HELP!! 2008 D3 has locked everything out!

[Pierre]

I'm hoping for some urgent guidance from the guru population.

We have had our 2008 D3 since 2009, and it's done over 400,000 km. It has been a reliable, robust vehicle, doing everything asked of it (within limits, of course).
It is well maintained and other than the regular D3 things, we have had little trouble.

Until yesterday!!

Parked on the driveway on Sunday afternoon, locked the car. With the awful weather in Melbourne on Monday, vehicles weren't needed. Tuesday, we were to head out, but the key fob did not raise a chirp. No flashing led on dash. No indication from DBS of anything but auxiliary battery charge. No starting battery charge was indicated.

Great. I'll just open the LH door with key - the emergency unlock. No joy - nothing happened. The key operated the lock, but no unlocking occurred.

I put a CTEK charger on the starter motor post and earthed to the chassis and left it to charge. The battery came up onto charge by this afternoon. DBS is showing solid green, so I believe the starting battery could be OK. I also have Anderson plug access at the towbar and saw about 13V across the outputs.

Tried both key sets to unlock the car - nothing!

So where do I go from here? I would prefer not to break anything to get in, obviously.

Can I get the bonnet open to see if something electrically unusual has occurred? How would that be done?

Is there a method by which a door can be opened?

Any help from anywhere?

It would be greatly appreciated, because apart from the vehicle being unusable, the girl's golf clubs are in the boot [bigsad]. Somehow my fault that this has happened - more pain ;-(

Cheers

Pete

[Graeme]

Have you tried to unlock the tailgate?

[Pierre]

Have you tried to unlock the tailgate?

Graeme, I have. There is no response from the vehicle at all. After the charging period, the dash LED is slowly flashing as normal.

Pete

[Graeme]

I suppose that with the battery charged you've retried the key in the door many times too.

[Graeme]

Is the key meant to directly unlock the door or is there a procedure to be followed? It's been too long since I knew what was required and IIRC the D2 required an unlock sequence so I may be confusing vehicles.

Edit: I'm sure that the emergency unlock works the same as my L322 which is a simple unlock turn of the key.

[Pierre]

Is the key meant to directly unlock the door or is there a procedure to be followed? It's been too long since I knew what was required and IIRC the D2 required an unlock sequence so I may be confusing vehicles.

Think you could be, Graeme. This is a 2008 D3.

1. Remove LH door key mech cover. 2. Insert key and turn counterclockwise until it stops. 3. Open door.

1 yes, 2 yes and 3 no action at the door lock.

[Pierre]

Is the key meant to directly unlock the door or is there a procedure to be followed? It's been too long since I knew what was required and IIRC the D2 required an unlock sequence so I may be confusing vehicles.


Yes, Graeme. It is D3, like RRS as you had. Off with the cover on door handle, ensure everything is clean, insert key and turn counterclockwise. No response from the vehicle. Door does not unlock.

So even if key had lost sync somehow, the door ought to have unlocked and the alarm gone off tap.

Pete

[Graeme]

Others have also found that their door doesn't unlock and subsequently found a problem with the lock, nothing to do with no power.
IIRC others have been able to spring the rear glass of a rear door to gain access but one would have to know what to target.

[Pierre]

Eventually gained entry to the golf club safe😎.

The left hand front door key entry had clagged up with dust from the last 14 years of ownership. About two hours of WD40 and 23,000 operations of the mechanism finally yielded the faint ‘click’ of the switch operation.

Unusual faults logged seem to indicate some sort of ground voltage spike in the area after lightning strikes on Monday night. But thankfully no permanent damage.

Bit weird, but Dizzie lives on without broken glass!!

Thanks for the input, Graeme.

Cheers
Pete