Help! Cooper S - Alarm went off and car now immobilised

[not now lewis]

Cam anyone help me with a problem with my Cooper S (02 plate). Parked it this afternoon and locked it as normal, but a short while later the alarm went off. However when I tried to unlock the car with the remote to stop it nothing happened. Manually unlocked the car as is possible and tried the key fob whilst inside the car to no avail. Tried the key in the ignition but there was no lights on the main dials (but there were from Sat Nav and charger in the lighter, so it shouldn't be the battery) and the car is now immobilised.

Figured it must be the battery in my key fob and so managed to get hold of the spare from home but this didn't work either.

I will get a new battery fitted to the key fob tomorrow just in case it was bad luck that batteries in both keys were dead but is there any other explanation? Can I override the immobiliser so that at least I can get the car started and drive it home?

[< FORZA WEST]

not now lewis said:

Cam anyone help me with a problem with my Cooper S (02 plate). Parked it this afternoon and locked it as normal, but a short while later the alarm went off. However when I tried to unlock the car with the remote to stop it nothing happened. Manually unlocked the car as is possible and tried the key fob whilst inside the car to no avail. Tried the key in the ignition but there was no lights on the main dials (but there were from Sat Nav and charger in the lighter, so it shouldn't be the battery) and the car is now immobilised.

Figured it must be the battery in my key fob and so managed to get hold of the spare from home but this didn't work either.

I will get a new battery fitted to the key fob tomorrow just in case it was bad luck that batteries in both keys were dead but is there any other explanation? Can I override the immobiliser so that at least I can get the car started and drive it home?

Batteries in the remote are non replacable im affraid and the remote central locking will have no effect on the ignition unless the key has been deep sea diving.putting the key in the ignition will override the alarm,so forget the keys in this case.

Several possible causes to your problem...Flat battery,water ingress to the BC1/gerneral module,power steering pump-they can cause loads of problems if they suffer water ingress.Check all the fuses etc in passenger footwell and under bonnet by battery.

[not now lewis]

Thanks. I will try and jump start the car, I was surprised that there were no lights on the dash at all in this case unless it had been drained entirely. The fan has been sticking a bit recently, when turning off the engine it can keep running for a bit, hadn't noticed it this time but possible that this had caused the battery to go flat whilst I was away from the car, the alarm going off may have been a side effect. I will give it a go, get some charge into the battery and see what happens.

Incidentally, I had opened the key fob and there is a battery in there, a 3V watch battery, but assume I opened a fob that was meant to remain sealed!

Many thanks, will let you know how it turns out

[< FORZA WEST]

There is a battery in there but its a rechargable version and it should be tack welded to the board in some way

[not now lewis]

It was the battery. When I connected the leads the fan started which was stuck on for some reason and drained the battery. Car started first time, I disconnected the fan and then reconnected again and it cut out and has worked fine since then so I will have to keep an eye on it.

Many thanks for your help.

[< FORZA WEST]

Yes we also have a few issues with the cooling fans too.The module built into the fans fail,so it may well happen again.

Glad i could help