# car auto-locked with BOTH keys in it - and both my KIDS



## alindsay (Jun 26, 2012)

Tonight, I put the kids in the car and tossed my purse, which held both the key fobs on the floor and shut the door (it was around 45 degrees) and went to put the sacks in the truck. Trunk opened and I put the bags away. When I went to open the car door, I discovered it had auto locked... With my 7 month old handicapped infant, and my unbuckled 2 year old, and both key fobs, in the car. The 2 year old was sitting in her seat in the middle the whole time, so I know she didn't do anything. My phone was locked in the car, as well. 

It took over twenty minutes, the security guard, the police, and the locksmith to get the car open to get to my very distressed, upset, crying children. 

The alarm went off when it was jimmied, but then stopped for some reason (the locksmith relocked the door maybe?). I tried hitting the unlock button to unlock the back doors, but it didn't do anything. Then, without moving the keys, etc, I was able to start the car - which shows they were registering, right?

While I know that I won't be closing a door without the key in my hand, I want to know what happened and why we went through this tonight. I'm very concerned that it will happen again. Obviously, I will be disarming the auto lock function, but that kills half of my purpose in buying this car - not having to jack with the key while dealing with kids. Anything that you can tell me to enlighten me?


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## APCruze (Mar 7, 2013)

Do you have the passive remote ? The only time it is suppose to auto lock is when it's placed in gear. At least with the standard key an not the passive system.


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## marden64 (Dec 1, 2013)

This happened to me a while ago. I unlocked the car, got my snow brush out of the back. Got in the front and started the car. Cleaned off the car and afterwards found out that the car had locked itself.

My guess is that you must have accidentally hit the "lock" on the key fob?? Maybe it got knocked when you tossed your purse into the car?? I tried to recreate what happened to me and that's the only thing I came up with.


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## Sunline Fan (Jul 29, 2012)

Just curious, why were you carrying both keys with you?


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## Chevy Customer Care (Oct 29, 2011)

Hey Alindsay, 

I am sorry you had this experience. The auto lock doors are programmed to automatically lock when in gear as stated above.

Erica Tiffany
Chevrolet Customer Care


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## CruzeTech (Mar 23, 2012)

Depending on what year Cruze you have, you can turn off the auto lock feature through the stereo. Both the MyLink and Green Screen radios have the option to turn on a feature that when you have the keys in the car, it won't allow the doors to lock. Click the config button and look under vehicle settings. There are a lot of lock settings for the car.


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## NickD (Dec 10, 2011)

You asked what Chevy can do to prevent things like this from happening again. I will tell you what they can do, offer a flat key for a buck that a man can stick in his wallet or a woman can hang it on a chain around her neck.

This is the first car I have ever owned where I cannot carry a spare key in my wallet that is always in my pocket. And no sense in offering advice as to the cause of why things like this happen. It does happen, thank goodness you found a locksmith that quick. I won't even leave this thing for a second unless my keys are in my hand or pocket. 

And speaking about pocket, no delays on this remote, just the order day, was carrying groceries in the house with the keys in my pocket, bumped into my counter, and when I went back out the doors were locked.

And somebody at Chevy really has a bug up their butt about locking us in. What about getting us out? Wife and I crossed that I-35 bridge in Minneapolis just three weeks before it fell down. Was in our 04 Cavalier with easy to open doors and manual roll down windows I insisted upon. If we did land in the River, we both are good swimmers, could have rolled down the windows, escaped and would be alive.

The way this stupid Cruze is designed, first thing to fail in an accident is the electrical system, if that happened, we would be dead. 

About time these idiots wake up to reality. Three year old granddaughter can be taught to pull the door handles twice, but she would never get out if the child safety locks were on. Raised ten kids, none of them was dumb enough to even try to open a door when driving. Some of these designers that do things like this must also have idiots for kids. Could be inherit.


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## spacedout (Dec 7, 2010)

CruzeTech said:


> Depending on what year Cruze you have, you can turn off the auto lock feature through the stereo. Both the MyLink and Green Screen radios have the option to turn on a feature that when you have the keys in the car, it won't allow the doors to lock. Click the config button and look under vehicle settings. There are a lot of lock settings for the car.



It was hot out last fall and I unlocked my car rolled down the windows and put keys in ignition. Decided it was way to hot to drive so went back inside for a few minutes while I let the car cool off. 

I came back to find my doors locked! This had never happened to me before but I had also never left my keys in ignition with windows down. Found the setting you mentioned and disabled it, I never want my car to lock the doors without some action by me.


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## Patman (May 7, 2011)

Auto lock? Sid not know this was a feature. The only "auto lock" I know of is if you press the button on the dash or hit the lock on the fob. I know if the key is in the ignition and the doors are locked, when shut the driver door will unlock.Whatever happened, happened. Just bad luck! Glad you were able to get a locksmith quickly. my next solution would have been calling on star but they probably would have wanted to sign you up again. Trying to tell anyone in the car how to unlock the car is difficult enough esp a 2 yr old. Happened with my wife in the car(just as bad) English is ? For me, good thing the key was in the ignition so the driver door did not lock. All I can say is unfortunate and "live and learn". How the car locks is ?


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## revjpeterson (Oct 2, 2013)

NickD said:


> You asked what Chevy can do to prevent things like this from happening again. I will tell you what they can do, offer a flat key for a buck that a man can stick in his wallet or a woman can hang it on a chain around her neck.
> 
> This is the first car I have ever owned where I cannot carry a spare key in my wallet that is always in my pocket.


I've always done the same thing. Even on my vehicles with microchipped keys, I keep an extra $3 non-chipped key in my wallet in case of a lock-out. When I had my meeting with the delivery specialist while picking up my Cruze, I asked him about the availability of a door blank for these switchblade keys to carry with me. He said that they weren't available yet, but since they had just switched the Silverados to this key as well, he thought they might make one available within the year. He could have just been blowing smoke, though - hard to tell. I'm keeping my eyes open to see what happens.


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## revjpeterson (Oct 2, 2013)

Patman said:


> Auto lock? Sid not know this was a feature. The only "auto lock" I know of is if you press the button on the dash or hit the lock on the fob. I know if the key is in the ignition and the doors are locked, when shut the driver door will unlock.


It hasn't been specifically mentioned here, but I'm assuming the vehicle in question must have been an LTZ, based on what I have read. That would explain the existence of an auto-lock feature because of the keyless entry/exit/ignition feature. 

There is one lock feature that I'm not sure anyone knows about, since I've never seen it mentioned in any post the past 6 months I've been around: If you push down the plunger on the driver's door, all the doors in the car lock. The only thing that I am aware disables this feature is if you have the delayed lock turned on (push the lock button on the dash, then the door locks 5 seconds after the last door is closed), and you've already pushed the button to initiate it. Otherwise, this happens if you are in the car or out of the car, running or not - at least on the 2014 Diesel. So, if you bump the driver's door lock plunger, all doors lock. This has happened to me while reaching out the window at the bank drive-thru. It could also easily happen if you had a window open and leaned in to do something, bumped into it carrying a briefcase or purse, or just put your hand on the window sill for balance while exiting the car.

It's actually a pretty convenient feature for those of us who miss the lock switch on the door, because you can lock the car without reaching into the center console. It does seem to allow quite the potential for accidental lock-outs, though.


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## NickD (Dec 10, 2011)

She certainly couldn't call OnStar with her cell phone locked in the car.


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## alindsay (Jun 26, 2012)

The car wasn't in gear, I didn't even have it started (with the remote start or otherwise). The car autolocks when I walk away from it, or as you said, I start the car and go. The car is not supposed to lock if the keys are left in it. Therein lies the problem. Usually, it honks at me if I leave the keys in it. This time, it locked with both keys in it.


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## alindsay (Jun 26, 2012)

I didn't know I had one with me and grabbed the other set. Just happened to see that I had grabbed both while I was shopping.


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## alindsay (Jun 26, 2012)

Chevy Customer Care said:


> Hey Alindsay,
> 
> I am sorry you had this experience. The auto lock doors are programmed to automatically lock when in gear as stated above.
> 
> ...



I hadn't even started the car. It was turned off. I opened the back door, put the kids in and put my purse on the floorboard, closed the back door and then opened the trunk to put away my groceries. The car was still off and locked with the keys in it.


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## spacedout (Dec 7, 2010)

Have you checked the vehicle settings though the stereo? My 1LT does not have the auto-lock of the LTZ but I certainly got locked out in a similar fashion one day. Beleive I found a setting for content theft protection or something with similar wording, that is what caused my doors to auto lock after short period. 

I understand this should not be locking when the keys are in the car, however I would never rely on a system like that & would rather hit the lock button on the key fob when I actually want to lock my car.


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## alindsay (Jun 26, 2012)

spacedout said:


> Have you checked the vehicle settings though the stereo? My 1LT does not have the auto-lock of the LTZ but I certainly got locked out in a similar fashion one day. Beleive I found a setting for content theft protection or something with similar wording, that is what caused my doors to auto lock after short period.
> 
> I understand this should not be locking when the keys are in the car, however I would never rely on a system like that & would rather hit the lock button on the key fob when I actually want to lock my car.


It is set up to lock the car after the driver, carrying the car key, leaves the car. It waits about 7-8 seconds and locks. The car is also a keyless entry and start up. So, having to pull out the key fob only to lock the doors would defeat the purpose of having a keyless entry/start/auto lock system. I do have to find it occasionally, when I want to remote start the car, but that is usually it. When you are getting kids out in the parking lot, holding an infant or two, watching a toddler so they don't run off, etc, stopping to get the fob out (even if it in just in your pocket), locking the car, it actually becomes a safety hazard that I was able to completely avoid with auto lock. 

Not having to worry about unlocking the car, finding the key, or locking the car, when I'm more focused on the kids, was a HUGE draw for this particular car. (as was remote start, to cool down their car seats in 105 degree weather). Having to turn it off because it isn't working correctly instead of finding a fix, not acceptable.


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## Jukebox Juliet (Apr 4, 2014)

I have the LTZ with keyless entry/start and I've actually toyed around trying to lock my keys in the car to see if it was possible, and it wasn't. 

If the remote is in the car and I try to hit the lock button on the door handle (to lock all the doors) the car will just ding at me that the remote is in the vehicle and it won't lock. 

If I physically press the lock on the inside of the door down, it will pop back up on me. 

Seems really odd it locked on you!

Also, I would advise against storing the spare remote in the car.


 Sent with iLove


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## auraxr (Nov 29, 2011)

Our '13 LTZ auto locked a week or so ago after not being run for the previous couple weeks in sub zero weather. One remote was in the console and it is the only one that we have been using since new. I can only determine that the battery is becoming somewhat depleted on this remote because it auto locked after entering vehicle, putting new registration in glove box and closing door afterwards. Had to retrieve other remote from house and unlock using proximity button on handle. No problem since but we are now using other remote.


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## ChevyGuy (Dec 13, 2014)

Might not be a bad idea to add a CR2032 battery to the shopping list. Yes, you're supposed to get a warning when they get low, but between the cold weather and not driving for a couple of weeks it may have gotten weak before you could see the message. They're only $2 or so from the CVS store. (Avoid Radio Shack unless you want to pay something like $8).

It appears there's no re-programming involved. Given they're so cheap and easy to replace - why not.


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