Jesse B
13th March 2010, 12:29 PM
A few days back I unlocked the D4, hopped in, pressed the starter button - and nothing! Message on screen said "Smart key not found - refer to handbook". Uh oh, I thought. Hopped out, locked the bus, wandered away, took a deep breath, unlocked, hopped in, pressed button - same story. Tried several more combos, put key in different places etc etc. Message was adamant - refer to handbook. So I did, and could find no reference to this error message! Found one that referred to "Smart key not found - place as shown" - tried that (key upside down under steering column) and still no joy.
Eventually gave up and rang my local dealer, who - thankfully - was only 5 km away. They said - oops, bother, sorry - ring LR Assist, and mean time we'll get our tech bods on the way to rescue you. They expected LR Assist to ring them, but instead the RACWA fellow rocked up before the dealers mechanics. Straight away said "I can fix this - already done one of these!". He simply undid the positive lead from the battery, waited about 15 seconds, put it back on, and then had me lock and unlock the car. When the mirrors did not fold out on unlocking he said "do it again" - this time mirrors opened out, I got in, and it started!
This got even more interesting, because right then the mechanics turned up, with a loan car for me (how good is that for service!!) and a trailer to load my bus onto. They listened to the RAC dudes story, grumbled about "all the error codes being lost", and decided to take my vehicle in to the workshop anyway. To cut a long story short - I've now been told that there were a batch of D4s with what is now a recognised fault with the not-so-Smart Key - and two new keys have been ordered for me. I'm now using my second key, which has given no problems thus far, and am praying the replacements rock up before this happens again.
The best thing about all of this is that I now know how to deal with this situation if it ever happens again. Two weeks earlier I'd been out on a back track 400 km NE of Leonora, 50 km from anywhere and on a road that sees about 2 vehicles a week! Glad it didn't happen then... Time for a sat-phone, epirb, CB or Spot unit I think.
Hope this story is of use to others who might also have the dodgy key sets.
Eventually gave up and rang my local dealer, who - thankfully - was only 5 km away. They said - oops, bother, sorry - ring LR Assist, and mean time we'll get our tech bods on the way to rescue you. They expected LR Assist to ring them, but instead the RACWA fellow rocked up before the dealers mechanics. Straight away said "I can fix this - already done one of these!". He simply undid the positive lead from the battery, waited about 15 seconds, put it back on, and then had me lock and unlock the car. When the mirrors did not fold out on unlocking he said "do it again" - this time mirrors opened out, I got in, and it started!
This got even more interesting, because right then the mechanics turned up, with a loan car for me (how good is that for service!!) and a trailer to load my bus onto. They listened to the RAC dudes story, grumbled about "all the error codes being lost", and decided to take my vehicle in to the workshop anyway. To cut a long story short - I've now been told that there were a batch of D4s with what is now a recognised fault with the not-so-Smart Key - and two new keys have been ordered for me. I'm now using my second key, which has given no problems thus far, and am praying the replacements rock up before this happens again.
The best thing about all of this is that I now know how to deal with this situation if it ever happens again. Two weeks earlier I'd been out on a back track 400 km NE of Leonora, 50 km from anywhere and on a road that sees about 2 vehicles a week! Glad it didn't happen then... Time for a sat-phone, epirb, CB or Spot unit I think.
Hope this story is of use to others who might also have the dodgy key sets.