Broken down at Calais ferry port

[No1bandit]

New to piston heads.
My BMW broke down trying to board a ferry in Calais last night. Drove 270 miles in France no but once at port it failed to start. Electrics played up badly. Windscreen wipers came on with me outside the car with keys in my hand ?! Then key fob would not engage into steering column.
Eventually towed onto boat, towed off at Dover and transported home. Transport guy said he's picked up a few cars with same problem, puts it down to ports radar system interfering with my cars electrics ?!
Has anyone heard of anything like this ??

[SturdyHSV]

No1bandit said:

Has anyone heard of anything like this ??

I haven't. I have a friend who works in EMF testing, so I'll ask if that's even remotely possible, but I suspect not else cars would be shafted all over the place.

However, if it does happen to my mate's M3 on the way back from Le Mans, I may well piddle myself with laughter

Glad you got home OK.

[TooMany2cvs]

No1bandit said:

Eventually towed onto boat, towed off at Dover and transported home. Transport guy said he's picked up a few cars with same problem, puts it down to ports radar system interfering with my cars electrics ?!
Has anyone heard of anything like this ??

Did it start once you were away from Calais port? I guess not, else you wouldn't have needed to be towed off the boat or transported home. So it's very unlikely to be the port's electronic interference. You'd also see every BMW of the same era stuck there unable to start.

It does happen, but rarely and very localised. Sounds more like the body control computer having had a sulk. What BMW? Do I recall something about water ingress to the ECU?

[Benton]

Happened to this chap (bottom of page) in a Volvo.

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

[RizzoTheRat]

There's a relatively well known issue with BMW bikes sometimes being unable to start due to interference messing with the immobiliser's ability to recognise the key. I've heard stories of people being unable to start in petrol stations but pushing the bike 20 yards up the road means it starts fine. Could be something similar.

[Mohi20]

Hi mate
I breakdown in calais, how did you manage to tow the vehicle in and out the ferry?
Thank you

[ChocolateFrog]

Mohi20 said:

Hi mate
I breakdown in calais, how did you manage to tow the vehicle in and out the ferry?
Thank you

1 post in nearly 9 years.

Good luck getting a reply.

He probably rang his breakdown cover.

[paradigital]

ChocolateFrog said:

1 post in nearly 9 years.

Good luck getting a reply.

He probably rang his breakdown cover.

I doubt he did for the sections within the ports themselves. Getting towed onto and off-of the ferry was handled for me by the port workers.

I’ve only every been towed off of a ferry, not onto, but I’d imagine getting towed onto would be similar.

[Scabutz]

I have known something similar. Years ago I worked at Sussex Police HQ in the comms building, it had a massive mast on top with lots of aerials etc.

There was a small car park next to it and lot of times the remote wouldn't unlock the car. Back then cars still had keyholes so you unlocked it manually and drove off, didnt affect anything else

[MitchT]

Ferrari F355s equipped with the Bosch Motronic 5.2 injection system would sometimes be rendered completely dead when parked near a mobile mast. The solution was to have the car recovered to a location out of range of the interference and then it would work again! Don't know if a better solution than "don't park near a mobile mast" was ever reached for these cars.