Rover 200 & 400 Owners Club

I got locked out of my 1990 216 GSi last night at a pub at 930pm with the keys in the ignition.
I recovered the car five hours later after a mate took me home to get the key and travelled over 100 extra miles in the process rolling into bed knackered at 130am!
I could have broken a window but nearly all my glass is original 1990 date stamped glass so was not really prepared to. I know that no one ever checks such things but...

My car does NOT have a fob to lock and the central locking is only key shut and unlocked. Its an early R8 within 8 months of production start.
Had the car over 20 years and it has NEVER done this before at all.

So what is going on? Anyone else able to fathom this one out because I am stumped. I cannot recreate the issue.

I had opened the car with the key and the central locking had undone. I had put stuff on the rear seat and shut the door and then opened the drivers door and got in to start and put the key in ignition but as far as I am aware had not turned it just put key in ignition barrel.

Got out of the car to see what was holding up the wife and friends - they were looking for a key fob for another older friend but stupidly I had left the keys in the car - and my phone, wallet and coat!

I walked back to the car and lifted the door latch to open the car. As it got to the top of the travel instead of clicking and opening - before the travel usually gets to the very top of the opening range the central locking buzzed and closed all four doors!

Boot locked bonnet locked central locking locked and full all four electric windows stuffed me at that point.

Only positive was the wife was happy it had not happened on her watch!

Any ideas because I cannot see why the car would lock itself and do not think the ignition barrel and the central locking are linked so think this is just an unfortunate by product of the evening.

Only glad it was 60 miles away not Scotland on holiday or similar!

I've been locked out of a P38 R.R multiple times in Sainsbury's car park in Bath; my fault really I knew the thing held a vindictive hatred toward me and it always happened in the same location!

I owned a 89 GSI for over 10 years and put over 100,000 miles on her in that time. Not quite the same situation because a aftermarket alarm had been fitted that locked the doors and wound the windows up. This [true story] really impressed a guy getting out of a Reliant Robin in Halfords car park!

I've never experienced that situation although mine had a fob.

I can only think the door locking is incidental to you leaving the keys in the ignition; either linked to the other fob in the vicinity or there is an electrical problem with the central locking? So the car would have locked itself irrespective of where the keys were?

This has jogged my memory some more, once when my young daughter was in the car I left her in it, shut the door and went to fetch something from somewhere, it locked itself and set off the alarm as she was inside. She thought I'd done it on purpose, i.e locked her in but I obviously hadn't. S o a similar situation only happened once though. that car had a transponder though, whereas your doesn't?

The key being in the ignition is incidental. It will likely be the lock button on the driver's door not being fully up when you lift the external handle. Remember that, with the door open, you can lift the driver's door handle and push down the lock button to lock the car. If the lock button wasn't fully up, when you lifted the handle, the button drops down and activates the central locking. I have had it happen on my 75, but with keys in your pocket, it doesn't become a drama, just a surprise! A replacement driver's door latch has overcome the issue.

Most likely a fault in the driver door control box (or the lock button position). You can't lock yourself out of the car manually as the drivers door cancels the lock button unless you deliberately hold up the door handle. The central locking on our 1990 214 GSi stopped working after a few years and we debated whether to repair it. The fault was in the driver door control box. In the end I decided not to fix it and just pulled the fuse out. My wife was a bit concerned about the system going doolaley and locking us out.

So just one of those things hopefully and never leave keys in the ignition is the moral!

As it has no alarm or fob or cannot be external forces and was pretty certain there was no link between the keys in barrel and the central locking so your right it is just incidental.
Wife was only glad and still is it was not on her watch!
Thanks

These were all the rage at one time; not a lot of money for peace of mind.

https://amzn.eu/d/0j7fsZbv

Yes take keys out , years ago I washed my 420 with jet wash at a petrol station and it locked its self *laughs* never leave them in the car anymore.

Funny enough the amazon thing I have clipped to the workshop shelving and did consider leaving a key somewhere on the car....
perhaps not in a box but wired onto something somewhere.
certainly stop me getting stuck good shout will have to consider thanks