Help! Central Locking...
 

Hey guys, need some help...

I left one of my inside lights on in my Ti while I was away and came home to find by battery had died. Everything was working except for my central locking and starter motor. Anyway, I boosted my battery and as soon as it got enough juice I heard central locking kick back on and everything locked.
Once the battery was charged I turned the car off, went to lock the car and once again my central locks wouldn't work. I checked all the fuses related to the locks and everything seemed fine.
I really need my central locks back since I can't open my trunk with the keys, for some reason the lock wont turn, weird.
Since I'm not really electrically inclined, I was wondering if any of you guys know what my problem could be?

Thanks in advance. :wink:

Umm, could you be more exact in what's not working.

1) Can you lock the car with the keys from any of the doors or hatch?

2) Can you unlock the car with the keys from any of the doors or hatch?

3) How about #1 with the remote?

4) How about #2 with the remote?

5) Can you lock the car with the button on your center module near your gearshift?

6) Can you unlock the car with the button on your center module near the gearshift?

7) Is it that you can lock from a driver side door and passenger side but not the hatch or some combination thereof.

I can lock and unlock both front doors individually, meaning if all the doors are locked and I unlock the passenger door for example it will open but the other door will remain locked. As for the hatch, the key hole seems to be busted for some reason, when I insert the key there's no way of turning it, no give whatsoever. Up until now it wasn't a problem because as soon as I'd unlock my driver door central locking would unlock all the doors including the hatch.
And I don't have a lock button near my gearshift or a remote by the way, only a key.

Thanks.

Perhaps you have a bad central lock module. I know that the driver and passenger door lock actuators are activated directly by the key in their respective locks. I'm not sure about the hatch. However, since it is possible to lock the hatch and render it unopenable by certain keys (valet keys), I suppose it's lock must be slightly different and perhaps is only actuated by the central lock module. If that is the case, then failure of that module could explain why you can't unlock the hatch and only individually lock and unlock the driver side and passenger side doors.

There is another thing to check - can you open your gas tank door?

Ok, so maybe I shorted the module somehow when I boosted my battery.
As for the gas tank door, I can indeed open it. I don't recall it ever locking
even when my central locks were functional, is it supposed to?

Thanks.

i think so, though I'm not sure if that was standard for all years. I have a 98. It's always "locked" when my car is locked. I guess I should have checked if I could open it the time I changed my battery (and thus central locking would not be operating).

I have a 95, maybe they didn't bother with that feature back then.
Anyways, If you (or anyone for that matter) come across anymore info on what could be wrong with my locks please let me know, it'll probably be a while before I' take the module apart.

Thanks for your help zboot, much appreciated! :wink:

Locking from the inside, the fuel door is unlocked (to allow full service refueling).
Locking from the outside, the fuel door is locked (to prevent siphoning).

Maybe that will help troubleshoot. Do you have an alarm installed?

Makes sense...

No I don't have an alarm yet.

Central Locking
 

I would check the battery voltage. I have found that the door switch on the passenger side is sensative to battery voltage. If the car sits and the voltage drops the passenger side lock will not operate the central locking for all doors, once the batery is fully charged it works just fine. Its a 96 and the fuel door does not lock.

The grey "vallet" key does not open the hatch or glovebox.

Only the black "master" key.

Are you using a grey key?

No I have a black key with an engraved BMW logo in it.
As for the battery i'm pretty sure it's fully charged. When I first boosted it and started the car central locks kicked in and locked the whole car, and that was the last time the central locking worked.

weird i dont think central locking is supposed to lock your doors for you unless you actually press the button.

I don't know if this is my BMWALARM.COM system or the stock ones does this to, but here's what my car does. If I press the unlock button on my alarm FOB, and open the trunk, the trunk will automatically relock in about 30 seconds. Even with the hatch still open, the car relocks, is that normal?