Don636 Posted February 8, 2018 Share Posted February 8, 2018 I have a 2014 Fiat Ducato and the remote key has stopped working. The converter added an alarm which is set using the standard key. I have to lock the vehicle using the key in the drivers door and all doors lock OK. If I try to open the doors using the key in the drivers door it only opens the two cab doors but not the side or rear doors. I have tested the battery using a multimeter and it shows 3v so the battery does not seem to be the problem. Not sure if the problem is with the Fiat locking system or the added alarm system. Has anyone come across this problem or have any ideas? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deneb Posted February 8, 2018 Share Posted February 8, 2018 Hi Don, I'd first replace the fob battery with a new one, just to rule that out. If it's not that, have a look at the sliding side door electrical contacts on the body in the closure to the rear of the sliding door. Make sure they're clean and try packing under the contact block at both ends with a thick piece of card. If that works, you may need to make a more permanent spacer with a couple of washers or similar. Failing that, I'm out of simple ideas, but the contact block is a known issue on these vans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colin Posted February 8, 2018 Share Posted February 8, 2018 Don636 - 2018-02-08 5:38 PM If I try to open the doors using the key in the drivers door it only opens the two cab doors but not the side or rear doors. If part of your question is "Is this normal", then yes the manual key will only open the front ( I thought it was drivers only) you will need to press dash button or open SLD and rear with handle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don636 Posted February 9, 2018 Author Share Posted February 9, 2018 I have tried a new battery even though the old one showed 3V but no luck. I tried packing out the sliding door electrical connection plate (also found something on You-tube about this) but, again, no luck. I can't actually work out out why packing out the connection plate should work as the door will open when you press the internal lock release button. The key starts the engine so the internals of the key must surely be working. Anyone any other bright ideas before I take the plunge and approach Fiat? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muswell Posted February 9, 2018 Share Posted February 9, 2018 Does this occur in different locations? We had that problem with our car when it was parked at home until OFCOM came and found our neighbour had a faulty TV signal booster. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deneb Posted February 9, 2018 Share Posted February 9, 2018 Perhaps see if Nick (euroserv) has any ideas. Failing that, there's a poster in the Ducato forum on the Fiat Forum who I believe works for a FP dealer and seems to know the vans pretty well. His username is whine0 https://www.fiatforum.com/ducato Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monique.hubrechtsgm Posted February 11, 2018 Share Posted February 11, 2018 There is also a battery like a coin in you Remote key and study what it can and not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don636 Posted March 28, 2018 Author Share Posted March 28, 2018 The van went into Fiat today to find out what was wrong with the remote and they found that it just needed re-coding and works fine again. Cost £60 for the diagnostic check so happy with the outcome. The service manager did wonder if the problem might have been caused by a conflict with the alarm system and funnily enough the alarm had gone off a couple of days before I found out the key was not working. He could not say why this might have caused a problem but just mentioned it. I noted in my original post that I thought this might be a cause.Anyway, also well that ends well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
747 Posted March 28, 2018 Share Posted March 28, 2018 Never trust a Dealer to do a proper job of installing an alarm system. It is not their speciality. My van has a Laserline alarm and I needed a replacement fob. I ordered a new fob case and swapped over the electronics but could not code the new fob despite following the instructions. I assumed that I needed new electronics (again assuming the old one had failed although the button battery was new). This cost me £40 and I still could not code the new fob into the system. Eventually I took the van to a vehicle alarm installer in Newcastle. They could not code the key in either and after checking the installation, just shook their heads and said it had been incorrectly (and badly) installed. They managed to code in the new fob but refused to do anything else as it was a mess. The Cab doors and Hab door activate the alarm OK but the Garage door will not operate the alarm when opened. If I ever need to fit a new battery to a fob, I will have to take it back to Newcastle to let the experts do it. By the way, they only charged me £20 to code the key (their standard charge) and did not charge for their time puzzling over how some clown had installed it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don636 Posted March 29, 2018 Author Share Posted March 29, 2018 The alarm was fitted by Vantage, not a Fiat dealer. I asked Vantage about the remote not working issue and they did not believe it would be linked to the alarm, which is probably correct. The Fiat charge for a diagnostic check outside the warranty period was originally advised to me as being £80 but this was discounted to £60. Seemed reasonable to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest rael Posted April 19, 2020 Share Posted April 19, 2020 Just had the same problem. Solved it by disconnecting the battery for a couple of minutes and its working fine now. Just make sure you have the radio code as you may need it to reset clock etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted April 20, 2020 Share Posted April 20, 2020 There’s a good deal of on-line discussion about problems with Fiat Ducato central locking using the remote key https://tinyurl.com/ydb5ldvv with this 2018 Fiat Forum thread referring to disconnecting the starter-battery earth strap as a possible ‘fix' https://www.fiatforum.com/ducato/460134-ducato-central-locking-remote-not-working-solved.html Depending on the age/model of the Ducato a degree of care should be exercised when disconnecting the starter-battery. The Owner Handbook for my 2015 Ducato advises IMPORTANT After turning the ignition key to STOP and having closed the driver side door, wait at least one minute before disconnecting the electrical supply from the battery. When reconnecting the electrical supply to the battery, make sure that the ignition key is in the STOP position and the driver side door is closed. (If the negative earth-strap of the under-floor battery of a 2006-onwards Ducato X250/X290 is to be disconnected, it might be a good idea to disconnect the positive (live) connector as well and check the electrolyte-level in all six of the battery’s cells.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deneb Posted April 20, 2020 Share Posted April 20, 2020 Resetting the body computer by disconnecting the vehicle battery for several seconds can fix many strange glitches in systems controlled by that ECU and is always worth a try in the first instance if something isn't working correctly. It is important to follow the correct procedure as outlined by Derek though, which ensures that all of the ECUs connected through the network bus are allowed to go into sleep mode in an orderly fashion before disconnecting power. Failing to ensure that the driver's door is shut and not waiting the required time subsequent to that before disconnecting the battery can cause corruption of ECU memory in much the same way as pulling the plug out of a computer without shutting it down first. This, and a flat or very low battery are common causes of issues such as the SRS ECU failure that is quite common on motorhomes, but apparently less so on commercial vans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikefitz Posted April 20, 2020 Share Posted April 20, 2020 Disconnecting the starter battery without following the procedure may cause problems as suggested, however its not quite as straight forward following the handbook as Derek suggests. Firstly either cab door initiates the system switch on and shutdown so both doors need to be closed. If the ignition has not been on for some time then the 'wait at least one minute ' is valid. My measurements on a euro6 PVC showed the current taken by the system lasted for , on average, 1 minute 35 seconds after both cab door were closed. Things do change if the ignition has just been switched off. Under these conditions it takes over 6 minutes for the system current to drop. So waiting ten minuets or so with all doors closed, ( sliding door and rear doors also wake up the electrics) would seem safer if the ignition has been active. Motor homes do seem to have more failures of the air bag computer than commercial vans and I suspect that interaction between the engine and leisure battery may be a factor, it would thus seem advisable to disable any solar and disconnect the leisure battery negative before working on the engine battery. Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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