Don't You Just Love Hi-Tech?

[AngliaGT]

Got a call from the Wife this morning while I was at work.
Seem that she went out to defrost the Nissan (Ugly)Micra
(or something like that(Ugly).Did I tell you how Ugly this car is?And to top it off,it's White.
Anyway,she started it up,went into the house to get some warm water for the windshield,came back out......
... & the car was locked!Seem that it has a self-locking
feature.How stupid is that?I could understand a speed sensitive lock - but this?Dumb.

- Doug

 

[aeronca65t]

Our Protege does that all the time.
It's maddening.
If we are leaving the car running and get out, we leave the door open or a window down far enough to reach in and unlock.
The Protege has transponder keys too. I made a regular, cheap key just to open the car (I knew it wouldn't start it). The "plain" key opened the door, but set off the car alarm (and it wouldn't stop....I ended up pulling the battery).

 

[Banjo]

Check your owners manual. Often times the auto lock feature is customizable. Sometimes you the owner can do it, sometimes it takes the factory service tool the dealer has to do it, and sometimes the stupid car company dosen't care enough, and ya can't do it at all.
That said, the first thing I do when I pull a car into the shop is to put the drivers window down. If the window dosen't work for some reason, then the keys get put into the lock cylinder of the drivers door when I get out.
I hate breaking into locked cars. it's a pain.

 

[AngliaGT]

Also - with rental cars,they give you both keys -
- but they're wired together.

- Doug

 

[DrEntropy]

I'm with Ben on this: Messin' with OP cars, the drivers' windows go down first thing. Or the key is in my left pocket. I never owned (or would never admit to it if I did) a "slim jim" tool.

With my own cars (the LBC's anyway) the iggy, boot and door locks have all been modded to use ONE key. The same one for three of 'em. I hate keys... more specifically I hate carrying a wad of 'em on me. Toolboxes ALL open with the same one, as do all the locks around the hovel including the Shed... Three keys for all that. The Alfa and Diesela are so different they throw off my simple plan. Too "Modern". grrrr.

 

[Bret]

It ain't just new cars.

I have the same problem with my Porsche pneumatic vacuum system that while state of the art at the time, will lock itself (usually at the most inopportune moment) without any warning.

It doesn’t matter if it’s running or not. But if I’m warming the car up or taking it to the local hand wash – I’ve learned to always keep my spare key with me.

Probably got some sort of leak but I've learned to live with it.

 

[jsneddon]

Dang Suzuki's do it too. SWMBO has locked the keys in the car a good 10 times this year. Keyless is a nightmare. She keeps it in her purse - and it never has to come out.

Problem is that if she tosses her purse in the seat and runs back in the house without remembering to leave the door open (and the sloped driveway + brick ball next to the door makes that kind of hard to do) when she gets back the keys are locked in the car. Somehow the keyless entry is "smart" enough to know that the keys are IN the car and not NEXT to the car and it won't let you unlock the door by pushing the button.

I went in and talked to my buddy back in AutoTech (I work for Suzuki) and he says "It doesn't do that"... so I says "gimme your keys" and I walked over to his car, pitched the key inside, slammed the door and said "call me in 5 minutes and tell me what happened".... sure enough - the dang car locked his keys in the car... says he's going to have Japan take a look at that one.

 

[AngliaGT]

We probably should have done that when we returned the
rental.BTW,it was a Nissan Versa - but it's still UGLY!

- Doug

 

[JPSmit]

And low tech isn't much better - rented a GM Cobalt last week - it has been at least a decade since I drove a car where you could push down the lock button (no remote) close the door and it locks - I was so paranoid that I was going to leave the key in the car - I thought no one did that anymore

 

[bugimike]

We probably should have done that when we returned the
rental.BTW,it was a Nissan Versa - but it's still UGLY!

- Doug

Would that be a Nissan Versa Vice? /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/jester.gif

 

[AngliaGT]

I don't know - I always get it backwards!

- Doug

 

[PC]

...I went in and talked to my buddy back in AutoTech (I work for Suzuki) and he says "It doesn't do that"... so I says "gimme your keys" and I walked over to his car, pitched the key inside, slammed the door and said "call me in 5 minutes and tell me what happened".... sure enough - the dang car locked his keys in the car... says he's going to have Japan take a look at that one.

/bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/lol.gif

 

[sparkydave]

Here's a good one. Next door neighbor is having trouble with his brand-new Buick Lucerne. Seems his tire pressure monitoring system says one tire is low. So, I grab my air tank and tire gauge, and check the tire. Says 30 PSI. Door sticker says 30 PSI is what it takes. Computer says it's 25, so it thinks it's too low. My neighbor is griping because he's elderly and not very technical, and somewhat frustrated by all the technology in his new car. So I put an extra couple of pounds to see if the warning turns off, but no, now the system seems to be stuck in calibrate mode, so it has no idea what any of the tire pressures are. I looked through the owner's manual where it describes how to do the calibration procedure, and it even left me, a software engineer, scratching my head. It involved deflating or inflating the tires until the horn chirps. So it says to start on the left front tire. I ran it down to 20 PSI and it never did anything. I didn't like the ambiguity of the procedure, and I didn't have enough air to do each one, so I pumped the tire back up to 30. My neighbor says he'll just let the dealer fix it.

If my next car has one of these fancy TPMS systems, I'm pretty sure I'll disconnect the idiot light and just use my trusty tire gauge. I haven't heard much good about them, other than they frequently say the tires are low when they aren't.

 

[DrEntropy]

Dave, welcome to the 21st Century... "And I'm Wasted... and I Can't Find My Way Home"...

Blind Faith.


If ya don't spend th' coin, ya don't get th' clues.


Run th' funny li'l LBC and press on.


Just one opinion, y'understand. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/jester.gif

 

[aeronca65t]

Dave, welcome to the 21st Century... "And I'm Wasted... and I Can't Find My Way Home"...

My fav song of all time.

By the way, my Ford mini-van has a tire pressure monitor that uses the ABS sensors.
It infers that a tire is "flatter" if it is going a different wheel speed than the other wheels (if it were flatter, it would have a shorter radius, so this would be true).
But my race car trailer drives the system crazy when I am towing (even with pretty modest hitch weight). I'm always re-calibrating it.

 

[weewillie]

I use a snap key ring(you know the ones that come apart) and I have the remote and house key on one side and the van key on the other side, so I can open the van with the remote,start the car,unsnap the remote and house key, lock the van go in the house and finish my coffee, by that time the van is either warm or cool depending on the season and it is also locked and running (so no one can just climb in and drive away). I lock the house,open the van with the remote and step in, snap the keys together and i'm away simple as that. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/thumbsup.gif

 

[drooartz]

This is one of the reasons I like my Hyundai (2003 Accent, bought new) so much. Fanciest feature is power windows and locks. It's just a car for driving around in, it's not trying to out think me, or answer questions I didn't ask. Just hauls me and my stuff around.

The locking issue reminds me of the Subaru Outback I had. Great car, but I did manage to lock myself out once. Had the key in the ignition so I could charge my phone at work. Took off the remote, figuring I could unlock the car with that. Nope, remote didn't work with the key in. Woops. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif

 

[weewillie]

Thats those smart foreign cars for you Drew, I have a Ford windstar /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/devilgrin.gif

 

[DrEntropy]

I go with your key arrangement, Will. Every set of keys in the place has a Snap-On 1/4" drive universal "quick disconnect" on the ring. House and door keys seperate from iggy. The deviation is, I don't dangle any but the iggy key from the switch. I put 'em all together when I get out of the car. And it allows me to "mix-n-match" car keys easily.

 

[drooartz]

I've got real respect for simple, cheap, reliable transportation. Gets me to work and gigs on time, so I can afford LBCs and motorcycles. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif

I had a Ford van for a while (Aerostar, predecessor of your Windstar). Best day was the day someone handed me cash and took it away.