Over the past few weeks I have had an issue where I sometimes can’t unlock my car when its parked on my street using the central locking – the few times its happened it has been parked a few doors up from our house, and coincidentally (or not) this is also under some telephone lines.
I have lived on the street for 5 years, had the car for 3 years, but this only recently seems to have started happening.

Alternatively, could a Wifi router be causing interference? I’d have thought its a different frequency?

I tried the spare fob, but that was the same.

It eventually unlocked after I had walked round the car 6 or 7 times continuously clicking the normal fob.

My mates car does this sometimes(Subaru)
It too seems to happen at specific places so must be some kind of inteference. He usually gets it working by clicking under the front wheel arches and basically walking round and trying everywhere.

I used to have this when parked outside my gran’s garage with an auto-door. There are also signs warning about up big hills with antennae on them here in Oz. My bet is some form of localised radio interference.

Most common source of interference for car central locking is television sender units, the type that broadcast digital tv from the box to another television in the house. It is reasonably common, can be cured by turning units off and back on, making sure the connections are all secure, presuming the senders aren’t faulty.

could a Wifi router be causing interference? I’d have thought its a different frequency?

Wifi is 2.4GHz so should be no problem, key fob most likely to be 433MHz. Mine is… it’s written on the side, along with the CE mark etc.

IIRC there was somewhere up north (Windermere maybe?) that had a problem on a particular street where people couldn’t unlock their cars, and it was traced to a new set of traffic lights or something.

Ooops, better reset the monitoring equipment. Sorry!

thanks folks – I’ll try to park somewhere else – only problem being that on our street, you can’t always get a space where you want.

Have you tried a new battery in your blipper?

If the telephone lines are causing some interference and the signal from your blipper is becoming weak, it might not overpower the interference?

2 friends have had the same issue when parked at my parents house. There is a railway line behind the houses on the other side of the road & I think that is something to do with it.
They were both older cars. One of them had parked across the driveway on the road, which was annoying!

Common problem with Subaru’s. Lost count of the number of times I had to break in using the key pad. Interference is the problem and in my car it seemed to be related to the emergency services transmissions. Not a lot you can do other than push the car a little bit to get out of the dead zone.

Used to have the same thing with my motorbike alarm/immobiliser. Consistently failed to work in one Shell petrol station. Not so bad with a motorbike but saw several cars pushed off the forecourt to start.

Its an 05 plate Toyota verso.

When I lock the car if I press it once it just locks the car, if I press it a second time, it puts deadlocks on, and while it is deadlocked, the little spare key (a proper key that is in the fob) won’t unlock the doors – genius!

Try changing the battery in the sender.

Try pushing the button whilst pressing the fob against your temple (seriously, trust me, it boosts the signal).

Try using the little metal sticky-outy bit in the little slot in the door next to the handle (what we technically call “putting the key in the lock”) and turning.

Try pushing the button whilst pressing the fob against your temple (seriously, trust me, it boosts the signal).

Haha!! I tried that this morning – must have looked a right loon!

Try using the little metal sticky-outy bit in the little slot in the door next to the handle (what we technically call “putting the key in the lock”) and turning.

See my previous post about the key not working when its deadlocked – by design – I’ll try and just lock it rather than deadlock.

thanks for the ideas folks.

It would appear that this:

Cougar – Member
Try using the little metal sticky-outy bit in the little slot in the door next to the handle (what we technically call “putting the key in the lock”) and turning.

isn’t compatible with this:

dawson – Member
if I press it a second time, it puts deadlocks on, and while it is deadlocked, the little spare key (a proper key that is in the fob) won’t unlock the doors – genius!

See my previous post

Ah, sorry, I didn’t spot that you were the OP as well, I thought it was just an anecdote. Sorry, I’ll go and be condescending somewhere else. (-:

Trouble is if you have a remote unlock it also sets the alarm & immobiliser, whereas using the key doesnt.
So if you lock with the remote and unlock with the key, the alarm may go off and / or not start.

If its an old sigma alarm then interference on 433Mhz is the issue. It used to be an open frequency but then the police put there new system on it. I too have pushed my old golf 100yds down the road to get it started.

When the police in my town installed their new radio/ commas system it played havoc with cars in and around the station especially the supermarket. Can’t remember the outcome but it has been resolved.
Any new dishes been fitted to council or business building recently?