I went to a wine warehouse in Bracknell a couple of weeks ago in the bimmer. When I came out the central locking would not unlock the car and eventually I had to open it with the key, thereby triggering the alarm. Much faffing about for ten minutes and finally I got it to shut up and let me start the car. Drove home thinking I must change the battery in the key fob. When I went to investigate the battery, it worked fine - didn't seem to be flat at all.

Fast forward the next 2 weeks during which the car has been used every day, and never a prob with the central locking. Until yesterday, when I went to the wine place again - and it wouldn't lock

I asked the w/house owner if anyone else had mentioned having similar problems, and he went to the petrol station next door to ask there. Turns out it is really common - several cars a week have alarm/locking problems on the garage forecourt. Major suspect is the huge mobile phone mast which is direct line of sight of above mentioned premises, about 200yards away. Sure enough, moved the car 20 feet so it was in the "shadow" of the w/house building and the locking works perfectly.

So, next time you have trouble with alarms/remote locking, it might be worth looking around for any (in)convenient phone masts.

 

I had the same problem with my bike alarm (datatool system 3) whilst on a trip in france had to push the bike half a mile away from tv/radio mast.
The breakdown people that i rang told me this was the problem over the phone , getting more common by the sounds of things.

 

I used to work for the BBC and at one point, when they changed their fleet vehicles to Rovers (I'm obviously going back a while!), sometimes we would park up at a remote transmitting station somewhere only to find that we couldn't start the cars again. We discovered this was because the broadcast transmitters were swamping the immobiliser systems with radio waves. As these sites were quite often on hilltops, the solution was to roll the cars down the hill a bit, away from the towers, and they could then be started normally.

I've since heard similar problems with cars parked near some mobile phone masts (usually where "Airwave", the TETRA service for the emergency services is present).

 

Heard about this happening at car parks near airport radar stations.?

 

Its due to the allocated bands for Alarm vendors in the UK. Different countries use different frequency bands and its all set by the respective Govt.

A friend of mine who used to work for an alarm manufacturer explained it to me as they would get hundreds of call per year about this. You can also try putting the alarm transmitter up to the window, or under your chin. In the UK the Govt have allocated quite tight bands for a lot of different stuff and sometimes you get some overlap.

Also a problem is domestic video transmitters and wifi routers. both work in the same band

 

I've since heard similar problems with cars parked near some mobile phone masts (usually where "Airwave", the TETRA service for the emergency services is present).

Er I don't think so. TETRA does not interfere with car alarms.

 

In the early '80s, Cavaliers frequently would stop outside Brookman's Park transmitter on the A1000, 'til Vauxhall discovered tin foil wrap for the ECU!

 

Apparently they are now investigating Boeing 777's

 

I have a problem with a few cars i've taken to the local tescos petrol station, remote doesn't always work there...Grrrr.

 

Never knew that was a problem - thanks for sharing