Confused Becm - keycode lockout

Right - this may be a long post, but I'll try to keep it simple without missing anything that may be relevant.

'98 4.6, I went to use it a few days ago and it wouldn't start, click only, (it had been fine the day before) battery flat.

Decided to monitor voltages to see if battery was dead or dying.

Never had any problems with Rf drain.

Took it out to recharge, voltage at 5.2v.

Charged it for 48 hrs, on disconnecting voltage was 14.2.

Over the next 2 hrs it drifted down to 13v.

Over the next 12 hrs it went down to 12.92

Put it back in the car and before re-connecting decided to check for parasitic drain, in connecting the meter (10A) I inadvertantly let it disconnect a couple or 3 times, and there were various beeps etc, the reading was 0.85 and didn't drop down to the lower (0.03/4) reading after 5 continuous mins so presumably the Becm wasn't going to sleep.

Reconnected battery, locks triggered (keys in pocket).

Opened it up with key, tried to re-synch key as usual (press fob lock button while turning key to lock).This has always worked before and I've had the battery disconnected numerous times, jump started a couple of times.
Fob has always worked as it should. never had low fob battery message. FOB LED flashes slowly at first then quicker.

Key in ignition pressed fob, tried to start it, dash message - engine immobilised, key code lock out - press fob or enter keycode.

Never needed the EKA but I know what it is.

Read many, many posts on here and RR.net.

2 hours later tried again - still keycode lockout on switching to position 2.

Plugged Nanocom in - alarm is already disabled, it accepted EKA and I disabled immobilisation, wrote settings (this while ignition in Pos 2 and keycode lock out showing on dash).

No change - Bugger.

Disconnected battery (voltage 12.85) and went away to read more posts.

2 hrs later tried again, no change, but tried entering EKA with key. Not accepting, no flashes, beeps etc.

Tried the key in ignition, turned on, disconnect and reconnect battery procedure - no change.

BUT noticed that the rear door (that I had manually unlocked to get the owners manual out) locked itself when the key was turned to lock.

Tried lifting all the lock buttons and they would all relock from the key but not unlock. ???

Tailgate opens as it should.

Disconnected battery (voltage 12.85) and left it overnight.

Any suggestions as to what I should try next?

My thoughts:-

1) Flakey connection when testing for parasitic drain has confused the BECm

2) Faulty door micro switches - but why would they suddenly stop working at the exact moment the battery was reconnected? And the EKA code was accepted by the nanocom

Any suggestion will be pounced upon and considered, but I don't want to go charging off in random directions and confuse the issue further.

There are so many different possibilities and suggestions it's difficult to know where to start.

Thought as a first step I would try lifting all the lock button and put in the EKA on the nanocom as I read a post that said it would not accept the code if any of the doors were unlocked, but to put the code in you have to turn the key to lock???

May thanks in advance.

Alastair

Go into BECM in diagnostic mode (ignition off) have a look around and report what you see. EKA code can be disabled in this mode. You cannot get into BECM with ignition on if BECM is locked.

hi, without a fully charged battery 14.5 then you will just go round and round in circles !!!!!!!!!! how old is the r.f. receiver ????? what color disc does it have on it ?????
to check if receiver is draining battery and becm is going to sleep then don't set alarm till its dark and then use fob to set alarm and look through window at little red light on gear selector plate alongside park position ....watch for couple minutes and normally red light goes out !!!! the becm is now asleep , so hypothetically the r.f. receiver is ok ..but an old one can re awake the becm via receiving spurious signals and drain battery ,,, ie Wi-Fi, door bells phone masts etc etc etc the list due to modern technology is endless !!!!!! but as wammers suggests the nanocom is a great piece of kit and should put you on the right track ,, regards mozz

Thanks for your thoughts gents - Mozz, the RF receiver was in the car when I bought it 20 months ago, never been a problem with it, never even looked at it. I have checked it went to sleep correctly using a meter a couple of months ago when I had low voltage problems, but at that time it was a problem with the EAS pump, now sorted.

OK, just been out to it:- and

Lifted all lock buttons.

Reconnected battery (12.72V)

Doors all locked.

Keycode lockout message on dash (+ in addition to all the window messages, there's now the 35mph max one)

Pressed fob while unlocking, only drivers door unlocked.

Plugged Nanocom in with ignition off.

No BECM faults recorded, one outstation fault regarding RH seat (unclearable)

BECM showing Immobilise on (even though I'd switched it off last night, switched it off again and wrote setting.

BECM is showing as unlocked

Further checks in 'other' showing VERY weird settings - Vin is not the correct one, mileage is 12000 odd too low, date (dd/mm/yyyy) is showing 2097/09/15; language is french (even though messages are in English), gearbox is wrongly showing as manual, wrongly showing as LHD, trip computer off, etc.

The question is should I change them all, or one by one, and if so in what order?.

Dubious about altering the VIN, mileage & date ones . . . I'd never looked at these before, so don't know if the BECM's been changed, but as the alarm was disabled when I first got it and plugged the Nano in, I'm guessing someones been into it before.

Propose to do the obvious ones - french, LHD, auto, computer on to start with - do you concur?

PS I wondered whether, as the battery had flattened to 5v while the car was locked (it's never superlocked) this had befuddled the BECM, I seem to remember a post about that somewhere . . .

A

The French is a dead give-away ... better to do search than rely on my memory.

odyssey said:

Thanks for your thoughts gents - Mozz, the RF receiver was in the car when I bought it 20 months ago, never been a problem with it, never even looked at it. I have checked it went to sleep correctly using a meter a couple of months ago when I had low voltage problems, but at that time it was a problem with the EAS pump, now sorted.

OK, just been out to it:- and

Lifted all lock buttons.

Reconnected battery (12.72V)

Doors all locked.

Keycode lockout message on dash (+ in addition to all the window messages, there's now the 35mph max one)

Pressed fob while unlocking, only drivers door unlocked.

Plugged Nanocom in with ignition off.

No BECM faults recorded, one outstation fault regarding RH seat (unclearable)

BECM showing Immobilise on (even though I'd switched it off last night, switched it off again and wrote setting.

BECM is showing as unlocked

Further checks in 'other' showing VERY weird settings - Vin is not the correct one, mileage is 12000 odd too low, date (dd/mm/yyyy) is showing 2097/09/15; language is french (even though messages are in English), gearbox is wrongly showing as manual, wrongly showing as LHD, trip computer off, etc.

The question is should I change them all, or one by one, and if so in what order?.

Dubious about altering the VIN, mileage & date ones . . . I'd never looked at these before, so don't know if the BECM's been changed, but as the alarm was disabled when I first got it and plugged the Nano in, I'm guessing someones been into it before.

Propose to do the obvious ones - french, LHD, auto, computer on to start with - do you concur?

PS I wondered whether, as the battery had flattened to 5v while the car was locked (it's never superlocked) this had befuddled the BECM, I seem to remember a post about that somewhere . . .

A

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If the BECM is unlocked you should be able to reset everything with the Nanocom. DON'T lock it for christ sake or you will be stuck with what you have. It will then have to be sent to be unlocked and reset.

wammers said:

If the BECM is unlocked you should be able to reset everything with the Nanocom. DON'T lock it for christ sake or you will be stuck with what you have. It will then have to be sent to be unlocked and reset.

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When I had a flat battery and the BECM went mad (French, lhd, etc, etc) my BECM also showed as unlocked. However, once I'd changed the settings and re-synced the BECM with the ECU it then showed as locked, despite me not actually locking it. So the fact that it shows as unlocked may not be correct but just some sort of quirk.

hi, in my opinion don't do anything yet with becm , don't reset ,,,, yet try fully charging the battery to 14.5 then reconnect then try entering eka code if your not sure your code is the right one for your becm then use 1515 skeleton code , if you P.M. me with your e-mail address I will send you my re-sync programme which will show exactly the right way to do it ,, if all goes ok then I would take advice from wammers or rick on how and what to do with nanocom programming as I haven't got or used a nancom ,, !!!!!! ok cheers mozz

p.s. make sure you read programme properly and take your time , any problems pm me and will give you my number and talk you through it ......

mozz smith said:

hi, in my opinion don't do anything yet with becm , don't reset ,,,, yet try fully charging the battery to 14.5 then reconnect then try entering eka code if your not sure your code is the right one for your becm then use 1515 skeleton code , if you P.M. me with your e-mail address I will send you my re-sync programme which will show exactly the right way to do it ,, if all goes ok then I would take advice from wammers or rick on how and what to do with nanocom programming as I haven't got or used a nancom ,, !!!!!! ok cheers mozz

p.s. make sure you read programme properly and take your time , any problems pm me and will give you my number and talk you through it ......

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Sorry Mozz, he's gone beyond that, he needs to put the settings back to normal with Nanocom before it will do anything.

Bladerunner919 said:

When I had a flat battery and the BECM went mad (French, lhd, etc, etc) my BECM also showed as unlocked. However, once I'd changed the settings and re-synced the BECM with the ECU it then showed as locked, despite me not actually locking it. So the fact that it shows as unlocked may not be correct but just some sort of quirk.

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Maybe but take advantage of the situation and reset things. If he can read the EKA code and the FOB code as well as the security code it's unlocked. Only security code can be read on a locked BECM.

Thankyou all for the replies, I've been out and about, now about to be going shopping (oh joy) and have come back to all these suggestions.

This is what I mean about the range and variety of help, (particularly with this problem) all good stuff, from acknowledged experts all eager and willing to share the knowledge and help other sufferers, but for this type of problem which seems to have multiple different manifestations and solutions, all you can do is distill down the advice/experiences of others and try to apply logic to produce a workable plan of action, but of course the plan goes out the window as soon as the first step is taken and produces unexpected results . . .

That's why I love this forum and watch it even when there's nothing wrong with the RR, and try and contribute when I feel I may be of help, (plus of course the humour, abuse, general eccentricity, etc)

Anyway, as far as I remember the BECM was unlocked when I got it, with the dire warning that any change was irreversible, so I left it well alone.

On my return from the joys of Aldi and Sainsburys I will start by correcting the French, LHD, Manual, and see what happens.

Bladerunner - did your vin and date and mileage change? If so did you correct them?

Thx - Alastair

odyssey said:

Thankyou all for the replies, I've been out and about, now about to be going shopping (oh joy) and have come back to all these suggestions.

This is what I mean about the range and variety of help, (particularly with this problem) all good stuff, from acknowledged experts all eager and willing to share the knowledge and help other sufferers, but for this type of problem which seems to have multiple different manifestations and solutions, all you can do is distill down the advice/experiences of others and try to apply logic to produce a workable plan of action, but of course the plan goes out the window as soon as the first step is taken and produces unexpected results . . .

That's why I love this forum and watch it even when there's nothing wrong with the RR, and try and contribute when I feel I may be of help, (plus of course the humour, abuse, general eccentricity, etc)

Anyway, as far as I remember the BECM was unlocked when I got it, with the dire warning that any change was irreversible, so I left it well alone.

On my return from the joys of Aldi and Sainsburys I will start by correcting the French, LHD, Manual, and see what happens.

Bladerunner - did your vin and date and mileage change? If so did you correct them?

Thx - Alastair

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Thing you have to take into consideration is that your BECM may not be the original unit and may have reverted to the vehicle settings it came from. If it is unlocked you should be able to carefully reset everything. If it was locked you could not do that. However if it is unlocked there are certain functions that are not possible without a bit of fiddling. Read the following link for info.

http://www.nanocom-diagnostics.com/downloads/1556252923.pdf

Well - isn't the Nanocom a wonderful thing!

As planned, I corrected/changed the French/LHD/auto, reset the alarm (locks activated) entered EKA and hit disarm, wrote settings, exit nanocom.

Tried it and - Bingo! It started and everything working again!

Set windows etc., synched key in lock, one press whilst turning, all done. Locks/unlocks with the fob (from 15ft away, or even further if I touch the fob on my head while pressing).

Started Nano again, and as Bladerunner found, the BECM was now reported as locked.

BUT the vin and mileage were now correct and the date had changed to 15/9/1998 - presumably the date it was built/installed/programmed, rather than the current date.

After idling for 5 mins, switched off and the voltage was 12.95. Will be monitoring it over the next couple of days, got a 30 mile round trip tomorrow - will see if it needs the battery replacing, will also check which version of RF receiver I have.

Many thanks again gents - it's very comforting to know there's such a huge fund of knowledge out there, freely given.

Alastair

odyssey said:

Well - isn't the Nanocom a wonderful thing!

As planned, I corrected/changed the French/LHD/auto, reset the alarm (locks activated) entered EKA and hit disarm, wrote settings, exit nanocom.

Tried it and - Bingo! It started and everything working again!

Set windows etc., synched key in lock, one press whilst turning, all done. Locks/unlocks with the fob (from 15ft away, or even further if I touch the fob on my head while pressing).

Started Nano again, and as Bladerunner found, the BECM was now reported as locked.

BUT the vin and mileage were now correct and the date had changed to 15/9/1998 - presumably the date it was built/installed/programmed, rather than the current date.

After idling for 5 mins, switched off and the voltage was 12.95. Will be monitoring it over the next couple of days, got a 30 mile round trip tomorrow - will see if it needs the battery replacing, will also check which version of RF receiver I have.

Many thanks again gents - it's very comforting to know there's such a huge fund of knowledge out there, freely given.

Alastair

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You never read the small print, the bills in the post.

tomcat59alan said:

You never read the small print, the bills in the post.

Click to expand...

Another satisfied customer main trick on here is choosing who to listen to.

odyssey said:

Well - isn't the Nanocom a wonderful thing!

As planned, I corrected/changed the French/LHD/auto, reset the alarm (locks activated) entered EKA and hit disarm, wrote settings, exit nanocom.

Tried it and - Bingo! It started and everything working again!

Set windows etc., synched key in lock, one press whilst turning, all done. Locks/unlocks with the fob (from 15ft away, or even further if I touch the fob on my head while pressing).

Started Nano again, and as Bladerunner found, the BECM was now reported as locked.

BUT the vin and mileage were now correct and the date had changed to 15/9/1998 - presumably the date it was built/installed/programmed, rather than the current date.

After idling for 5 mins, switched off and the voltage was 12.95. Will be monitoring it over the next couple of days, got a 30 mile round trip tomorrow - will see if it needs the battery replacing, will also check which version of RF receiver I have.

Many thanks again gents - it's very comforting to know there's such a huge fund of knowledge out there, freely given.

Alastair

Click to expand...

Check the voltage at the battery at 2K rpm, you should have at least 14.2 volts

Datatek said:

Check the voltage at the battery at 2K rpm, you should have at least 14.2 volts

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Did that a few weeks ago, lights on, full load etc - it was OK. I'll try it again and keep an eye on it but first need to know why battery drained down to 5v in 24hrs.

A

get a tester called Fusebudy plugs in instead of fuses and give you a reading and then check what that fuse runs, and you don't nave to disconect the battery.

brianp38dse said:

get a tester called Fusebudy plugs in instead of fuses and give you a reading and then check what that fuse runs, and you don't nave to disconect the battery.

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That's just a meter with a fuse-shaped probe. You'd be better spending the money on a normal multi-meter that will do exactly this and a load of other things too.

odyssey said:

Did that a few weeks ago, lights on, full load etc - it was OK. I'll try it again and keep an eye on it but first need to know why battery drained down to 5v in 24hrs.

A

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Probably the RF receiver keeping the BECM awake.