Car completely dead - eventually, AA called out

[tonybridge]

I parked the MG4 in the Marina Car Park and headed out onto the canal in our Narrowboat. A week later, we returned and went to load up the car for the journey home. The car was completely dead, didn't respond to any attempt to open the doors. Guessing that somehow the 12V battery had failed, I thought, 'Never mind, I'll Unlock using the app' - lol, the app doesn't work if the battery is dead! I knew that the key fob had a manual key hidden inside, but I had no idea how that might help (yes, I should have checked this out before!). 'The Manual will tell me', I thought... but, although I have a printed copy, it is ... er... inside the car, in the glove locker . Oh wait, there's a copy in the app! No, the app won't work The only thing that does work in the app, thankfully, is the 'Rescue Call' feature, and I managed to contact the AA, who were fantastic. They knew my car, and sent out a great local guy, who was really helpful.

He had no idea how to use the manual key either, but between us, we eventually found the way to the manual lock. Later, at home, I looked for this information in the manual, but it isn't there grrrr.

You will need to prise off the trailing edge of the door handle with a slotted screwdriver (which we all have in our pockets, right?! ), which reveals a good old-fashioned door lock. On the manual key is a little swing-out bar, which you can use to turn the key in the lock. Photos attached, sorry about poor quality of the door lock, I was a little stressed at this point!

Hope this helps...

Apparently, the lights on the car had suddenly come on about two days into our voyage, and acting on several comments from other boaters, the Marina Office had been trying to contact me about this. I hadn't picked up their messages (signal isn't good out in the wild!), so after three or four days of the lights on, the battery had failed - not sure what I could have done about it, though, from several miles away on the canal! The AA guy confirmed that the battery was otherwise in good health, and it has been performing perfectly well since then.

Why the lights came on is a mystery, in two+ years, nothing like this has happened

 

[Tig170]

Although never needed for myself todate, following advice on here I have one of these https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0BBV7KC7Z, in recent months I've sorted 2 ICE cars whoom asked for help in my work carpark

 

[salty]

Although never needed for myself todate, following advice on here I have one of these https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0BBV7KC7Z, in recent months I've sorted 2 ICE cars whoom asked for help in my work carpark

Yep, got one meself just in case. And took advice off here also, and I keep it in the glove box not the boot.

Oh and why you helping ICE cars.

 

[jamakr4]

Very unfortunate.. But as there is no damage and no one got harmed I think it could be worse and it's the kind of story you can laugh about after some time.

Maybe you had the high beams on the manual setting (they stay on after locking the car). I also have experienced that.. I had the car for 2 weeks and decided to manually turn on the high beams and then park it and leave it. As I came back I saw the car from 400m away and thought - Oh another MG4, turned out it was my car. Very weird behavior as the car also doesn't give you a warning or anything..

 

[tonybridge]

Although never needed for myself todate, following advice on here I have one of these https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0BBV7KC7Z, in recent months I've sorted 2 ICE cars whoom asked for help in my work carpark

Great idea...

Unfortunately, in my case, I couldn't open the car, or the boot, or the bonnet and for some strange reason I wasn't carrying a jump pack with me.

Very unfortunate.. But as there is no damage and no one got harmed I think it could be worse and it's the kind of story you can laugh about after some time.

Maybe you had the high beams on the manual setting (they stay on after locking the car). I also have experienced that.. I had the car for 2 weeks and decided to manually turn on the high beams and then park it and leave it. As I came back I saw the car from 400m away and thought - Oh another MG4, turned out it was my car. Very weird behavior as the car also doesn't give you a warning or anything..

The lights came on a couple of days after I departed on my cruise.

 

[T1 Terry]

I parked the MG4 in the Marina Car Park and headed out onto the canal in our Narrowboat. A week later, we returned and went to load up the car for the journey home. The car was completely dead, didn't respond to any attempt to open the doors. Guessing that somehow the 12V battery had failed, I thought, 'Never mind, I'll Unlock using the app' - lol, the app doesn't work if the battery is dead! I knew that the key fob had a manual key hidden inside, but I had no idea how that might help (yes, I should have checked this out before!). 'The Manual will tell me', I thought... but, although I have a printed copy, it is ... er... inside the car, in the glove locker . Oh wait, there's a copy in the app! No, the app won't work The only thing that does work in the app, thankfully, is the 'Rescue Call' feature, and I managed to contact the AA, who were fantastic. They knew my car, and sent out a great local guy, who was really helpful.

He had no idea how to use the manual key either, but between us, we eventually found the way to the manual lock. Later, at home, I looked for this information in the manual, but it isn't there grrrr.

You will need to prise off the trailing edge of the door handle with a slotted screwdriver (which we all have in our pockets, right?! ), which reveals a good old-fashioned door lock. On the manual key is a little swing-out bar, which you can use to turn the key in the lock. Photos attached, sorry about poor quality of the door lock, I was a little stressed at this point!

Hope this helps...

Apparently, the lights on the car had suddenly come on about two days into our voyage, and acting on several comments from other boaters, the Marina Office had been trying to contact me about this. I hadn't picked up their messages (signal isn't good out in the wild!), so after three or four days of the lights on, the battery had failed - not sure what I could have done about it, though, from several miles away on the canal! The AA guy confirmed that the battery was otherwise in good health, and it has been performing perfectly well since then.

Why the lights came on is a mystery, in two+ years, nothing like this has happened

The hook bit on the arm that releases from the fob, goes in that small slot in the lock cover, the key can be difficult if you have arthritic fingers, but there is a key head looking device that you can get that slots over the stubby key to give better grip to turn it, so that hanging on the key chain the fob doesn't actually hang from comfortably

The lights thing can happen even with the lights switch on manual during the day ..... as soon as the sensor sees it's dark, the lights come on, and stay on because you switched them on after all
The other one seems to be the car has a bad dream, wakes up with a fright, turns the lights on the horn beeps 3 or 4 times ..... then just leaves the lights, so you can find it in the middle of the night and reassuring you are close by to protect it from the boogey man ...... at least our MG poverty pack has passed the bad dreams stage, not a hope of convincing the wife it's her turn to calm the MG down and turn the lights off ..... what if someone really is trying to steal the car ...... then it can wake them up in the wee small hrs doesn't seem to help win the argument discussion about who will be getting out of bed and sorting the problem ......

T1 Terry