No not quite. If all doors lock when you push the button on the top of the door inside the car down, the CDL switch is working. Pushing that button down mechanically locks that door but also operates the CDL switch which signals the BeCM to lock the other doors. Not using the keyfob, that electrically locks all doors and the CDL switch isn't used (other than to enable the tailgate).

When unlocking with the key, a ground is put on the wire from the keyswitch and on the wire from the CDL switch, when locking the ground is only put on the keyswitch. With the sill locking button up, so the car is unlocked, there should be a permanent ground on the Green/Red wire from the CDL switch. If the sill locking button is pushed down to lock the doors, that ground will go off. The RH door, which in your case is the passenger door, works the same (except it doesn't have a keyswitch) and this is the same ground that goes to the tailgate so it will open if the RH front door is unlocked but not when it is locked.

So, with the door open but with the latch closed so everything thinks the door is closed, simultaneously ground the CDL (Green/Red) wire and the keyswitch wire (Blue/Red) then take the ground off the keyswitch wire but leave the CDL switch wire grounded. Then release the door latch so it appears that you have opened the door and start the engine. That should take the alarm and immobiliser off and it might be possible to start the car on the key.

When the car is immobilised, the signal from the ignition switch to the starter relay is interrupted in the BeCM so your pushbutton will be bypassing the BeCM. Depending if the existing wiring has been cut or just had the wires for the pushbutton tied into them it may or may not work as it should. Quite what has been done so that it still runs with the alarm on I have no idea (as I don't know how the immobiliser works on a diese) but what relays have been removed?

If it went off and then came back in 30 seconds, you have passive immobilisation enabled. If you unlock the doors that will turn off the immobiliser and alarm but if you don't start the engine within 30 seconds, they come back on again. When everything is working correctly, as soon as you put the key in the ignition, the coil around the lock barrel causes the remote to send an unlock code to turn them off again.

So if you do what you did to turn them off (that would normally be a ground on the keyswitch and CDL switch simultaneously and then leave the CDL switch grounded (or it will lock all the doors again) and then start the engine, the alarm and immobiliser should stay off.

But still a lot cheaper than the same thing but in a Land Rover bag https://rimmerbros.com/Item--i-FQJ103250

But if the CDL switch has failed, it won't cause the other doors to lock.....

Hmm, that took some finding as search seems to have a problem in as much as it isn't returning any results prior to this year. But, how to change the bulbs in the dashboard switches.

To get the switches out you need to push them out from behind. Drop the knee panel, undo the 4 screws that hold the instrument cluster surround in and pull that towards you. That will give you access to one of the screws that holds the centre switch panel in place. If you have the original stereo, remove the surround (it just clicks off) and take out the 2 screws either side of the stereo, then you should be left with one more screw on the passenger side and the whole thing will pull towards you and you can get your fingers behind the panel and push the switches out. Once out you can unplug them and you'll see the bulbs on the side of the switches. Turn them anticlockwise and they come out. That then lets you get to the bulbs themselves.

The dash switch bulbs are STC1877 for the orange ones (https://www.island-4x4.co.uk/catalogsearch/result/?q=stc1877) stupidly expensive but the green ones are STC1878 and are even more (https://www.island-4x4.co.uk/catalogsearch/result/?q=stc1878) but are just a plastic housing with a wire ended bulb. The bulbs can be bought from CPC (https://cpc.farnell.com/sli-ebt/7219-004/wire-ended-3mm-12v-1-9-lumens/dp/SC00339) at under £4 for a pack of 5 or Mouser (https://www.mouser.co.uk/ProductDetail/606-CM7219) at roughly the same price but sold singly. I have a feeling that Mouser have a presence in EU too as a friend in France buys a lot of stuff from them. All you need do is unwrap the wire on the original bulb from the housing and pull it out, carefully remove the coloured cover, fit that to the new bulb and fit it into the holder, wrap the wire around the holder (the first time you do it, have two of them out, one to fit the bulb to and one to see how the wire wraps around the holder, and then then snip off the excess wire. The only one that is different is the one for the Hazard light switch as it doesn't have the coloured 'condom' on it, just plain white.

As they say in all the best books, reassembly is the reverse of the above.....

The tiny little bulbs in the switches are easy enough to change but expensive if you buy the actual ones but you can take them out and replace just the bulb. I'll see if I can find where I detailed which ones you need to buy (I think they were about £3 for a pack of 5).

The wire from the other side of the tailgate pushbutton doesn't go anywhere near the BeCM, it goes directly to the RH front door latch on a Green/Red wire. This connects to the CDL (Central Door Locking) switch inside the door latch itself. If the central locking operates when you push the sill button on that RH door down, then the CDL switch is working so the problem is between there and the tailgate. There is another connector (as well as the one in the RH side of the boot) C301 lurking just inside the door jamb.

As you are in Italy, I would think the car is LHD? In which case the front left door latch is the important one with the keyswitch in it. The door latches are also used on the MGF and Rimmer Bros bought the entire MG stock of spares when it became Chinese. As there are very few LHD MGs in the UK, they will sell you a brand new LH latch for a LHD car at a huge discount, see https://rimmerbros.com/Item--i-FQJ102292PMA. The P38 latch up to 99 model year has a 6 way and 1 way connector, the MG latch has a 6 way and a 2 way. The 2 way has an additional grey wire in it that the P38 doesn't need so can just be chopped off. If the car is later, it will have an 8 way connector with only 7 ways used. In that case you cut your existing plug off and fit it the the new latch (the wire colours on the latch are the same).

Considering the reputation for electrical complexity, the tailgate circuit is probably the simplest circuit on the entire car. Power comes from Fuse 15, goes through C306/C806 hiding behind the RH side panel in the boot (where all coloured wires change to white before going to the tailgate) to the tailgate actuator. The other side of the actuator goes to the pushbutton and the other side of that then makes its way to the RH front door latch where a ground is supplied from the CDL switch.

You should see 12V at the actuator without the button pressed but if that drops to 6.4V at the actuator with the button pushed, you have a high resistance joint between the fuse and the actuator. Worst case would be a failing underbonnet fusebox, a splice that has gt wet at some point or best case, corrosion in the C306/C806 connector.

One other thing to check is that you don't have the same problem as Fingers had. Make sure the C shaped plastic bit connected to the interior door handle hasn't stuck and can still move. If the interior handle has gone limp as if it isn't attached to anything, that will jam the latch on.

Il.mazzu wrote:

to try the 9v or 12v trick, I connect the Orange/Pink and Black GND?

No, the superlock motor is between the Orange/Pink and Pink/Black wires. Power one way round powers it on, the other way round powers it off. Be aware that the Pink/Black is also used by the central locking motor, cutting the Orange/Black just means that superlock cannot be engaged, but the Pink/Black needs to remain connected.

Just had to enter the EKA.... Every evening I will lock the house front door and press the lock button on the fob to make sure I've locked the car and not left it unlocked. Indicators flash to tell me it has received it but last night they didn't. Fairly sure I'd locked it when I'd last been out so ignored it. Went to it a few minutes ago and the fob wouldn't work so had to unlock with the key which immobilised it. Put the EKA in with the key rather than the Nanocom and realised I should really get some lube in the door lock as it was a bit stiff having not been used for quite some time but still took the EKA. Synced the fob and all back to normal but wondering why it had lost sync in the first place?

If you can get the door open without breaking the latch, cut the Orange/Pink wire (or the one on the latch that connects to the Orange/Pink) as that is the one that feeds the superlock motor. The spring doesn't hold the superlock on, it holds the latch so the door is able to be closed. Breaking the latch makes it no longer possible to latch the door shut, so you will need a new latch anyway.

The BeCM isn't involved in the tailgate locking. Power goes to one side of the tailgate latch, the other side goes to the pushbutton and the pushbutton is connected to the RH front door latch and gets a ground via the central locking microswitch. So if the door is locked, there is no ground there so no complete circuit to open the tailgate, when unlocked a ground is present on the Green/Red wire from the latch and the circuit is complete so pressing the pushbutton opens that tailgate. You can get at the Green/Red wire at a connector inside the boot behind the side panel where the coloured wires all change to white before going into the tailgate.

Maybe, or could be the cancelling mech on the indicator stalk.

Mirafiori-Max wrote:

What about changing htm from left to right ? That´s the trick I learned from you but havent´t done myself yet. Worth a try, maybe the original sensor will reach the million miles then :-D

I thought about that but that just moves the worn section to a different height. Fine as a temporary fix but not ideal long term. As the problem only appears to show itself on smooth French roads, I'd rather know it is fixed permanently rather than wait until next time I am in France. I can test a height sensor off the car easily enough so will know if the new ones are good before fitting them. Got a 4,000 mile round trip to do in July so if they are still working by then I think I can say they are good.

Not today but Saturday. Got up at the sort of hour I would normally only be going to bed to drive to Dover. Ferry to Calais, then drive to Charles de Gaulle airport to pick up the wife, her sister and 2 small puppies who had flown in from Riga. Then drove back to Calais and, after a quick visit to the hypermarket to stock up on wine and coffee, back to the docks for another ferry and the drive home. Almost exactly 24 hours from leaving home to getting back and another 630 miles on the clock and most of the run done at 75-80mph.

However, all was not perfect. About 40 miles into France, I got the dreaded beep, beep, beep and a dash saying EAS Fault, 35MPH. By the time I'd pulled into a refuge, I was on the bumpstops, which, even on French billiard table smooth roads, isn't comfortable at 70 mph. Plugged in the Nanocom (which permanently lives in the car) and saw a left front height sensor fault. Cleared the fault and the car immediately rose back up to Standard height then poked the inhibit button to force it back to Motorway height and looked at the Inputs. At Motorway height the stored settings were Left Front, 98, Right Front 99, live readings were Left Front, 71, Right Front 122! Got out to the car expecting to see it leaning heavily to one side, but no, it was sitting perfectly level.

Carried on driving with the Nanocom plugged in so I could see what readings I was getting and found that in Standard height the Right Front was reading what it should most of the time while the Left Front was still reading about 20 lower than it should. However, in Motorway height, both would read correctly some of the time, usually after going over expansion joints in the road but on a smooth road, the Left Front was reading too low. So about every 30 miles, it would give me the fault again, clear it with the Nanocom while still driving and before it had chance to drop to the bumpstops again. Oddly enough, after dong it 4 more times it stopped doing it and went back to behaving itself for the rest of the journey. Checked it today and our crap English road surfaces are bumpy enough that it reads correctly just often enough to stop it from faulting but decided that a pair of front height sensors are needed. I remember I changed the front right for a used original one about 8 years ago but as far as I know the front left is the original and has been there for 548,000 miles so I can forgive it for starting to get a bit worn.

But the question was, with what? Island 4x4 have Dunlop OEM at £240 each, I've known a number of people who bought cheapo eBay ones that haven't worked from day one, but Rimmers have aftermarket (but not specifying who makes them) at £78 each and at least with Rimmers, I know there won't be a problem if they do fail, so I've ordered a pair of those.

My brain must be getting slower. Realised I've had this before but not caused in the same way as yours. The dead giveaway was the interior handle going floppy as if the cable had broken.

The tailgate is locked when the RH front door is locked, so really you need to reinstate the central locking. I would suggest un-bodging the wiring and getting it back to how it should be. If the sill locking button doesn't cause the other doors to lock, chances are the CDL switch has died, which would also explain the locked tailgate. If the alarm light is permanently flashing, chances are it isn't turning off so the starter circuit will be disabled by the BeCM, hence the starter push button to bypass it. The immobiliser can't be removed but someone has obviously found a way around it. Not sure how the immobiliser works on the diesel (in fact, I know very little about how anything works on a diesel)

You probably don't need a new cable, the plastic C shaped but that the cable operates is on a steel pin, The steel pin corrodes so it expands and the plastic bit binds on it. You can work it back and forth with a bit of WD40 or similar on it or take the latch out and clean it up fully.