Locked Out Of My 08 Focus...

[jeb]

Hi I hope someone can help?

I have a 08 2.0 tdi titanium focus and have just come back from 6 months away during which time my father started the car up for me and made sure the engine was running. I had 2 weeks back in uk at the start of August during which time I drove round all over the uk visiting friends and relatives no problems. Now i am back for good 6 weeks after the car was last driven and my wife has told me that she could not open it using the remote central locking. I have just tried both key fobs and there is absolutely nothing, so I presumed that the battery must have gone flat. Since there is only e keyhole to get the bonnet open I decided I would charge the battery using the battery conditioner I have for my other older car however as I opened the bonnet the alarm went off showing there must be some charge in the battery. Neither fob would shut the alarm off so I had to wait and whilst doing so swapped the battery in one of the fobs but still nothing?

Can anyone suggest what might be wrong? Could the battery be mostly flat and I will have to put up with the alarm of a period whilst I hook up the battery conditioner? Could both fobs have coincidentally gone dead at the same time and need to be reprogrammed to my car? If that's the case how the hell do I get in without a keyhole to the main passenger compartment?

I have one day off tomorrow to get this cracked before I am due back in work for a couple of days so if anyone can help me I would be extremely grateful!

Cheers in anticipation.

[NorthSussex]

I have a 2009 tit focus, I can open the drivers door manually with the key, are you saying your car doesn't have a key hole in the drivers door? which would kill the alarm.

[Stoney871]

Once the door is open, putting the key in the ignition stops the alarm.

[NorthSussex]

Just opening the door with the key stops my alarm, bit of a panic late at night to kill the alarm if I set it off accidentally.

[jeb]

Ok so I'm in and the alarm is disabled with the key; I was parked tight up against a wall on the drivers side so couldn't see the key hole, d'oh! Thats what you get for going away for so long.

Any ideas why the remote key fobs would have both stopped working? I will buy new batteries today, I read somewhere I can re synch them to the car by turning the key in the ignition a number of times and pressing the buttons?

[NorthSussex]

I don't think you need to program the key on the 2008 car, just replace the battery, Stoney will no doubt know and will probably post soon.

[Stoney871]

Try the batteries (cr2032) and see if that works, if not trying a re-programme wouldn't hurt.

• Insert the ignition key and turn from position II (Ignition) to position 0 (All off) and back four times within three seconds.
  
• Remove the ignition key. The locking control system is now in "learn mode" for the next 20 seconds and the warning system LED stays on continuously to indicate this.
  
• During the 20 seconds press one of the transmitter buttons. The remotes signal and code number is learned by the locking module and is indicated by flashing the warning system LED.
  
• Wait until learn mode times out (20 seconds) or switch the ignition back to ON.
  

Courtesy of (http://www.mirez.co.uk/Galaxy/index.html)

[jeb]

Cheers guys, I drove to town to get some new batteries and the fob started working again. Figured it wouldn't do any harm to swap the battery anyway. If I get any more problems I will try the reprogramme.

[Stoney871]

Good effort.

Any problems, feel free to ask.

Always here to help.

[NorthSussex]

As you hadn't used the car for many weeks, damp may have got into the central locking receiver, running the car probably dried it out.