A Nissan Micra come to us for a second opinion as the central locking was not working. The main dealer had said it needed a new body control unit...
First, we confirmed the customer complaint and then spoke to the customer in detail what has been replaced. With new remote batteries in both keys, we confirmed the keys where both sending out a good strong frequency signal. So the problem had to be with the car either not receiving the frequency or the vehicle not happy with one of the signals to confirm a lock or unlock status.
We looked at the data to see if the car was seeing any doors open to prohibit the central locking from working. And look what we found - no keys in the ignition, but the vehicle still thinks there is, so it will not activate the central locking.
We confirmed our findings to the customer and further investigate by removing the steering wheel cowlings to access the ignition barrel which has the key in switch. We removed the switch from the barrel and could work it by hand, showing it was in full working order, with the key in switch set to off the central lock was back up and working. The fault lies with the ignition barrel not triggering the switch.
We advised the customer of our findings; a new barrel would fix her issue but an alternative fix would be leaving the switch in the off position. The vehicle would still work as it should, she was happy to go with the bypass repair so we left the switch in the off position. We refitted all the trims, confirmed the fully working central locking and the customer left very happy with no parts required!
