akingzkid

Ok guys, this is ridiculous. This car decided to lock itself today on me while it was running with the key in the center cup holder and the AC blasting. Needless to say, I only have one "Smart" (actually it must be dumb) key. Had to call a tow company and pay $75. I got no love on my post from the other day (got one reply) titled "Car auto locking itself" but since this has now gone to the next level of drama I figured I would post this. Can someone please tell me why my car is locking itself? If you read my "Car auto locking itself" it will give you the back story but in a nutshell I recently replaced the driver's door actuator myself (with a cheap version from eBay). Maybe that's why it now doesn't recognize that the key is in the car?? Or does the actuator have nothing to do with knowing whether or not the key is in the car?? Something should be telling the dumb car that the key is in there and not to lock it. How do I disable this feature? Maybe it has to be done with VagCom? I have a cheap version called VagCom xTool 401 and it can do lots of things but I wouldn't know what module to go in to do it (if it is even a setting that can be turned off). Help!!!! :-) Thanks.

Good news is that the car sat there running for 45 min in 85 degree weather with the AC blowing and did not overheat!! Temp gauge did not budge.

Nurke

Hi there, since you said you had smart key and it was in your cup holder when your car was running, I would assume you got stop and start push buttons.
Your car will lock the doors if you leave it unlocked in 30 or 60 seconds. When your car was running before you got your self locked out..did you see a message in the center of your inst. cluster saying "key not present"?? If not then something is wrong with your remote or communication between your car and key...
Normally if you start your car and walk away with the key no one will be able to move your car away even though your engine is running..or if it looks the doors, then you just pull the door handle up or push that "rubber switch" located on the bottom of door handle(all 4 doors have them)..
It is really weird to be able to start the car with push button, drive it normally or get locked out if you get out of it....and yet not have that message saying key not present.
I have checked my full scan and would ask you to scan few addresses just to try to figure this one out. My scan shows as follows:
Address 42: Door elect, drivers side
Address 46: Central Conv
Address 53: Door elec, passenger side
Address 62: door, rear left
Address 72:door, rear right
I believe you also have that handheld scanner..dont be scared to use it..click on anything but coding section...take your time and go thru all options your scanner shows and try to scan it...take pics or write any codes down. And see if your car will tell you what bothers it.

PS: I re read your post again.. actuator will do what its module says to do. Also coding it wold be scary.. it is not like TPMS where you already have 2 lights on but can drive it..this would be "bricking" the car...I would not go there.

akingzkid

Ok. So it is perfectly normal for the car to lock itself in 30 or 60 seconds when it is sitting in my garage and not running (or anywhere and not running for that matter)? Yes, I have the push start. No, I did not see the "Key not present" message. I think I used to see that before changing my battery a few months ago. And if I start the car and then get out with the key in my pocket (before moving the car), when I get back into the car I see a "Key ?". That is normal I believe. Also, you are saying that if I start the car and then walk away with the key, that nobody could drive it away? How does it prevent this (lock the steering wheel, not let you take it out of Park? I tried that yesterday. I had driven the car home. Parked in the drive way and left the car running and in park. Took the key inside the house and came back outside and got in the car to see what it would do and it let me drive the car into the garage. Should it let me do that?

I'm not really sure how to scan those particular addresses. I do have the Xtool VAG401 and know how to get it to run the "quick scan" and tell me which modules are "ok" and which have a "malfunction". I have done that and I clear the codes. I will do that again but I just did it like 4 days ago.

Also, not sure what you mean by "actuator will do what its module says to do. Also coding it wold be scary.. it is not like TPMS where you already have 2 lights on but can drive it..this would be "bricking" the car...I would not go there." Are you just saying that I should never try to code the door actuator? If so, I'm with you on that. What does "bricking" a car mean? Never heard that before.

Thanks for your help man. I appreciate it.

akingzkid

G-Can

was this ever sorted out?
In my case it doesnt matter which doors get opened, it locks itself up. But not allways!

akingzkid

I ended up having to replace the drivers door lock actuator. It was a beast of a job. I had to do it several times because I took it out once to look at it and see if I can figure if it was bad and then I put it back in. And then bought a cheap Chinese one from Amazon, so I took it out again and put the cheap one from Amazon in. That one did not work correctly so I had to take it back out and put the broken one back in. I found one on a 2008 car at the junkyard (mine is a 2006). So I put that one in and it worked and has been working for a few years since then.

G-Can

I will burn this stupid car to the ground, every two weeks some **** goes bad on it.

akingzkid

That might not be a bad alternative. LOL. Hilarious. These cars are getting up there in age and issues are gonna be a thing with them now. My car had an issue with the battery draining in 3 days if the car is not started. It has been an issue for about 3 years. Never really bothered me when it was my daily driver. Only bit me in the butt once in a while if I decided to drive one of my other cars which made it then sit for three or more days. When I would go back to it, without fail it will have a dead battery. But now it’s a much bigger problem because my daughter has this car at college and she never really gets a chance to drive it so every time she goes to get into the car, the battery is dead and she needs to find somebody to jumpstart it. Well about two weeks ago, after finding a good video on finding a parasitic draw, I found mine. It was the fuse in the trunk for the navigation unit. Several years ago I used a fiber optic loop to bypass my navigation unit because it died but in order for the other components in the car to work it still had to be connected. So I did the fiber optic bypass loop. But it must have caused an issue to where the car was still trying to connect to it or something and constantly causing the battery to drain when the car is sitting. I took that fuse out and the issue has now gone away.

That had me ready to set my car on fire.

Hey, your name is G-can. If the G stands for Gasoline (Gasoline can) it all makes sense that you want to burn your car down now. LOL.

G-Can

I mean, the feeling of not able to open the doors, with kids locked inside is frightening. I was seconds away of smashing the window. And whats even dumber, she managed to roll the window down 1 inch, even though rear safety locks were on.

Anybody interested in a 07 wagon in Ontario, hit me up. Promise its a good car with how much money was put in it haha but be ready to deal with these gremlins.

Sallad

A little dramatic lol

...just use the physical key in the drivers door to open the car.

I just replaced both front door locks two weeks ago. So far no issues, but I also don't have the "smart" key option.