Hi All 👋

Looking for some advice please, after a week of not using my F Type I have gone to go for a drive today and the smart key wouldn’t unlock the doors. (Handles don’t pop out and unlock)

I have tried the emergency manual key inside the fob, but even this I can’t get to unlock the door. (Key doesn’t seem to fit the hole, it’s difficult to go in either way up you try it and also hard to get back out). When I did get it in I couldn’t get it to turn full to unlock.

Has anyone experienced this before?

 

There is a trick to using the emergency key, you have to push it right in, much further and harder than you would think, before it will turn and unlock the door.
Also you need to get the "angle of the dangle" just right before it will push all the way in, keep trying and you will succeed.

 

The mistake I made when I used my emergency key was to think that turning the key would actually open the door - you have to pull the handle after turning the key to get the door open.

 

Now you need to work out why you had a dead battery.
Pound to a penny (cent to a dollar?) someone plugged into the OBD11 port and didn't back out properly - even big dealers do that sometimes. If you're not sure how to check, look in to the dash from outside the car when it's locked. The red warning triangle will be lit at first, but should go out after ten minutes. If it doesn't, the above applies. Easy to fix but annoying and bad for the battery

 

THANKS for the reminder...Checking the operation of the emergency key should be a Springtime Ritual among owners.

It is a good opportunity to apply some graphite lubricant to the workings. "Lock-Ease" is what I use.

Work the graphite into both the door handle lock Pg 7 of the Owners Manual, and the emergency lock (at the rear of the drivers door) Pg 13.

 

Dollars to Doughnuts.

Excellent advice.

 

I literally just had this same problem.....

2017 R....had it to dealer for NYS Inspection and tires. Apparently they do something electronically for inspection that sucks the life out of the battery....so next time it sits even overnight it won't start

I was able to get the emergency key to fit....very difficult though. Had to use jumper cables....still wouldn't start but enough juice to get trunk open and hook up the OEM battery charger/conditioner.

You can't even open the glove box when battery is too low!

The exact same thing happened to me last year. The Dealer was either unaware of this or just don't give a flip

Hope you're able to get in!! You have to pull the door handle out all the way and hold it there while turning emergency key. It helps with 2 people.

 

As I said above, what they do is connect to your OBD11 port and fail to back out properly when they're finished. If you charge your battery without fixing the issue, it will be flat again within a week. Go to the trunk and disconnect the earth, wait for a few seconds, then re-connect. Problem solved, but next time tell the dealer what they're doing wrong. BTW, the alarm will go off so have key ready, and you'll have to reset the clock.

 

I doubt he'll have to since it should reset from the internet or the telematics unit - I know my MY18 does.

 

Many thanks....

 

I just drove home my new-to-me 2015 Type-F R (whoohoo)! Thanks to this forum, I learned about how the battery runs down and how the hazard button remains on (the dealer did indeed use an ODB during the PPI). After rereading the guidance above, I learned that I have to lock the door for it to go out. I did, and the light did go out after 10 minutes, but now I have some questions:

Does the light stay on by design if the car is left unlocked?
Do I need to always to lock the car to prevent the battery from running down?
Or, must I disconnect the battery to fix the fact that the dealer didn't?

I'm not in the habit of locking my car while it's parked in the garage, but will do so if that's just how it is.

 

AIUI, leaving it unlocked gives a hint to the car that it shouldn't shutdown since you're clearly going to be using it again in the near future. I think it will eventually shutdown, but for the sake of a couple of clicks on a fob (or the door handle if you have keyless entry) it hardly seems worth leaving it unlocked.

See previous answer.

In my experience, dealers here in the UK don't seem to cause the battery drain issue as much as is reported from the US, although a lot of their reports are after having smog tests so isn't dealer related at all. My independent has never caused a battery drain on my MY18, so it seems to be a bit hit and miss as to which devices are "guilty" (and I suspect, most of them are consumer grade rather than the stuff the pros use).

 

I DON'T lock our car in the garage...and the Hazard indicator goes out after ~10 minutes.

 

Yeah okay, that was what I tried to ask, that when working normally, is the light supposed to go out eventually with the car unlocked. If not, I assume that I must disconnect the battery regardless in order to reset the system.

 

Hmm, what happens if I disconnect it, wait a while (like a minute), reconnect it, and the alarm does Not go off? This is on a 2015 for what it's worth.

 

Because I'm very new to owning my F-Type R, I'm really paranoid about doing something wrong at this early stage. So related to the above, I disconnected and reconnected the battery to clear the possible case that the dealer hadn't done so. Is that the end of it, or do I have to do something else as well? Don't want to end up with a dead battery! Yes, I'm reading through the owners manual right now, but don't want to learn what I should have done too late.

Edit: Learned about and reprogrammed the side windows. Wouldn't work until I had the engine running. All sorts of secret handshakes on any new car

 

dealer using correct hardware should not cause this issue. It is only third party OBD attachments that do no close the session properly or user error who just disconnect by pulling the plug off before complete shutdown that creates a battery drain

 

Don't sweat about what the dealer did or didn't do with the battery - dealers don't do the battery disconnect trick. You said the hazard switch light went out after 10 minutes so there's no evidence of battery drain occurring. The time to worry is when you go for smog tests.

 

Yes, that is all you have to do other than reset the one-touch windows up/down and maybe the time/clock.
You will also lose Trip A and Trip B but that's no biggie if like me you never use them anyway.

 

Comments regarding some of the responses:
1. On the 2016, there is no internet connectivity, so no automatic clock reset.
2. On the 2016, the hazard light goes off after a few minutes whether the car is locked or not. (assuming the battery control module hasn't been confused by an OBD connection)
3. Reiterating here for the umpteenth time, the emergency key has to be pushed in with force and pressure maintained before attempting to turn it.