Door handle touch locks

[Russael]

SO!

 

As I received my Fusion Energi yesterday, of course it was the only day in the week that it decided to rain relentlessly (just enough to make it cold, wet, and gross).  Didn't matter much... a crowbar couldn't remove the smile off of my face as I rolled off of the dealer lot.  Nose was wrinkled a bit as the stench from all the Ziebart treatments is still pretty fresh.

 

Anyway, today was a bit on the cool side, but bright and sunny.  Also, my mudflaps arrived at the dealership today too, so I rolled over there and picked them up.  Was REALLY happy with the battery range.  It gave me 21 miles of range, dealership is 9 miles away, and when I got back, I still had around 8 miles of range left.  After all, 21 - 18 = 8.  (Yes, I'm being a smartypants... car has recalculated my range to now be 24).

 

To install the mudflaps, the car should be clean.  So, I broke out the bucket, got my soap out, hose, towels, and everything else I needed to wash the car.  I start spraying water on it and the door locks WENT CRAZY.  Every door I sprayed, when I got near the handle, I was able to make the car lock, unlock, lock, unlock.

 

Has anyone else experienced that?  I'm half tempted to turn that feature off... can't imagine what it's going to do during a downpour.

[joeblow231]

Seems odd but I wouldn't worry too much. Do you usually stand around next to the car in a downpour? If you're not next to it with the keys in your pocket I don't think you'll have any problems.

 

My only issue with this feature so far is that it sometimes just doesn't work at all.

[Rhyalus]

That is bloody cool!

 

As Joe said, if you did not have the keys in your pocket (or maybe in the car?) it would not have happened.

 

This shows the conduction properties of water....

 

R

[Russael]

I may not stand next to the car in a downpour, but I'll definitely be in it.  I wonder if it'll go nuts while driving or going through a car wash?  Oh, I was able to make the locks continue to cycle while toweling it off... so it isn't a capacitive touch (at least I don't think it is).  Maybe my water has a ton of minerals in it. :)

 

And I never leave my keys anywhere except with me.  I've seen a few people lock themselves out of their home before.  I have a terrible short term memory so I figure the easiest way to deal with it is to keep them around.

 

The other thing is, what if the car unlocks itself as I'm walking away from it after I park somewhere because of rain and I don't notice it?  Of course, I could have the same problem with the keyfob in my pocket and moving a certain way that depresses the unlock button.  I've managed to remote start my truck and set the alarm off before without touching the keys.  I'm sure the neighbors across the street have done it quite a few times too (I've seen their parking lights on and then they wind up never leaving).

 

I'll just have to keep an eye on it and try to come up with a solution if it continues.

[meyersnole]

I may not stand next to the car in a downpour, but I'll definitely be in it.  I wonder if it'll go nuts while driving or going through a car wash?  Oh, I was able to make the locks continue to cycle while toweling it off... so it isn't a capacitive touch (at least I don't think it is).  Maybe my water has a ton of minerals in it. :)

 

And I never leave my keys anywhere except with me.  I've seen a few people lock themselves out of their home before.  I have a terrible short term memory so I figure the easiest way to deal with it is to keep them around.

 

The other thing is, what if the car unlocks itself as I'm walking away from it after I park somewhere because of rain and I don't notice it?  Of course, I could have the same problem with the keyfob in my pocket and moving a certain way that depresses the unlock button.  I've managed to remote start my truck and set the alarm off before without touching the keys.  I'm sure the neighbors across the street have done it quite a few times too (I've seen their parking lights on and then they wind up never leaving).

 

I'll just have to keep an eye on it and try to come up with a solution if it continues.

 

Believe it or not, the car is very sensitive to where the "key" is, and yes it knows when it is in or out of the car. The first thing I thought was take the key out of your pocket -- I too have made the mistake of washing the car with the key in my pocket, and yes the car locks went crazy. It will not do this driving down the road nor the car wash (although I have only hand washed so far so I can not attest to that last statement).

 

As far as locking and unlocking. You unlock the car by grabbing the handle, not getting near it. I think you have to do something to lock it, at least I touch the handle to hear it lock -- every time.

 

You will not be able to remote start this car accidentally, too many key presses to do it randomly. 

 

I would never consider turning off the keyless entry, one of my favorite features of the car. Like it almost as much as the adaptive cruise... which probably is my favorite.

[jeff_h]

Mine does the same when washing the car, next time I will walk the key back into the house before washing and see if that prevents it (I assume so).

[Rhyalus]

Yesterday was about as bad a day as you can get here in the northeast and I did not notice anything weird with the locks. If you want to be sure, just hit the lock key when you walk away.

 

I am going to try and pee on the car with my fob in my hand and see what happens... Well, not really but how cool would that be?

 

R

[Energized]

The top of the door handles have a sensor to lock the doors.   The lock sensor is noted by hash marks.  The red lights on the door sills illuminate when locked.

 

The inside of the grab handles have a sensor to unlock the doors. 

 

Each door has a lock sensor on top of the handle and of course an unlock sensor inside the handle. 

 

When leaving the car, it's quite handy to use this top sensor to lock the doors rather than getting out the keyfob and using the button.  The other option to lock the doors is simultaneously pressing the bottom two buttons of the keypad 7/8 + 9/0.  This isn't as convenient since you first need to awaken the buttons, then press 7/8 + 9/0.

 

As you've found out, if the SmartKey is nearby and you hit it with a stream of water from a hose the door will lock.  As mentioned above tap water is conductive.  I don't know if water at a car wash would have a concentrated enough stream to activate the lock button like the stream from a hose does.

 

 

 

[Russael]

As far as locking and unlocking. You unlock the car by grabbing the handle, not getting near it. I think you have to do something to lock it, at least I touch the handle to hear it lock -- every time.

 

You will not be able to remote start this car accidentally, too many key presses to do it randomly. 

 

As I mentioned, water was able to make it lock and unlock without me touching it.  If I get out of the car during a downpour (and am still in close proximity to it) will the locks activate due to rainwater?  I'm curious about it and I'm sure I'll find out in short order since it is still springtime.  I suppose I can just relock the car after I get 10 feet away from it or something.

 

I tested the remote start on it which is cool.  The remote gives a single green blink to let you know the car received the command and is doing its thing.  But yes, it requires more button pushes than the truck did (which was a press and hold the lock button).

 

I also do like how the car unlocks when touching the handle.  I'll have to give it more time to determine if I'm going to keep it on or not.

[Scooter80]

I've been through the wash a few times (bad water here that makes it nearly impossible to hand-wash), and I can say for sure you will  not have any locking/unlocking issues while your remote is in the vehicle with you.  And my experience (judging by when my passengers reach the car before me and try to open the vehicle) has been that the car will lock out any attempts to open the car for a short period of time if an attempt is made without the remote.  

[howardbc]

I'm in Phoenix and it has not rained at all since I picked up the car on April 5th. So no locking issues because of the rain. I've had the car washed 2-3 times but didn't notice the guys having any problems. I've always locked the car by touching the hash marks and then unlocking the car by putting my hand inside the door handles. It's always worked great. 

 

But today I had a problem with the door handles NOT unlocking. I had unlocked/opened the trunk first as I often do when I have something to put in the trunk. But after I closed the trunk lid, I went to open/unlock the passenger door to put some things on that side. It wouldn't unlock. So then I went around to the driver's side and again it wouldn't unlock. By this point I was really getting worried. I've noticed that the door handle locks are very sensitive and I have accidentally locked the door when I meant to unlock it, but it eventually unlocks. But this time it would not unlock until I got the key fob out of its pouch in the bowels of my pocketbook.

 

I wonder if somehow fiddling with the trunk had something to do with it as I was trying to fit a fairly large object into it. In fact, at first the trunk wouldn't close but I re-arranged things and it eventually did.

 

Anyone have any thoughts as to what might have happened? Thanks. 

[larryh]

You can use the keyless entry keypad to enter your 5-digit entry code if the doors fail to unlock when you touch the door handles.

[howardbc]

Thanks, larryh. I know about the keyless entry keypad but can never remember the code. I have it in My Contacts on my cell phone but it was just as easy to dig the keyfob out of my pocketbook. 

 

Question: Can one change the keyless entry keypad code? I would use it if I could remember what it is. 

[murphy]

Thanks, larryh. I know about the keyless entry keypad but can never remember the code. I have it in My Contacts on my cell phone but it was just as easy to dig the keyfob out of my pocketbook. 

 

Question: Can one change the keyless entry keypad code? I would use it if I could remember what it is. 

You can't change the default code but you can add up to 5 codes of your choice.

Page 55 in the Owner's Manual.

[Dag]

You can't change the default code but you can add up to 5 codes of your choice.

Page 55 in the Owner's Manual.

It's best to remember the code though. If the battery is dead/replaced the programmed codes get erased and only the factory code is retained. That's what my dealer told me on my f150 Edited September 29, 2013 at 12:33 AM by Dag

[Ben Bruce]

I'm in Phoenix and it has not rained at all since I picked up the car on April 5th. So no locking issues because of the rain. I've had the car washed 2-3 times but didn't notice the guys having any problems. I've always locked the car by touching the hash marks and then unlocking the car by putting my hand inside the door handles. It's always worked great. 

 

But today I had a problem with the door handles NOT unlocking. I had unlocked/opened the trunk first as I often do when I have something to put in the trunk. But after I closed the trunk lid, I went to open/unlock the passenger door to put some things on that side. It wouldn't unlock. So then I went around to the driver's side and again it wouldn't unlock. By this point I was really getting worried. I've noticed that the door handle locks are very sensitive and I have accidentally locked the door when I meant to unlock it, but it eventually unlocks. But this time it would not unlock until I got the key fob out of its pouch in the bowels of my pocketbook.

 

I wonder if somehow fiddling with the trunk had something to do with it as I was trying to fit a fairly large object into it. In fact, at first the trunk wouldn't close but I re-arranged things and it eventually did.

 

Anyone have any thoughts as to what might have happened? Thanks. 

 

I am also having an issue with the "un lock" not working when I grab the door handle.  It works perfect most of the time but maybe once every 30-50 times it wont un lock.  I have tried to move the FOB to different positions around the car and door handle and nothing works.  Of course there are multiple ways to get in and I know all of them.  It just always frustrates me when the random not working event happens.  Has anyone figured out the scenario that causes this?

 

Ben

[meyersnole]

I am also having an issue with the "un lock" not working when I grab the door handle.  It works perfect most of the time but maybe once every 30-50 times it wont un lock.  I have tried to move the FOB to different positions around the car and door handle and nothing works.  Of course there are multiple ways to get in and I know all of them.  It just always frustrates me when the random not working event happens.  Has anyone figured out the scenario that causes this?

 

Ben

 

Hi Ben,

 

I have had this happen to me many times as well. I think it has something to do with timing. I just know that when I get into a situation where the door does not open my solution is to slow down and wait for the audible sound of the unlock before I pull the handle.

[murphy]

If you use your left hand to open a driver side door or your right hand to open a passenger side door make sure that your thumb doesn't land on the door lock sensor.

[Ben Bruce]

Ill keep looking for a way to reproduce this.  So far it seems random.

 

Tried so far:

slow down and or wait until trying again

have a different user try (different hands)

Try different door(s)

move FOB from pocket to other locations around door handle

learned from day one about not having the hand on the lock at the same time as trying to un lock

 

once it is in this state, we have never been able to unlock the door with any of the techniques from above.  have to resort to another method.

 

Oh well, maybe it is just me that this happens to.

 

Ben

[Rexracer]

Funny, was discussing this with a co-worker yesterday. I was saying I love never (nearly never) having to touch my keys. To me this is a lot like the the fingerprint scanner on the Iphones, generally it works, but every once in a while it just doesn't. While annoying, its better to have it then to not.

Generally my problem is when I have a passanger, they grab the handle before I touch it to unlock. That would accent for 80% of the errors i get, The other 20% of the time, who knows what happened.

[jeff_h]

If you use your left hand to open a driver side door or your right hand to open a passenger side door make sure that your thumb doesn't land on the door lock sensor.

 

The way that almost always unintentionally locks for me is if I walk from the back of the car toward the driver's door and grab forward toward the handle with my right hand (holding drink or whatever in left hand), seems to lock it almost every time when I don't want it to, and like murphy notes is probably from landing on that sensor accidentally.