P38 engine disabled for no reason, please help!

Hi guys, car in question P38 1999, 2.5diesel automatic

Today we went out to go on a drive and as we opened the car doors after unlocking it , the alarm went off. Last night we undid the battery on the keyfob while trying to fix it, so now the fob won't lock the car. However it unlocks all 4 doors while turning the key in the lock.

My fiance tried to put the key in the ignition to turn it to position II to disarm the alarm, then the dash said "engine disabled, press remote". We tried to introduce the generic 1515 EKA code, but the car won't even take the code. So when we turn the key to lock 4 times, no lights flash, upon entering first digit, car just unlocks.

Worth mentioning that this happened a few times before randomly when we opened the car doors, one time putting the key in the ignition worked, the second time it didn't work but pressing the fob worked. Now the fob is not synced.

We don't have the original EKA code, the car is French. It's saturday today and we can't get it to a workshop. Any suggestions?

You could try re-sync with key in the door. It's in the owners handbook.

pwood999 said:

You could try re-sync with key in the door. It's in the owners handbook.

Click to expand...

Manual says it is not possible to sync the key when the alarm is on. It was the first thing we tried to no avail.

Okay guys we managed to re-sync the key in the door and stop the alarm, I found somebody's post on rangerovers.net that suggested:

"1. Let battery charge on trickle charger.
2. Open drivers door, with battery connected, setting off alarm (D/C negative battery terminal to kill alarm, not **** of neighbors.).
3. Open/Close drivers side lock manually from inside a few times.
4. Close driver door but leave ajar slightly - do not lock. I did not fully shut the door.
5. Disconnect and reconnect battery. (Parking lights will flash once) Red Alarm light will pulse on dash.
6. Close bonnet.
7. With Driver's side lock open, attempt to sync key. Take batteries out of key and replace. Press lock button on remote and hold until LED starts blinking, insert key and turn to lock hold and return to center. Press unlock on remote until led blinks and turn key to unlock side."

In our case the battery was never disconnected, but we left the drivers door slightly open, disconnected the battery and played around with syncing the key, which made the alarm stop and now the fob works. Just posting this in case anyone out there has the same problem in the future.

Always look under the brake pedal rubber for your EKA code. Some dealers stuck it there using a bit of Dymo strip.

If it happens again, add Step-Zero & open the drivers door window first. That way you can still get inside no matter what, happens while trying things