car keys and central locking

Can the combined brains of Rochdale help with this one?

The car is locked, boot and bonnet, everything locked. Pointed the central locking key at it, nothing. Not a flicker. It was fine yesterday.

I can't get under the bonnet or in the car to see if the car electrics have gone.

Should I take the key apart to see if the battery in that has gone, or will that just make an impossible situation worse?

Very sensible idea, and easy to overlook the obvious, but no, there is no keyhole. It's totally electric central locking,.

Thanks Charlie, it's getting too dark now, so I'll try again tomorrow, it will be an interesting problem to start the day with.

I managed to have a look at that before it went dark, but couldn't find where the key might go.

If I do a teach-yourself combined electro-mechnical engineering and codebreaking course this evening I might be able to open the car door tomorrow.

Really daft question do you only have one fob? I had this with a key that wouldn't start the engine and from all accounts it had 'lost' the programming

Yes only one, and here is a really encouraging description of how to change the battery and re-progam it.
http://www.avforums.com/forums/motoring/366545-nissan-micra-remote-control-problem.html

I like the bit where it says "read this till you understand it."

The Wikken car key site says "Hold the key up in the moonlight, turn widdershins three times and chant, "Encode this key to make it go, and make it rain instead of snow."

Just read on a Nissan forum the hidden key hole in on the passenger handle not drivers

We had a Citroen and the manual said the battery was under the driver's seat. It took my 10 minutes to find it under the passenger seat. Obviously just translated straight from the French manual for a left hand drive version.

I'm hoping to hang on to the windows, with the time of year. Found instructions on how to re-program the key after replacing it's battery, but you have to put it in the ignition to do that and I can't open the car to put it in the ignition until it's reprogrammed and working.

It's comforting to see how many people on the internet have the same problem and are equally if not more baffled.

I'm hoping I might find this hidden keyhole under a bit of plastic on the passenger door, in the morning light, if it exists on my car, but some people have found that on their cars, and it still won't open the car.

Oh, those happy days of yesteryear when I could get in the car and drive it. I guess a dealer or a car-lock-man could do it, but, it might be cheaper to get a new old car.

It's not the weather for standing outside next to a car and thinking. This is the trouble with electronic gadgets, each has it's own mysteries, and there is nothing to see and make sense of.

This is the magic key coding ritual. Getting the car doors open in the first place looks the difficult bit..

1. Make sure all your Nissan vehicle doors have been unlocked, either by using a good transponder key or remote control plip key.
2. Turn the ignition to the off position – BUT make sure you leave key in ignition switch.
3. After 2 seconds, the system will enter programming mode and will flash the warning lights twice.
4. Press and HOLD the unlock button on the Plip.
5. While pressing the unlock button, press the lock button 3 times.
6. Release the unlock button.
7. The warning lights will flash once to indicate successful programming.
8. When completed turn ignition ON, and the warning lights will flash 2 times.
10. Remove key, and check for operation.

Managed to flip off the bit of plastic door handle on the passenger side and reveal an emergency lock I opened with the key, so one door is open, the rest are still locked. Opened the bonnet from inside the car. The car battery seems to be totally flat, so, now that's on charge.

Now it's responded to the key zapper and all the doors are open. Looking good apart from the underlying fault that's caused the battery to go completely flat overnight. The battery is about 6 months old, so it's probably not that.