Dash warning "Child lock malfunction, service required"

[Alan G H]

Hi everyone, advice required please.

Yesterday, I gave my car (65 plate C-Max 1.6 diesel) a thorough wash off. I didn't start or check anything after I finished, just locked it up and left it where it was.

Tonight, I went to a local shop, and, when I started the car it had the above warning on the dash. When I got to the shop and switched off, the dash warning stayed illuminated while I was in the shop, and stayed on during the drive home. The dash warning stayed on when the car was switched off again at home.

I have checked all the doors are correctly closed, and could see nothing obviously wrong, so I have disconnected the battery for the time being.

Does anyone have any suggestions of things to check in the morning? I am hoping that it's something silly like water has got into a door lock which may dry out on its own, but, knowing my luck, the BCM may have got flooded. Where is the BCM, by the way?

[unofix]

Have you tried simply switching the "child locks" off by pressing the button ?

[Alan G H]

12 hours ago, unofix said:

Have you tried simply switching the "child locks" off by pressing the button ?

Not yet, I only read about this in the owner's manual after I posted last night.

It was raining here, and I wasn't going back out in that.

Will try it this morning. Thanks for your reply.

[Alan G H]

Just a quick update, this morning, I reconnected the battery and gave it ten minutes or so for everything to reboot.

Thankfully, everything seems to be back to normal. I took the car for a short run & all seems ok.

@unofix Thanks for your reply, it was helpful.

Incidentally, this morning I spotted that the plastic water traps under the bonnet hinges were full of water, so I have cleaned all the old tree leaves out & cleared the drain points as well. Another thing to keep an eye on!