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Frustrated and confused by passenger doors not unlocking?!

14K views 17 replies 13 participants last post by  spokey 
#1 ·
I had my 2016 OB with keyless entry/push start in park with hazards on waiting for wife and son. The engine was on. When they came out of the establishment, I got out of the car, left the engine on, leaving the door open and went to open the rear passenger door on the other side to put my son in his carseat. Hey, it's a safe area. Couldn't do it, door was locked. Fine, I used keyless to get in so that makes sense, only driver door was unlocked. But then my wife tried her front passenger door with her own keyfob in range, still locked. Ok, I thought, let me unlock the car with the button on my keyfob. NOPE, still locked!
Fuming, I had to swing back to my side and manually unlock the doors from the rocker switch. Can someone explain the logic here?

I understand the safety issue that even with two keyfobs IN the car, you don't want someone walking up to it and pulling the doors open, that's great. BUT:

1) Why doesn't the car realize that the keyfobs are now both OUTSIDE of the car, with occupants thus obviously trying to open the passenger side?

2) Why on Earth doesn't the door unlock button on the fob actually unlock the doors in this situation? Did I just not press it long enough or enough times?

Is this user error on my part or just dumb programming?
 
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#5 ·
I'd go with user error. As you mentioned, you already know that the default setting only unlocks the driver's side door when you touch the driver's side handle. You weren't surprised to find the doors and hatch were locked. What you didn't realize is that the expectation from a safety standpoint is that the driver will be in a position (the driver's seat) to lock/unlock the doors with the switch. Hence the fobs are disabled once the car is running. I wonder if the fobs will work if the parking brake is set, or if they're just plain disabled once the car is running.
 
#6 ·
As mtberman pointed out.... I was going to ask..... Do the key fobs operate (are they supposed to) when the car is actually running? I thought they were disabled/overridden. Even in Park.

Simple solution: Change the default to have the fob unlock ALL the doors. Secondary simple solution: Hit the manual unlock button on the door prior to exiting the vehicle.
 
#7 ·
Yep, as others have said. You can change the default setting and open all the doors when touching the driver side door handle. I actually did this change last week because I found the default setup difficult when putting my daughter in the car seat. Works great now!
 
#9 ·
This is no different than if you had pulled up to a convenience store, exited your vehicle with fob in hand, and then tried to lock the running car up. Won't work. And, that has nothing to do with Subaru. Every car I've ever owned that came with a factory fob has behaved this way.
 
#11 ·
Car locks and I don't get along. I once managed to lock myself out of a running 2007 Focus. I didn't know the OB fobs didn't work when the car was running. That explains everything, including some other weird behavior I was scratching my head about. Thanks a lot guys.

And yes, I've been TRYING to read the blasted 500 pages of manuals that came with the thing. I used to LOVE reading manuals.... when I was a kid. :p Now I don't have the patience, which explains why I frequently have issues locking myself out of cars. It's not so much inattention, but impatience.

Does this mean it is actually possible to lock yourself out of the running car if you lock the door manually and shut it with the engine on? It seems silly I know, but I MANAGED TO DO IT on my previous car that also had a fob system. My OB is push button start, so the manual key is logically still in my pocket, but would I have to use the manual key in that case?
 
#18 ·
factory fob. No non-oem stuff in the car at all except for the radio that I installed with an adapter harness so i didn't even cut any wires. The fob was user programmable. When my brother's wife blew up their 2004, he gave me his fobs and it was some bizarre sequence of key turning and other stuff but I was able to program his to work with my car. Actually I guess I was able to get my car to recognize his as there was nothing special. Just various pressing of lock/unlock inserting/removing the key from the ignition and opening/closing the driver's door all within some time frame.

In the Nissan Z instance, that was not a fob, just hitting the door lock then closing the door. That car didn't even have a fob. But it did have a nice fancy titanium key.
 
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