Could NOT open / deactivate my Roc!!!

[ASBOST]

Has anyone else ever encountered this???

Went into a petrol station, filled up, took wallet, locked / armed the car.....paid for my petrol....went back to my car.....couldnt open the car!! I tried the key fob so many times but still wouldnt open. Was at a total loss of what to do.....left my phone in the car!! Christ, how vulnerable do you feel without your phone? I thought my life was about to end because I had no phone or contact numbers. The kind woman at the petrol station let me use her phone.....after using 118 I got the numbers i needed to contact the RAC who came out in about 30 minutes....

They spent aprrox 1 minute to open the car and get me on my way.....How stupid do you think i felt when he popped the white plastic cover off the door handle exposing the door lock???? 15 mins before I was ranting and raving to the woman giving it "What kind of car company makes a bloody car these days that you cant open with a key blah blah blah!" ....anyhoo he popped the cover off, opened the door and alarm sounded, he then started the car and that was that.

He said that he had another Roc in Glasgow in Asda supermarket do the exact same thing, it was something to do with radio frequencys or something. He said this happens quite a lot with new cars. I was in Springburn in Glasgow and was going through all sorts of senarios as to why I couldnt open the car.... I thought someone had stolen my alarm frequency lol I've watched "Gone in 60 Seconds" waaaaaay too much lol.

Anyhoo moral of the story....always take your phone with you and ALWAYS read the car manual from start to finish!!

Needless to say i felt like a right tw@....just glad it was a simple prob tho!!

[skyblues11]

Although this had not happened to me, but i feel the manual/ VW / Dealer did not make a bigger issue with this, knowing it can be a potential problem when most people are used to cars with a key hole.

same goes with the issue about the glass freezing on the rubber. I only learnt that via this forum, so i had time to buy some silicone before taking delviery of the car.

i think this forum had taught me much more than the manual, which in my opinion was written badly with arrows everywhere.

[ZephyR]

Happened to me too but I was lucky - the car was down the drive and I had read the bit in the manual about getting with the key. I tried using the spare key fob but that didn't work either.
Its not done it again since and I'm not sure why it did but the previous day after washing it and backing down the drive the locks and lights did a couple of funny things on their own. Just the main CPU having a bit of a fit I guess.

[Ibanez33]

I've had this happen with my current car but sadly when it does I just have to keep trying, if I lock it with remote the key are useless till it is unlocked with the remote using the key in the door doesn't open it just sets the alarm off. (which sadly I had to find out the hard way)..

Didn't realise there were locks under the covers..

[bookie]

Yeah this hasn't happened to me yet *touch wood* but i read a similar thing happening to the evo fleet test scirocco they have. Bit bizarre really but at least you know if it happens again!

[ashley1407]

Not happened to me, but let it be a lesson learned. Always read the manual!

[Gilez]

I have read and heard about this problem quite a few times. it is apparently something to do with the unlicensed radio frequency band that the key-fobs and millions of other devices use. Basically, as i understand it, the receiver in the car gets flooded with radio transmissions from other devices and the key fob then seems not to work. This is not unique to the Rocco, but any car that uses RF key-fobs.

I read a story where the same happened to a couple, and when the RAC/AA van parked beside them, that was all it took to enable the fob to open the car again. The van purely acted as a big wall to block the interfereing RF.

[funnyroc]

I had this happen to me just before xmas and like you thought what the hell .. tried the other fob but then spotted the gap to stick the key in and pop the plastic bit. I knew there had to be a key slot somewhere ... it was just a case of working how to get it of without damaging it. Touch wood it hasn't happened since.

I know how you feel though, initially I was thinking what a load of crap .. but its quite a nice design and the key slots in to pop the plastic over off ..

[mordred1973]

must dash out and check how to remove the cover.......

[combusted]

Same thing happened to me once a few week ago. It was impossible to open with the remote and therefore had to manually pop the plastic cover. Beware that unlocking manually does not disarm the alarm, and it will cry loud until you start the engine. After starting the car the remote started working again as usual.