Been away for a months holiday and now find I cannot open the car. Tried both keys but nothing!
There's a red flashing light on the dashboard - not sure what it is.
Any suggestions as to how I might get. Into my beloved car?
Thanks.

Use the key in your fob on the nearside handle to open the door, insert fob into dock to cancel alarm.

As EY says, but to access the lock you have to remove a plastic cover on the nearside door handle. To do that, insert the key blade into the slot on the bottom of the cover - that will pop the plastic tab holding it in place allowing you to remove it.

Thank you kind sirs!
Maybe I should read the manual BEFORE it gets locked inside the car......that's what come of having this car for nearly 4 years of trouble free motoring!
I am wondering if it maybe switches into some kind of Battery saving Mode after a period of non-use....that'll probably be in the manual too!

It does, but as far as we've been able to tell it's dependent on battery voltage rather than time - which means you're never sure how long it will take to go to sleep! Some people have had problems after just a couple of weeks, others no problem after twice that.

Its dependent on time, battery voltage is not taken into consideration. My battery was fully charged as I had been topping it up via an external connection, but I hadn't woken the car up for just over 4 weeks, result, couldn't get into it. 
Hung like Einstein, smart as a horse.

Voltage is taken into account - there are several threads on here discussing exactly this which you may wish to read. There may be a time factor too, but voltage is certainly taken into consideration.

Like I say, mine was fully charged. Voltage will certainly be taken into account if you have a flat battery though. I have searched for threads about this, when it happened to me, but I haven't seen any that mention the vehicle will prohibit entry electronically via the fobs after the battery voltage reaches a certain level. What is the level?

Maybe the later models switched from time based to voltage based, it would certainly be a useful feature if the vehicle did period checks also taking battery voltage into consideration before it shut itself down further. 
Hung like Einstein, smart as a horse.

Bit of a slow day, so few quotes from threads over the years about this issue...

"He did a battery check too and found the battery to be in good shape despite it being parked up for 31 days, so I hope this comes in handy to anyone else with door opening problems!"

"I have just returned after 4 weeks having left the FL2 locked in the drive. The car would not respond to the key and I had to gain admission using the key. The alarm sounded and was canceled when I inserted the key unit in the slot. The car was then unlocked and it started OK."

"a flat battery was definitely not the case with my problem, as the alarm was deafening all the time we tried to get in - and then it started straight away after about six weeks standing. It was just the key fobs that were the problem."


"Just had the same problem. Apparantly the electronics close down after a period. After 23 days - was still OK - opened the car. After 33 days not OK. John McC of Land Rover assist duly arrived. Battery voltage was establised as OK (about 12.3 volts) by checking volts at the caravan socket."


"Having just been away for 34 days, leaving my FL2 locked on the drive, I returned to find it would not respond to either keyfob. I got in via the passenger door using an emergency key, the alarm instantly sounded. Inserting a keyfob silenced the alarm and the car then started immediately with ease. After this, both keyfobs worked normally. "

"The car does indeed enter a sleep mode which is a battery saving feature. Tuning off the receiver electronics, among other none-essentials will help prevent total car battery discharge during long periods of standing. This makes sense to me.
The time period appears to be around 30 days, based on my own and other's experiences.
Neither the car's battery nor the keyfobs' batteries were in a discharged state. The issue was normal intentional behaviour by the car's electronics. "



I'm thinking it's purely time based.  
Hung like Einstein, smart as a horse.

Just an update to this as it has happened to me again, despite me waking the car up to reset the timer. The sequence of events was:

Standing for 2 weeks.
Battery charge top up. Unlocked and relocked car with fob to re-set timer.

Standing for 2 weeks
Battery charge top up. Unlocked and relocked car with fob to re-set timer.

Standing for 2 weeks
Battery charge top up. Couldn't unlock car.

So it appears that unlocking and relocking isn't enough to reset the timer, you probably need to insert the fob into the ignition or maybe even start it up to re-set the timer. 
Hung like Einstein, smart as a horse.

Not getting into the car is of some concern. I did not use our old car for 4 months. The 19 year old car (manual and mechanical in every aspect!) fired up as though it was not used for a day. This is not the first time either. Our garage is extremely tight, so for the driver to actually exit the car, the passenger side is parked bang up against the garage wall.

Any suggestions on planing what to do next time would be appreciated. When I know the car is going to sit around for months, my only thought would be to park the car up against the driver's side and climb out the passenger door. So I can manually open the door after extended lack of use.

Leave it in neutral with the handbrake off. If you are not sure your garage floor is flat/level, chock the back wheel. That way you can drag it out if you can't get in. John
07 HSE Narvick Black
Land Rover Series One
Triumph Rocket 111 (sadly gone!)

We occasionally have problems with the electric garage door and getting into the garage is difficult from the side door as the car is in the way. The solution was to enlist the help of the 8 year old girl from next door who knows how to squeeze in and reset everything. Must get it fixed before she grows up.

JST wrote:

Leave it in neutral with the handbrake off. If you are not sure your garage floor is flat/level, chock the back wheel. That way you can drag it out if you can't get in.

dorsetfreelander wrote:

The solution was to enlist the help of the 8 year old girl from next door who knows how to squeeze in and reset everything.

Having suffered a similar situation, I was astounded to find that only the front passenger door allows emergency entry.
Following numerous call outs by recovery companies, who found that vehicles had been parked in such a position that access to the door was not possible, common sense has provided future vehicles will have the access on both sides. One Discovery, gone
Now on third Freelander 2
2013 HSE Auto Orkney Grey