Central locking fuse blown

[fka]

Hi all

Fob would activate/deactivate alarm but fob, key, buttons in the car wouldn't lock/unlock the central locking or boot. Key opened drivers door but the rest remained deadlocked.
It happened to my poor Mrs when she was out with the kids and parked in a multi story. I got a frantic call but couldn't help so she ended up bundling the kids in via the driver's door and packed the pushchair in the passenger foot well 
Had a read up in the meantime and decided the central locking fuse must have blown, which it had. Put in another 15A and it's working fine now.
Question is, is this just a random blown fuse or could I be looking at a solenoid that's on it's way out/ sticking, are there any preventative measures I can take?

Cheers

[carrera]

Just put a bigger fuse in

...nah, only kidding.

It's possibly just a mechanical failure of the fuse.

I would see how it goes, but leave a couple of spare fuses in the car, with instructions of which one to change if it goes again.

Other than that; just see if you can hear one of the solenoids being "lazy"

[phoenix]

No had it on my 9-5 but have on my 9000- if a solenoid gets a bit sticky it can become too low impedance and blow the fuse.

[fka]

Thanks both. I'll see how it goes and I've just picked up a bumper pack of fuses from Halfords. I need a few for the caravan too anyway.
Talking of which, towed it home yesterday in a semi gale. Tows really well!

[fka]

Had a check this afternoon and can't hear anything struggling. All locks operate without grumbling.

[fka]

Central locking fuse No. 23 blew again this afternoon when the Mrs was out with the baby. Thankfully she's now well versed in replacing it but it looks like I'm going to have to start to dig a little deeper.
I had noticed some water in the the spare wheel well that had been getting in around the boot latch, as I'd not refit the boot lid seal properly when I fit the tow bar. It's dry now but wondering if something in the mechanism for the boot lock has got wet. Seems like a good place to start..

[fka]

Had another fish around this evening and found the filler cap solenoid is stuck open. I can feel a little movement in it when I operate the c locking so it is still connected. All the door motors are operating smoothly so filler cap solenoid is the prime suspect. May as well replace it as it's as much work to just disconnect it.

[fka]

May as well replace it as it's as much work to just disconnect it.

Nearly 200 chuffing quid for a new one and the only used one on fleebay is £70. Don't much see the point in fitting a used one. I'm just going to disconnect it 

[sgould]

I disconnected mine.  Had no problems since.

[carrera]

I seem to remember having one off so I could give it a proper clean, either that or it was when I was removing one from the breaker, maybe both.

This is a DE though isn't it. I notice that the fuel flap release on the drivers door was deleted, I assume as a part of value engineering. Does the Aero retain the actual lock ?

I think a bit of squirty and some mechanical movement will have it working again. Even better if you can rig up a switch for testing purposes to replicate the one in the door on older ones

[sgould]

The one in the Dame Edna that I have, has no door button. It locks and unlocks with the central locking.  There are two wires to it.  It opens & closes by reversing the direction of the current in the device.

[fka]

I was looking at the solenoids from the pre-05/04(?) models last night. Mainly because there's a lot of them for sale but also because they have the string to manually open them. From what I can tell they're not easily interchangeable..

I'll see if I can free it up but to be honest, if it's going to be a problem in the future, I'd rather just delete it and run the risk of someone pinching a tank worth of petrol. Something I may live to regret in the dystopian wastelands of post Corona virus Brexit Britain 

[fka]

It opens & closes by reversing the direction of the current in the device.

So are the Edna locks a motor rather than a solenoid. I think I read last night that the EPC refers to them as a motor..

[carrera]

My reading and understanding was that they are solenoid and the use of the word motor was a language issue, but haven't looked

[sgould]

Just terminology.  It's a solenoid in the Dame.  If the current passes in one direction the solenoid locks, and when the current reverses, the solenoid retracts.