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MG MGF Technical - Blipper failure

Morning all.

Had a look through the archives for this one; maybe I'm not picking the right search terms, but I can't find much.

<possibly irrelevant background>
I've been out mountaineering in North Wales all weekend. Predictably, it was a little bit wet. The soaked climbing ropes went into the handy spaces round the spare wheel and in front of the horn. Did this on the way up, too, though they were obviously dry at that point.
</possibly irrelevant background>

Anyway, halfway home, I stopped to buy some red bull. The car superlocked fine with the blipper. When I came to unlock her, she wouldn't respond to the blipper at all; it took maybe fifty presses before she opened. I then drove home non-stop (another three hours...) for fear that I'd not be able to re-mobilise the engine if I turned it off!

At home I dug out the instructions for the immobiliser manual override. Took all the wet ropes out. Found the blipper worked perfectly. Open, shut, open, shut... no probsa for ten or fifteen repeats on the driveway. Go to petrol station to fill up. Blipper won't re-mobilise engine (hadn't locked, but it obviously immobilises anyway after 30 sec). Again took maybe fifty presses to open.

Got home from garage. Blipper opened and locked the car perfectly, again for fifteen tests!

This am, it wouldn't open the car at all, and have had to manually cut out the immobiliser.

Massively annoyed. I had a new battery put into the blipper a while ago, so I don't think it's that. Incidentally, am in the middle of investigating lock problems; a recent ecu test showed the passenger actuator had been playing up and setting my alarm off. No idea if that could be linked.

Anyone got any good ideas, before I go spend another fortune (£56 for ten minutes on testbook, ffs!) at the local MGR dealer to have them investigate?

Thanks, all.
Jamie
J Wakeham

Jamie, try the easy things first, check out the 'new' battery - and it's contacts.

jt
John Thomas

I agree with JT.

Also, bear in mind that radio interference can cause a dramatic attenuation of blipper range - it is possible that this is something that could be affecting you here...
Rob Bell

As in the blipper's battery? Will do. Any aprticular trick in getting inside the case? And what voltage should it give - I can put a voltmeter on it now.

Not sure it'll do any good, though; when I say 'new', I mean only six months old, during which time it's been perfect until yesterday.

I wonder about the radio interference idea. Both the occasions were under a petrol station forecourt, which can sometimes be capable of doing some very odd radio/low microwave resonance type weirdness.

Jamie
J Wakeham

Jamie,

these blippers or key fobs come apart buy wedging a blunt butter knife in between the edges. The case is in two halfs and it just pops apart. Do this carefully so as not to mark the case edges.

The fobs can work on several frequncies depending which version you have.
Here is a link to more info. (tech)
http://www2.mgcars.org.uk/cgi-bin/gen5?runprog=mgbbs&mode=archiveth&subject=69&subjectar=69&thread=2005040803205428318

and this http://www.remotekey.co.uk/FAQ.htm

Cheers,
Branko
Branko

Thanks, Branko. I'll try the procedure given in your second link in a minute.

The cell is giving a constant 2.9v - it says 3v on the casing. Is this enough of a discrepancy to cause problems, or is it within tolerance?

Cheers,
Jamie
J Wakeham

Don't some garages have mobile phone "masts" hidden in the signage?Could this cause your problem?
Pete

OK - the reset procedure described on the remotekey.co.uk site seems to have worked; she's not played up all evening or this morning.

Wonder what could have got the fob and the ecu out of sequence so badly? Concievably water in the fob might, I suppose, but I kept it in a drybag all day long...

Thanks, eveeryone.

Jamie
J Wakeham

This thread was discussed between 31/10/2005 and 01/11/2005

MG MGF Technical index

This thread is from the archive. The Live MG MGF Technical BBS is active now.