
as and when.

HTH

Clive

 

All in a sudden, Chris erupted with:
| Help! My 2002 Corsa keeps unlocking itself. Quite randomly. Parked
| outside my house overnight, in town. even at work parked in a garage.
| I took it back to the garage (Not main agent), they had it for three
| weeks and said they could not find anything wrong. It stayed locked
| for them. Now I have it back and it is still unlocking itself.
| Anybody got any ideas? All help gratefully acknowledged.
| Thanks.
| Chris.

Where do you keep the key? Beware of accidentally pushing the buttons on the
fob. Try to keep the key in your hand (not in a pocket) until you sit down
at your workplace, and keep it in clear sight where nothing can interfere
physically with it.
If the fob button contacts are too much 'sensitive', even a very soft touch
can unlock your car.
Try to figure what is the maximum distance you can go away from the car
until the car does not receive the remote control signal.
If the car is not fitted with an alarm, try to 'shake' the car when it's
locked, maybe some wiring is loose or shorted, and a passing van (or even a
car) can trigger the spurious contact.
Beware that every Vaux may 'program' any other's Vaux car fob in the 30
seconds time after you turn on the engine. If you have spotted your door
locks closing and opening suddenly during that lap of time, someone is
fooling you with another key fob.

HTH

 

Has your area had the new emergency radio system rolled out (TETRA)? There
has been a number of reports to say since this system has rolled out, it has
affected several car central locking systems.

TETRA uses 380-420MHz. Car central locking/alarm devices should use 433MHz
but some use the old frequency of 418MHz. Could be this.

I used to own a car with an alarm which, if I parked the car in particular
car park in town, would play havoc with the alarm. I could not disarm the
alarm until the car was out of the car park.

 

There's a retail park (Halfords, PC World etc) in Selly Oak, Birmingham when
I cannot lock or unlock my Astra by remote control.
On the other side of the road is an aerial mast. I checked Ofcoms web-site
http://www.sitefinder.radio.gov.uk/ and it's a TETRA installation which
probably explains it.
You could check to see it there's one nearby

 

yep but this would only stop the key fob from working etc.
it would not cause it to unlock / lock itself.

i'd check all the door switches.

do a check yourself
if you sit in the car and lock it.
if pulling up one of the buttons unlocks it, then the answer lies in a door
or lock switch contact being dirty.

mike

 

Would this also explain why my Calibra opens itself after i lock it with the
key? sometimes i have to unlock it then lock it again for the central
locking not to re-unlock it (sometimes while the key is still in the door) I
think i bought a lemon when i got this car.... grrrr

 

yes

mike