I am new to Land Rover and new to this forum, so thanks in advance for all of the input! I have seen commentary on both of these issues, but not together in the same forum.

2000 Discovery 2

Two problems:
1) when I unlock the drivers door (my FOB is broken, and I don't want to pay $250 to get a new one from the dealer) sometimes only the driver's door will unlock, not the rest of the doors and the alarm will not disarm when this happens. When I lock it back, the alarm stops and I come back to it later and it will randomly start working again.
2) While driving (I noticed it on a 30 minute trip on the highway) my doors will randomly unlock themselves. I lock them back, and sometimes it stays for the remainder of the trip, others, t will randomly unlock again.

Could these two problems be caused by the drivers door lock actuator? Is there a chance it could be another door lock actuator?

Any help is appreciated.

 

Could very well be the driver's door lock actuator, being that when you use the key to unlock the driver's door, it doesn't disarm the alarm, and it doesn't actually unlock the other doors. If it were mine, based on those symptoms, I'd replace it first.

 

I was reading that you can program the Discovery II to ONLY unlock the driver's door first.
Then, the rest of the doors.

So, when you put the key and turn the key counter clockwise - the driver's door unlocks.

Then you do it over - turn it counter clockwise again - that should unlock the remaining three doors and the tailgate door.

 

I would seriously suggest you buy a new FOB off of E-Bay then get it programmed before something else happens and your key won't work, that's when you will wish you had a FOB.

 

Mike,
The more I read, I am thinking the same thing. I will be getting a FOB, but I am thinking it is still possesed and in the short term I need to fix the actuator/alarm problem. Looking at your posts, it seems you really know your Land Rovers. Do you think that replacing the driver's door actuator will fix the unlocking problem with the other doors and random locking/unlocking while driving?

 

I do not believe, without spending some time checking it out, that it is the actuator.

 

When you examine the wiring diagrams, you will notice than many things, like the arming / disarming switch function, work by "grounding" a certain terminal or connector pin momentarily. This makes it electrically possible to do the same thing at any point along that wire by a "skint" place in the insulation. This is also called a "rub" by some techs, the wire has rubbed all the insulation off where it goes over a metal object like a bolt head, etc. May have to "shake" the wiring harness. Bumping along and grounding out a harness can make magic happen....

 

A few different things here:

You can unlock all of the doors using the key. As someone else wrote, turn the key counter clockwise once and the driver door unlocks, turn it counter clockwise again, and all of the doors unlock. Turn it clockwise and all of the doors lock.

The key does arm and disarm the alarm when you turn it, but it is not recommended to use the key, because it is known that using the key does not guarantee the alarm will disarm. You can simply turn the key counter clockwise and look at the alarm indicator light to stop blinking before you open the door.

The problem could be with the fob. Try taking the battery out of the fob (if you have the key with the built in fob, or have a key made without the fob, this model does not have a key immobilizer). If there is a problem with the fob and the fob is in the car, it could be intermittently sending an unlock signal.

Buying a key fob from E-bay, two issues. Number one, if you do get a fob from E-bay, you need to have the bar code with they key. People sell keys on E-bay, but the dealer cannot program the key without the bar code that comes with the key, so the keys without bar codes are useless. Number two, I have heard of people selling keys on E-bay, making a clone of the transmitter and then going and stealing the car. Also, if you figure you'll just buy one of those programmers on E-bay and program the remote yourself, save your money, because they won't work. There are one or maybe two programmers that will allow you to do it on the Land Rover, but you'll pay about 10k for it. The keys on E-bay that come with the bar code cost between $100-150 then the dealer is going to charge you to program it, and probably cost about $100 anyway. If your dealer will do the key for only $250, you may as well go through them and have piece of mind.

I suggest taking the battery out of the fob first and see if you still have the problem, that way you remove the most likely cause and it costs you nothing but 5mins of your time. If you don't know how to take the battery out, you just take some pliers and wiggle the key blade away from the remote, then take a flat head screwdriver and put it where the key blade was, just give it a little turn, and it pops open. If you don't want to do that, take the key and have a copy made using a regular flat key blank. Then leave the remote home, go for a drive and see if it unlocks.

 

The dealer can get the barcode for the remote keys. They may either pretend they cannot, to sell you another key, or the person you are talking to just might not know how to get it. I had someone provide me the codes for my keys based on the shortened version printed on the inside of the remote.

 

Discovery SE7;

For a while I thought you had pinned the problem. I was driving today and I noticed that when I jiggled the key fob it would unlock the rover. I took the battery out and the next time
I drove it it seemed to work fine, almost made it all the way home and then, unlock! Now I'm back to square one, so anyone have any other ideas?
Thanks!

2000 Discovery 2,120k.