NB SE Central Locking Malfunction

[KevGoat]

OK ... so this is more of a "no idea what happened" than a request for help, as the issue sorted itself.

My SE has the full Mazda alarm system with the interior movement sensor (don't know if they all do). I have no idea if the central locking is actually a part of all that, or is a separate stock module or something. But it is worked from the same remote. Apart from the odd false alarm, it has all functioned faultlessly.

The car has not been dríven a great deal in recent weeks, but has been left on the battery tender.

Nothing has been altered or touched in the car during that time.

Last week, with a nice day of weather, we took it out for the first time in weeks for a short drive - made short due to the boost gauge showing false readings of boost only, no vacuum. I figured there was something wrong with the gauge, as I've had a few issues with it. The following day I thought I'd remove it to have look at it. Just before I started to remove the dash screws, I thought to turn on the ignition and see what the gauge read. It was correct. Started the car, the gauge was back to reading fine. OK - that's good!

However, went to lock the car and no response from the remote. Tried lock, unlock, boot - nothing. After trying for a while, I grabbed my spare from inside and same problem, no response at all. Checked all fuses and all reading fine. Checked the red LED and no flashing code or anything. Checked as much as I could under the dash & couldn't find any issues. Put key in ignition and tried the remote - door lock, unlock, boot - and all worked! Removed the key - and nothing!

Wondered if by coincidence, maybe low batteries in both remotes. Went inside and only had a CR 2032 which after removing the CR 2025, was too fat to fit in. Replaced the CR 2025 battery and for whatever reason thought I'd go outside and try it again - and worked perfectly! Everything has been fine since with both remotes!!

Sooo ... Only thing I can come up with is that, when checking the boost gauge base setting by switching the ignition on/off several times, I managed to maybe program the alarm/central locking in to some sort of valet mode or something? Then, just by luck, removing the one remote's battery somehow reset everything? I can't find anything in the manual that even comes close to explaining what happened.

If for no other reason, I thought I'd post this as it may be a good warning to be careful, as switching ignition on/off does often adjust alarm settings. I think I just got lucky and it fixed itself ....