Lock Keys In Car

[rums54]

It is possible to lock the fobs in the car. Here's how you do it if you happen to have an SEL.

 

1. My wife lets me drive the car to a friend's house for dinner. All is well, my wife takes purse with the key fobs into friend's house. Good dinner and conversation.

 

2. We drive home and pull into our garage. My wife gets out and takes purse with key fobs with her into the house. I haven't turned the car off yet. Horn honks a couple times and a red warning says something about the key fobs not being in the car.

 

3. I press the on/off button which turns the car off and all the lights, etc. go off. I exit the car and figure all is well.

 

4. This morning, my wife needs to go see her mother so she opens the passenger door, places purse with the key fobs on the passenger seat, closes the door, walks around to the driver's door and it is now locked! All the doors are locked! The hatch is locked!

 

5. She has not removed the small key from the key fob as we've only had the car for a week and are more concerned with figuring out how to preset AM, FM, and Sirius stations.

 

6. My wife calls the 24 hour roadside assistance number and they will send someone out. I start thinking about this and realize it's probably an AAA guy in a tow truck with one of those balloon devices to "spring" the door a little so he can shove something in and hit the unlock button (is there even a button like this? I'm not sure!) I decide that's not going to work as I'm not interested in have a damaged door on a new car. I call and talk to the tow truck operator and indeed he tells me he will be using a wood wedge to "spring" the door. I tell him thanks anyway but that his services will not be needed.

 

7. Ford assistance person calls and asks what the problem is and I explain why I don't want someone ruining my brand new door and that I'll call the dealer Monday morning so they can tow it or make a new key fob or whatever.

 

HERE'S WHAT I THINK HAPPENED. When my wife got out of the car, the car thought she had run into a store and that she would be right back out, seeing as I was still in the driver's seat with the car running. When she came out the next morning and put her purse on the seat, the car must have figured that she was done shopping, had gotten back in the car where I presumably still was, and decided it would be a nice thing to lock our doors. Unfortunately, the car got the scenario wrong.

 

Bottom line is that we will get this figured out Monday without damaging the door. I'll take my wife to work. I will also try to find a place to put a hide-a-key with the small key in it for just such an emergency -- OR -- I will buy the available keyless entry pad for $85 (I think it simply sticks on the door above the door handle. I have this on my Explorer and Mercury Sable and love it.

 

So, after one week of use, I love the car. More importantly, my wife loves her new car. Like figuring out how to set the radio presets, we'll figure out all these little things. We're already getting around 35 mpg (we have about 220 miles on the odometer) so we're happy with that, considering the car isn't even broken in. We love how it handles and with how much room there is in it.

 

I would enjoy hearing from people to let me know if I am right in my idea of what happend.

 

 

 

 

 

[JohnTrigger]

I wish you luck, but I see issues in your future:

 

The hide a key/small metal key works fine, except the alarm will go off after about 15 seconds if you don't immediately have the fob available to start the car.

The keyless alarm pad will NOT work on the SEL, unfortunately.  I have those on my other Fords, very handy, but not available for SEL CMAX.

 

Your dealer may have a new fob on hand and will certainly be able to program it.  However, it is more likely they may have to order one--it took my dealer a week to get a spare one on hand (I just wanted a third one).  It will cost you about $140 for the keyfob with your personal precut key.  It will cost an additional $90 to program the FOB.  Then, once you get your original fobs out of the car, they'll have to reprogram those as well, maybe at an additional cost?

 

They will be able to look up your hide a key/small metal key "cutting code" by your VIN, and order you one of those for a lesser amount of money, but that will definitely take a week to get in.

 

Read my posts here for more info that I learned:

http://fordcmaxhybridforum.com/index.php?/topic/803-adding-a-third-intelligent-access-key-dealer-reprogramming/

Edited April 7, 2013 by JohnTrigger

[RachelnLa]

The car automatically locked the doors without the engine on? Many times I put my purse inside and shut the doors. The only way it locks is if I manually hit the lock button in the car. Hmm, maybe she hit the thumb lock on the outside handle? I will have to experiment now with leaving a kid inside the car to test it, or leaving the window down. Hope you get this resolved quickly without door damage!

[Hatchman]

Interesting, I didn't think that was possible.  If the keys are sitting in the passenger seat, they should be close enough to the passenger door for the car to sense you are trying to open the passenger door by pulling on the handle.  

 

Hope the dealer gets this straightened out!  

[roninsd]

Didn't you get two fobs?  I would think that you could open the car with the second one.

[C-Maxgo]

Maybe the moral of the story would be to keep the fobs separate at all times.  

[C-MAXER]

Maybe the moral of the story would be to keep the fobs separate at all times.  

 

This.   

 

As the old saying goes, "Don't put all your eggs in one basket".    Get out of this habit of the driver not having a key fob.  If not, you will soon experience the other end of the spectrum with the person in possession of the fob exiting the car and the driver continuing on to another location and exiting/locking the car with the door switch.  BTDT

[colea]

One problem I've had with another keyless car is the opposite of locking the keys in the car--instead, my tendency to talk away with the key fob in my pocket when leaving the car for service, or valet service at a restaurant or parking garage. The car will continue to run until it's shut off, but then it can't be restarted until somehow the car and fob are reunited. Was recently horrified in the middle of a meeting in our state capitol to realize the key fob was still in my pocket while the car was in a parking garage two blocks away. 

[lowbar]

I have a Harley with a key less fob.  I've known people who leave the fob on a work bench in the garage, close enough to start the bike.  They get on an  go and stop later and cannot restart.  Gotta make sure you have your key in your pocket or purse.  We have one friend we call Fobless.

[armoredsaint]

I had that problem with a new 2012 Mazda 6 that self-locked itself. It was a rental since I travel a lot and had to call a lock-service during a snowstorm in Indy in front of my hotel.

 

Took him a minute when he used this little airbag like devices to pump open the said doors just enough to use his hook to unlock it. $150 later..

[homestead]

The hide a key/small metal key works fine, except the alarm will go off after about 15 seconds if you don't immediately have the fob available to start the car.

 

Salesmen told me when you open the door with the mechanical key and you don't have the fob or the battery is dead in the fob to immediately press the unlock button on the door and the alarm will not go off.  Haven't tried though.

[Mary]

This just happened to me ... I was heading out, and I put my purse in the passenger side before walking around to unplug my car on the driver's side.  When I got over there, my car is locked.

 

I only have one key fob; the dealer told me a year ago they'd send me my second one, but they never did.  I had to email a friend to call my husband to have him come home (my phone is also in my purse!) so I can use his phone to call my dealership.  I'm hoping they have my key fob thing sitting around somewhere and just never bothered to send it to me.  If that's the case then I can send him to pick it up (I obviously don't have my driver's license to use his car)

 

If they don't have it, then I don't know what I'm going to do, I'm in panic mode right now.  I feel like such an idiot.

[fbov]

You're no idiot, Ford is. 

 

I did the same thing, dropping my car at the dealer for service. Left the key in the car for the service guys, and it locked itself. The really bad part was that they're solution was to bend the window frame and break into the car. We had both keys; I called my wife. I hope you get in the same way!

 

Best of luck,

Frank

[homestead]

Had a strange event this week. Had my fob in my jean pocket.   I went to put something in the back seat and then changed my mind, so closed the side door and went to the back of the car and opened the hatch and put the item in the car and closed the hatch.  Went in the house for a few minutes and came out and opened the driver door and sat down.  The dash said to start the car immediately or the alarm would sound.  I pressed the unlock button on the door but the warning on the dash was still there so I just started the car.  No idea what triggered this event.