Thread: Under what conditions does a D4 self lock?

Yes mine does do it,i read the OP post incorrectly.

i never use the tailgate opening on fob only,just tried it and same as OP.

Not a great thought out idea IMHO.

Well, when I bought the D4 (MY14) a few weeks ago at Southern's they assured me it was impossible to lock the remote key fob in the car...

It seems this may not the case, so, prompted by this thread, I carried out the experiment for myself...

1. After unlocking if no doors or tailgate opened, car relocks & re-arms itself as expected. Manual says after 1 minute, actually 40 sec in my case.

2. After unlocking if any door or the tailgate is opened and closed, car does not re-lock itself and must be manually relocked and re-armed using the key fob. I gave the car 5 minutes to relock itself automatically but it didn't.

3. If the tailgate unlock button ONLY is pressed on the keyfob, obviously the other doors remain unlocked and the tailgate can be opened. On closing the tailgate it locks and the entire car resumes its locked and armed status and indicates this with a flash of the indicators.

So is it possible to lock your key fob in the car in the third case above?

Off to get the spare key fob from its 'safe place' and try it out...

Press tailgate button on spare fob to unlock tailgate. Drop usually used key fob on floor of the car and close tailgate. The car 'slaps your wrist' with a double beep of the horn and the tailgate springs open. Try closing the tailgate again and the same thing happens. Try placing the 'spare' key fob in the kitchen (about 15 metres away) and close the tailgate again and the same thing happens.

In conclusion I am reasonably confident the dealer spoke the truth and it is impossible to lock your key fob inside the car... which is quite pleasing assuming I have covered all the possible lock/unlock scenarios?

Hopefully this feature applies to all MY14 or later D4s. Mine is a MY14 without keyless entry and with the usual 'multi-lock' feature enabled as per manual. I haven't tried it with 'single-lock' feature enabled.

cheers
phra

When I bought the D4, I made a point of asking about the possibility of locking the key fob in the car because - anecdote ahead warning - I succeeded in locking the remote fob twice (as if the first time wasn't embarrassing enough!) in a previous vehicle (an Alfa) and the second time took me and 2 RAC blokes with a small crowd of onlookers in a Bunnings car park on a hot day nearly 2 hours to break in.

The clever arming system had decided to disable use of dashboard button for opening the rear hatch after the first RAC man managed to trip the alarm by a sudden movement of the long pole which he had rigged up to press the dash button after springing the top corner of the drivers door. It took a while to figure out this is what happened because we kept pressing the dash button without any result.

We could see the key fob on the luggage compartment floor and eventually, with all 3 of us participating, we managed to rig up a contraption of poles that allowed the youngest RAC man (he had the steadiest hand) to press the unlock button on the key fob sitting face up on the floor and mocking us! The door locks clicked, I quickly pulled the hatch open (before the car could change its mind) and a little cheer and smattering of applause went up from the onlookers!

The Alfa was a lovely car to drive with a superb diesel engine (factoid: Alfa apparently invented the common rail diesel injection system and licensed production to Bosch) and amazing handling for a FWD car but the cheapskates only ever supplied ONE remote key fob with the new car (even my wife's little Hyundai shopping trolley is supplied with 2 as standard) so if you are dumb enough or distracted enough to lock the fob in the car you have to resort to breaking and entering. Yes you can buy a spare fob but $850 and 8-12 weeks? Forget it!

cheers
phra

Yours has keyless entry so it may be one of the sensors picks up that the fob is inside. This is what my wife's Qashqai does. As I don't have keyless entry I'll see what it does.

Just tried it. What do you know, two beeps and unlocked tailgate . So it works with either type of system.

That's interesting phra - looks like you've proven my fears baseless - but I'm still paranoid about locking the keys inside the vehicle and will maintain my practice of NEVER leaving the keys inside the vehicle.

Might go and put a new battery in the spare key fob later on and see if I can duplicate what you have done with the tailgate just out of curiosity (mine's a 2011 model so worth checking).

What has always made me very wary has been my experience with Prado's. Where the Disco will not re-lock once you have opened ANY door after unlocking the vehicle - on the Prado you had to open a FRONT door to stop the vehicle from auto locking.

I unlocked one of the Prado's I had for work one day (120 Series) and opened only the rear right door and threw some things on the back seat. I also threw my keys on the driver's seat through the back door, and then closed the door. A few seconds later, heard the doors lock.

As I said in an earlier post - I suppose I was very fortunate that this happened in a Prado and not something more "secure" like a Discovery. I quickly found out that it is very easy to break into a Prado, either through the front doors or through the tailgate (another occasion). And no - I'm not an experienced car thief.

Originally Posted by LandyAndy

Try the tailgate

They specificaly warned me if I only opened that door,put some shopping in and left my keys in they will be locked in.
As you say the auto re-lock doesnt work on the other doors after opening one.
Andrew

Well that is strange. One day I did precisely that. Did not unlock the vehicle just used the pop tailgate option. Put the keys down with shopping and forgot to remove keys.

Shut the tailgate. Fail. Tried again a bit firmer. Fail. Cursed and gave it a good solid slam. Fail. Just about to try some serious swearing when I saw my keys. Took keys out and gently closed the tailgate. Success.

I would swear it sensed the keys were in the car.

Apologised to the car and declared eternal love.

Originally Posted by dmdigital

Yours has keyless entry so it may be one of the sensors picks up that the fob is inside. This is what my wife's Qashqai does. As I don't have keyless entry I'll see what it does.

Just tried it. What do you know, two beeps and unlocked tailgate . So it works with either type of system.

No mate, no keyless entry on mine, so presumably same system as yours

cheers
phra

Originally Posted by BMKal

I unlocked one of the Prado's I had for work one day (120 Series) and opened only the rear right door and threw some things on the back seat. I also threw my keys on the driver's seat through the back door, and then closed the door. A few seconds later, heard the doors lock.

I know that sinking feeling only too well

I also try to make a point of not taking the key fob out of my pocket - except when approaching the car and unlocking it of course - and it is so easy to get distracted just for a moment and absent-mindedly put the key fob down on the floor alongside purchases instead of popping it back in your pocket...

cheers
phra