My keys decided to not work to unlock my car for a few hours, though the problem resolved itself. Any idea why?

[fiesta2020]

Hi everyone, earlier today my keys were not working to unlock my car. I tried both of them. I was thinking maybe my car battery had died or there was a problem with the central locking system. However, after a couple of hours, I tried again and it unlocked fine. While this ended up resolving itself, would anyone know a possible reason why this could occur, just incase this happens again? I would normally leave my dash cam plugged into my cigarette lighter socket but I drive pretty regularly so I didn't know if that is a problem or not, and if that contributed to my keys not working. But then since the problem resolved on it's own, I'm not sure if the battery was the problem.  Thanks

[unofix]

Hello Thomas, welcome to the forum. The problem may not have been your car. About 4 years ago myself and a number of my neighbours would randomly find our car keys would not operate. The problem in the end was a nearby wireless door bell with a battery that was going flat. The door bell was transmitting over the top of the car keys and blocking them even when the door bell was not being pressed.

[fiesta2020]

1 hour ago, unofix said:

Hello Thomas, welcome to the forum. The problem may not have been your car. About 4 years ago myself and a number of my neighbours would randomly find our car keys would not operate. The problem in the end was a nearby wireless door bell with a battery that was going flat. The door bell was transmitting over the top of the car keys and blocking them even when the door bell was not being pressed.

Thanks. That's actually quite interesting and I never would have thought of that, perhaps indeed something related did happen.

[Guest]

23 hours ago, unofix said:

Hello Thomas, welcome to the forum. The problem may not have been your car. About 4 years ago myself and a number of my neighbours would randomly find our car keys would not operate. The problem in the end was a nearby wireless door bell with a battery that was going flat. The door bell was transmitting over the top of the car keys and blocking them even when the door bell was not being pressed.

Blimey, mate you did a good job diagnosing that one, well done

🙂

[TomsFocus]

My lounge radio and Xbox randomly turn themselves on now & then as if they've been remotely operated...

Must be another wireless signal interfering somewhere...I'd never even considered it might be someone's doorbell!

 

Of course the alternative is that you're trying to get into a car that's the same model and colour as yours...but not actually yours...as I do quite often in Tesco carpark.

 

[auldreekie]

I had the same problem as unofix with a old Focus a few years ago, I could open the doors manually with the keys and start it OK. When I drove the car a few 100 yards away from the house the central locking worked fine. It was happening to a few of the neighbours. There's a organisation that investigates dodgy radio signals (can't remember the name) they said the culprit was probably a doorbell. Turned out new folk moved into a empty house in the street then the problem stopped... Coincidence? 

[unofix]

Hi Auldreekie, many many Moons ago it used to the "GPO" on behalf of the Home Office that used to look after things like that. More recently it falls to OFCOM to trace random radio signals. When you can eventually get them to come out they actually do a good job.