Help! Magic Self-locking Car!

[Mark Thomas]

On my 2001 ES300 - I cannot figure out when or why it locks itself. It seems I can drive one day, park it in my garage without locking it, come out the next morning and it is still unlocked. On another day, I walk in the house for a minute, go back out in the garage and it's locked itself. Very frustrating.

I've read the manual, and several posts on here about resetting the key fob but i don't think I need that. It's always done this, the buttons work fine, it's just bugging me that I can't figure out what combination of door-closing, button pushing, etc is causing it! Or if that's even it. Can this be disabled? I only want it to lock when I lock it....is that wrong of me?

Like I said everything works fine- the fob buttons lock and unlock, but why does the car lock itself sometimes and not others?? Of course if i lay my keys down in the house and go out to get something from the car, it's ALWAYS locked then.....you get the idea...

[DobieG]

On my 99, if I use the fob to unlock the doors but I don't enter the car within 20-25 seconds then the alarm resets and the doors re-lock.

[GrayES300]

On my 2001 ES300 - I cannot figure out when or why it locks itself.  It seems I can drive one day, park it in my garage without locking it, come out the next morning and it is still unlocked.  On another day, I walk in the house for a minute, go back out in the garage and it's locked itself.  Very frustrating. 

I've read the manual, and several posts on here about resetting the key fob but i don't think I need that.  It's always done this, the buttons work fine, it's just bugging me that I can't figure out what combination of door-closing, button pushing, etc is causing it!  Or if that's even it.  Can this be disabled?  I only want it to lock when I lock it....is that wrong of me?

Like I said everything works fine- the fob buttons lock and unlock, but why does the car lock itself sometimes and not others??  Of course if i lay my keys down in the house and go out to get something from the car, it's ALWAYS locked then.....you get the idea...

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I also have a 2001 ES300. I have experienced the same "Security feature" you are describing. I have hunted all through the manual, but all I find is that you need to open the door within 30 seconds or the doors will lock. I thought I read somewhere in the manual that if you open and close the rear doors or passenger doors once after they are unlocked, the car will still lock itself. I usually keep my door open when I need to return to it and not have it lock or I open and close it twice. I think that kept it from happening to me a couple of times. I'll keep looking in the book. I could have sworn I read about it in there somewhere!

[GrayES300]

On my 2001 ES300 - I cannot figure out when or why it locks itself.   It seems I can drive one day, park it in my garage without locking it, come out the next morning and it is still unlocked.   On another day, I walk in the house for a minute, go back out in the garage and it's locked itself.   Very frustrating. 

I've read the manual, and several posts on here about resetting the key fob but i don't think I need that.   It's always done this, the buttons work fine, it's just bugging me that I can't figure out what combination of door-closing, button pushing, etc is causing it!  Or if that's even it.   Can this be disabled?   I only want it to lock when I lock it....is that wrong of me?

Like I said everything works fine- the fob buttons lock and unlock, but why does the car lock itself sometimes and not others??   Of course if i lay my keys down in the house and go out to get something from the car, it's ALWAYS locked then.....you get the idea...

←

I also have a 2001 ES300. I have experienced the same "Security feature" you are describing. I have hunted all through the manual, but all I find is that you need to open the door within 30 seconds or the doors will lock. I thought I read somewhere in the manual that if you open and close the rear doors or passenger doors once after they are unlocked, the car will still lock itself. I usually keep my door open when I need to return to it and not have it lock or I open and close it twice. I think that kept it from happening to me a couple of times. I'll keep looking in the book. I could have sworn I read about it in there somewhere!

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I think DobieG is onto something. If you use the button on the key, you have 30 seconds to open the door. If you use the key to open the door, I don't think it applies.

[chadmg7]

Like DobieG said, the locks will re-lock automatically if the unlock button is pressed and no doors are opened within 20-25 seconds. However, your auto locking problem seems like it might be something wrong with the electronic locking mechanism, or the computer chip that controls it.

[steviej]

does the reverse ever happen, meaning do you ever lock it only to find it unlocked itself?

I have heard that when the battery starts to go, strange electronic things start to happen. Even though the battery has enough juice to start the car each time, little electronic gremlins start to present themselves.

On my old SSEi, the clock would loose time and the radio sometimes lost presets.

Turned out the battery was going. Put in a new one, electronic quirks ceased.

What kind of battery and how old is the battery you have in there now?

Next time you run by Autozone, pop in and have them load test you battery. Takes a few minutes, but it is free.

steviej

[mrsel3]

Its a passive alarm.

Most cars with factory alarms have the feature you are describing. So make sure you don't leave your keys in the car!

[dickholy]

i think u must pushed UNLOCK buttom on the remote before u go to ur car, but eventually u did not open the door. so the door just automatically LOCK itself within 20 seconds.

[alschneider]

On my 99, if I use the fob to unlock the doors but I don't enter the car within 20-25 seconds then the alarm resets and the doors re-lock.

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Same on my 2005. It even re-locks after 25-30 seconds if you only open the trunk! A door must be open in that time or it does re-lock.