central locking - random unlocking

I would be interested in any replies too because I had a couple of similar experiences, one in our works carpark which is reasonably secure, but once I left my pass behind and had to park in the street. Lucky there was nothing of any real value in the car.

-- Malc

I've heard of it happening in areas of strong radio interference. Maybe there's a transmitter nearby. Mike.

Thanks for the reply mike.

Should have explained this has happened before at a different location. Seems to be a fault with the unit in some way.

What is the vehicle? Ford Galaxies / VW Sharans have a known fault with water ingress in the ECU that controls the windows and locks.

Some cars have 2 stage central locking. I can see the point with unlocking the car in 2 stages but not necessarily in locking it in 2 stages.

Depresion (depreso snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

It depends on what you mean by "two stage".

Mine unlocks in one stage, but locks in two - one for central locking, the second for deadlocks and alarm.

Some will unlock the drivers door only on the first press then the rest of the doors (or the drivers on a 1/2 turn of the key in the door lock and the other doors when you turn the key the full range of motion) I can't remember what car I had that did that so I can't have had it long thus probably a cutesy car. May have been a BMW, I think we had just worked out how it worked when it was time to hand it back.. ;)

My Mondeo ( and presumably them all) has locking in 2 stages( 2nd stage deadlocks and alarms afaik) with unlocking in 1st stage to unlock the drivers door and the 2nd stage to unlock the other doors .I havent used the key in the drivers door to see what happens . Stuart

My car is a very simple 1 stage lock/unlock.(no deadlock - who is going to steal it?) The central locking ecu must be receiving a short or similar. I have temporarily secured the car by pulling the fuse. Now have no central locking or interior lights / lights left on warning. Remembered how to lock rear doors - interior button down and hold external handle up when shutting door. Works a treat. Lock remaining doors with key.

Anyone any experience of this type of fault as it will save a lot of time in tracing if the ecu is ok.

That said, hope it is an ecu fault as replacements are easily obtained from scrapyard - sorry, recycled parts depot.

Could just be a stuck solenoid in the door (a blast of compressed air or WD40 may clear any grit) or on old German cars that use pneumatic systems (sued because they are quiet) then a leaky vacuum pipe.