If you think putting your car key through the washing machine is bad...

[Rolfe]

It's common knowledge that I keep my car key inside my bra, so I never even have to think about which pocket or handbag it's in, and do I have it on me. Last night when I came back from my road trip I was aware that it had fallen on the bedroom floor when I was getting undressed, but I didn't do anything to tidy it up. This morning I was putting more or less the same clothes on, and looked around for the key, but couldn't see it. Oh well, I wasn't taking the car out, so I just left it. I know it's there somewhere, I'll get it later. Got on my bike to go to church. Nothing noteworthy happened on the 500-yard journey as far as I noticed.

Fast forward an hour and a half, after everyone had hung around drinking extra coffee to wait for the monsoon to stop, and I'd finished admiring the green X-Power parked right outside the church gate, and I set off home. Pedalling like mad because the sky was still thinking about flooding the place. Half way there I saw something indistinct on the tarmac. Was that...? Screeching halt and about-turn.

There, nearly in the middle of the road, was an MG4 key, coming apart with the mechanical key detached from the rest of it. Dismissing a wild idea that it could have had something to do with that X-Power, I picked it up, took it home, and proved it was mine by unlocking Caliban. Somehow it must have been in a pocket of something I was wearing, got put back on, and got loose while I was cycling to church. (But it was definitely in my bra yesterday and I definitely saw it on the floor at one point.)

It's fine. It must have been run over several times as it's slightly scratched and dented, but I put it back together again and it works perfectly.

If someone had noticed it during the hour and a half it was lying there, and picked it up? If something really heavy (like an X-Power?) had gone over it and smashed it? Most of all, suppose I just hadn't seen it when I rode back along the road?! Lucky me, basically.

 

[Alb]

Not sure whether to conclude you were lucky or unlucky

 

[siteguru]

Not sure whether to conclude you were lucky or unlucky

Lucky in that nobody else has the key.

 

[Bam Bam]

Any pics?

 

[Rolfe]

No. I didn't have my phone with me. I would have liked a pic of that X-Power sitting looking picturesque by the village green, but there you go.

 

[EVsince2016]

Any pics?

Of what exactly?

 

[Rolfe]

I'm assuming of key lying in the road, or maybe of a smart green X-Power...

 

[MG Clive]

Any pics?

Of what exactly?

That's what I was wondering.

 

[salty]

Any pics?

Of what exactly?

That's what I was wondering.

The mind boggles.

 

[Bam Bam]

LOL
Yeah, I meant the key!

Obviously I've got a much more pure mind than some of you.

 

[Rolfe]

All is not as well as I thought it was. Everything was fine Monday and Tuesday. This afternoon I went to get into the car to drive a neighbour to her hospital appointment and the door button wouldn't open the car. Hell's teeth. My first thought was that the 12v had gone and how long is it going to take to recover from that and should I volunteer to drive my friend to Livingston in her own Fiesta? My second thought was, maybe the driver's side door button has gone (the passenger side went a few months ago). My third, and correct, thought was, maybe it's the key.

Ducked back into the house for the spare key, and everything worked normally. Double-checked when I got home and yes, the key that had the adventure on Sunday is as dead as a dodo. Could it be the battery? Or could the innards have rusted because it was left out in the rain for an hour?

 

[Archev]

Try swapping the batteries between the keys.

 

[Rolfe]

For that I need to know how to open up the keys. (Good thought though.)

 

[Ian Key]

For that I need to know how to open up the keys. (Good thought though.)

 

[Rolfe]

Ta muchly.

 

[Rolfe]

Yes! @Archev and @Ian Key, I love you both. It's the battery.

That video is truly excellent. I, however, will do anything wrong that it is possible to get wrong. I put the battery from the good key into the dud one and the car still didn't open. Damn. Thoughts of expensive replacements floated into my mind. But I thought, check it the other way round. So I put the battery from the dead key into the spare key - and the car still wouldn't open. Maybe the battery and its key both died?

Better put everything back the way it was, then. As I was doing this I looked more closely at the batteries and realised that, despite the very clear instruction to fit them "positive terminal down" I had managed to fit them the wrong way up both times. Return to start, do not collect £200, do it all again.

This time it all made sense. The "dead" key worked with the other key's battery in it, and the spare key was dead with the other battery in it. Great! All I need now is a replacement battery.

I don't know if it was pure coincidence, or whether an hour and a half lying in the road in the rain being occasionally run over by various vehicles somehow caused the battery to die, or if it was just coincidence. There is a slight dent in the battery. It was reassuring to see that there was no sign of water damage inside the key, and that indeed although the emergency key had been released from the fob the main closure had not come apart and presumably the seal held.


ETA: The batteries seemed strangely familiar, so I checked my box of spare batteries. Yes, they're the same batteries as the sensor device for my cat radio-frequency tracker uses, and I keep a stock of these. Mission completed, both keys are now operational.

 

[OriginalBigAl]

I bought new batteries to replace the old ones, these had child proof stickers on which I hadn't seen or noticed before and consequently on refitting didn't work , until they were removed .
Something else to look out for!! or in my case , use my ruddy reading glasses more often.

 

[siteguru]

It's just a CR2032 button battery, as I recall - very easy to get hold of.

 

[Rolfe]

It's just a CR2032 button battery, as I recall - very easy to get hold of.

Extremely easy, when you already have several in a box in a kitchen cupboard!

I bought new batteries to replace the old ones, these had child proof stickers on which I hadn't seen or noticed before and consequently on refitting didn't work , until they were removed .
Something else to look out for!! or in my case , use my ruddy reading glasses more often.

I remember seeing these on the first set of batteries I bought for the cat tracker, although as I recall they were pretty obvious. The original sensor ate these batteries at a frightening rate and I used to go out collar-hunting with a spare battery in my pocket, and a small pair of scissors to get into the extremely tough packaging. Changing the battery in the rain while crawling under someone's hedge was such fun! That sensor got eaten by the gremlins in the kitchen (i.e. it mysteriously vanished) and the new one is much less hard on batteries.

The spare batteries I have now, which I got in the local electrical appliance repair shop, don't have the child-proof sticker.