Doors won't open...

[ATG]

Electrical problems ... whoopee. When I disarm the alarm there is no familiar clunking noise and the doors remain locked. When the ignition is switched on, the green light in the door locking button is illuminated and doesn't switch off if you open the door. The stereo doesn't appear to have any power either.

As I can arm and disarm the alarm and the indicator lights flash as per ususal I suspect the problem may be a bit closer to the lock's electrical wotsits. Anyone know if the stereo and the lock share a fuse? (would seem like an odd marriage, but then this is a TVR...)

[Graham]

either a fuse or a relay i'd have thought. especially if its both sides... I think the door lock relays are in the dash somwhere but i could easily be wrong...

[Mr Fix It]

I had a similar problem yesterday- but this was due to my seat belt being caught in the door. The door therefore did not shut properly (door was sticking out a bit) which i did not notice after setting the alarm. When i pressed the key button to turn off the alarm, the lights flashed but the doors did not unlock. Don't know if it affected my radio as the front pannel was not attached. After many locking/unlocking button presses on the key fob (five minutes worth) and a bit of strong language it decided to unlock.....

[ATG]

Graham, i think you're probably right about the gubbins being under the dash. certainly don't see anything on the fuse panel. Steve heath's book gives an electrical schematic for a 4.0/4.3 griff. It doesn't seem to have the same locking arrangement as a 97 Chim. Doesanyone know how the door lock works in a Chim? Does anyone have a wiring dig for these cars??

[shpub]

The Chimaera locking system is probably connected to the radio as it is likley to be on the AUX Ignition circuit. Check this fuse before doing anything. The locking itself is controlled by the alarm unit which has also changed over the years and there were several dealer fit options. Before delving under the dash check the obvious things like the door switches are not jammed. Chcek the fuses and if necessry chcek them all. Also check that all the ignition related things work like the interior fan and so on. The Stereo and locking only share the ignition feed and fuse (I suspect again TVR changed the fusing frequently) so that would be my first port of call. After that chcek the relays that are associated with it. There are some under the dash associated with the alarm and these also sometime fail.

Steve
www.tvrbooks.co.uk

[atg]

Thanks very much Steve. This kind of info is gold dust.

Unfortunately things escalated last night. At about 2:30am the alarm's siren went bonkers. Seemed to have switched on by itself as
(a) arming/disarming the alarm with the remote didn't switch it off (even though indicator lights flashed to show arm/disarm was working) and
(b) the siren didn't wail evenly. it hiccuped, stopped, started, and then after about 20mins it howled, paused for 20 seconds, howled again and then stopped completely.

God knows what is going on. After it eventually shut up, and with the alarm disarmed, the indicator lights turned themselves on and off as if be magic, e.g. they would flash for 20secs then switch off, and might do the same again after a couple of minutes.

I can risk leaving the alarm system disarmed in the short term as the doors are permanently locked anyway, and the immobiliser is on. No guarantee that is going to keep it quiet, but worth a go...

Looks like everything the alarm can drive/override is going up the spout (the exception being the stereo) so maybe the alarm is knackered?

Incredibly frustrating coz living where I am I have nowhere to work on the car and all my electronics kit is in storage. A few relays and some switches should be so easy to diagnose ... arrgghh

[Marshy]

Off the wall suggestion... is your battery OK? 7-series BMWs (and alarms in particular) go a bit wonky if the battery voltage gets too low...

[UpTheIron]

Is yours an early Chim with key operated door locks (rather than blanking plates or buttons)?

Mine gets seriously upset if you lock (or deadlock) the doors (with alarm off) and then later attempt to open/unlock the doors with the alarm "thingy".

Usual result is doors unlocked and alarm on
Occasionally, and usually in the most embarrassing of circumstances, like after have a windscreen chip repairs in a busy car park on Saturday, the doors will refuse to open even with lots of alarm bleeping and key turning. But 15 minutes or so of p*ssing around usually gets things back into synch. Swearing under your breath helps enormously.

[ATG]

Thanks for the suggestions ... he car is a 97 model with the wing mirror switches. No syncing problems to date (though the night is not yet over). I did wonder if something had lost power and was quietly (not) dying under the useful support of a backup battery.