Car doors lock with keys inside!

[drh1015]

Hi. Wondering if anyone has had this problem.
1. I unlock the car, get in and shut the door and the doors lock immediately.
2. At another point, I get out of the car to get something out of the boot, without bothering to pick up the keys. Shut the driver's door and the car locks itself. The keys are inside the car... big pain!
To make matters worse, the usual function of unlocking the door by pulling the handle with the keys nearby doe not work.
It happens no matter which of my two key fobs I'm using. Both key batteries are strong.
(I've now taken to hanging the keys round my neck!)

With Seat garages charging £140 just to look at the car, I'm reluctant to take that option.
Any advice please?
Thnanks.

 

[RUM4MO]

This sort of problem might be a bit easier to diagnose if you owned/used a VW Group fully compliant scan tool like VCDS - though shouting out for help could work if anyone responds that has had a similar experience, it certainly needs sorting out though!

 

[Bear]

Hi. Wondering if anyone has had this problem.
1. I unlock the car, get in and shut the door and the doors lock immediately.
2. At another point, I get out of the car to get something out of the boot, without bothering to pick up the keys. Shut the driver's door and the car locks itself. The keys are inside the car... big pain!
To make matters worse, the usual function of unlocking the door by pulling the handle with the keys nearby doe not work.
It happens no matter which of my two key fobs I'm using. Both key batteries are strong.
(I've now taken to hanging the keys round my neck!)

With Seat garages charging £140 just to look at the car, I'm reluctant to take that option.
Any advice please?
Thnanks.

How long have you had the car and how old is it - any warranty?

 

[drh1015]

How long have you had the car and how old is it - any warranty?

It's c. 4.5 years old. No warranty.

 

[drh1015]

This sort of problem might be a bit easier to diagnose if you owned/used a VW Group fully compliant scan tool like VCDS - though shouting out for help could work if anyone responds that has had a similar experience, it certainly needs sorting out though!

Ooh... that sounds interesting. Will investigate. Thanks.

 

[Tell]

Obdeleven cheaper with a Pro license .

It was a common fault in the early days of Kessy. The car needs to be able to read the presence of the key inside the car, if it doesn't and auto locking gets triggered you are locked out. People use to lock their keys in the boot with their sports kit by the gym etc. Sensing of the key present can / was weak in parts of cars in the early which gives you the problem. The car shouldn't lock if the keys are in the car.

This brings us onto the next one, the self inflicted one with coding. There are some jokers about that like the car to auto lock as they walk away. You can code this. When the connection fails the car auto locks. The one click apps with a dongle where people prefer not to understand coding do this. There have been a few suspect cases on this board where people report being locked out and I say did you run an app to do this and they go quite. It's like the people that want the car to beep at them to say it locked .

There was one reported where they kept the keys in the car and car locked them out eventually. It must be in certain situations where there is a failure to read the key in the car, auto locking is active and you get locked out. Auto locking can be triggered via coding also possibly if it doesn't pick up the door has been opened. The one where you unlock the car, don't open a door and the car re locks itself.

For all those reasons it's best to steer clear of the mod where you get the car to lock itself if the keys aren't in it. The one people think is cool... but not if it locks you out. The one touch apps are unreliable since you don't know what they do and can mess up the coding of the car. Going to be an issue with second hand cars where you don't know what the previous owner has been up to on the coding front.

 

[drh1015]

Thanks Tell. Very informative. Currently pursuing a definitive diagnosis. Will update.

 

[TheRomeo]

I'm having the same issue on my 20 plate Cupra Ateca. The first time it happened it locked my other halfs keys and our 1 year old son in the car. Luckily they weren't too far from home so I could run down to them with my key.
I've got the car booked in with Cupra early June for a warranty claim against it. Hopefully they find something and I can pass on any information.

 

[Tell]

I'm having the same issue on my 20 plate Cupra Ateca. The first time it happened it locked my other halfs keys and our 1 year old son in the car. Luckily they weren't too far from home so I could run down to them with my key.
I've got the car booked in with Cupra early June for a warranty claim against it. Hopefully they find something and I can pass on any information.

I also say never trust leaving the keys inside. Afraid I don't trust since you are reliant on the system working as it's suppose to. We've had issues with the Arona if locked with one sets of keys needs that set to unlock it. Then ok with either.

 

[drh1015]

Thanks 'The Romeo'. Interesting to know it's not just my car. Would appreciate any info you find out about a cause. Fault diagnosis at the moment seems to suggest problems with both front door locks, but that doesn't sound right to me. Given that I've just spent £1000 replacing the dashboard, I'm beginning to suspect that all is not well with the car's software/hardware!

Also thanks to 'Tell'. I totally agree. I now keep my spare key zipped up in my trousers. Haven't experienced your issue with the car only responding to the set that was used to lock it... not yet anyway!!

 

[KarlW300]

I'm having the same issue on my 20 plate Cupra Ateca. The first time it happened it locked my other halfs keys and our 1 year old son in the car. Luckily they weren't too far from home so I could run down to them with my key.
I've got the car booked in with Cupra early June for a warranty claim against it. Hopefully they find something and I can pass on any information.

Hi Romeo

I will test my car and see if the car locks with the keys left inside.
Will have the spare key handy just incase it does.

I see you have your car booked in for a warranty claim in June.
Out of interest how long have you been waiting for your appointment?
I have had to wait around 8 weeks to get my car booked in and that is at two different main dealers!
The lead time is shocking!

 

[Tell]

Possibly depends where you live and dealer. I discovered an engine pollution fault on the SCR yesterday, dash light. Ran Obdeleven on it today, got the error code, faulty sensor it said. Did a Google, watched a Youtube video. Booked it into the dealer. Told them I'd done my own diagnostic scan. They asked for the error code to pass to the engineer. She asked for the code beginning with P. They would order that part in if they didn't have it for Monday workshop to replace. That's service.

Isn't warranty work thou. That can get passed up and down to MK.

 

[KarlW300]

Possibly depends where you live and dealer. I discovered an engine pollution fault on the SCR yesterday, dash light. Ran Obdeleven on it today, got the error code, faulty sensor it said. Did a Google, watched a Youtube video. Booked it into the dealer. Told them I'd done my own diagnostic scan. They asked for the error code to pass to the engineer. She asked for the code beginning with P. They would order that part in if they didn't have it for Monday workshop to replace. That's service.

Isn't warranty work thou. That can get passed up and down to MK.

Hi Tell

You have done the diagnostic work yourself.

Mine needs a diagnostic as I have a hollow clunk coming from the offside front.
I'm thinking roll bar bushes or drop links or even the strut mount.
Only clunks over bumpy roads at speed as if driving slowly over speed bumps its fine!

Should be fixed under warranty.
What do you mean by passed up and down to MK?

My two local main dealers had nothing for 8 weeks. One offered a date in July and that was around a month ago.

 

[Tell]

Hi Tell

You have done the diagnostic work yourself.

Mine needs a diagnostic as I have a hollow clunk coming from the offside front.
I'm thinking roll bar bushes or drop links or even the strut mount.
Only clunks over bumpy roads at speed as if driving slowly over speed bumps its fine!

Should be fixed under warranty.
What do you mean by passed up and down to MK?

My two local main dealers had nothing for 8 weeks. One offered a date in July and that was around a month ago.

It appears that head office in Milton Keynes rations warranty work so on faults they get referred to them and told what to do. Clear the fault and wait. Seems to me it's like going private if you don't have a warranty. They get down to the job rather than asking for permission to do the work under warranty. That was the first question I got asked yesterday after determing what needed to be done. Do you have an extended warranty ?.... we have no dates this week, any day next week. I skipped the diagnostic stage given the coding was telling you the fault. Not sure how common it is for people to read their error codes and tell the dealer the job. Engine sensor.

My Seat dealer two back was good at pin pointing mechanical faults on noises but lousy on the fitting side. Not doing bolts up correctly. They went out of business. Botched repairs was another. Had two incidents of that. Bolt not tightened up on suspension and a turbo boost pipe glued on rather than clipped which dropped off putting the car in limp home. Standard of the dealership on that one. London dealership. It's the master tech that is suppose to set the standard.

I find non chain dealerships are better, bit like Vets, they turn into profit centres with lower standards. Family owned business keeps a tab on their staff given it's their business at risk. Customer care. Not too much work around this area so staff don't move about either. Cheaper labour and costs. Think they do well out of the fixed price service since their operating costs are lower . I enquired once how they got the money on that one. No market forces adjustments. One of my subjects. So dealerships in the sticks do better than those with higher costs. Fixed price servicing must work well for them.

 

[RUM4MO]

I feel that it is fair enough to self diagnose and get a workshop to change the part that you have requested that they order in, but, in that situation the workshop would need to be willing to describe and bill the work as "replaced supplied parts as per the customer's instruction" so that there is no knock back if you had misdiagnosed a problem.
Any/all diagnostic scan tools will only retrieve fault codes as set by the car's systems in each controller, sometimes, or maybe half the time, a faulty/failed component is one option, wiring and a few options will also exist.
I'd be quite happy to live by that way of doing things for jobs that I had chosen to offload, maybe due to access, to a workshop - but I'm just writing this as it seems that there is an increasing number of driver/owners buying in a scan tool and taking repair action based entirely on the logged codes, without any thought, skill or knowledge of what else could be causing this to be an issue for that car.
No reflection on the poster that wrote about doing this, I'm just making people aware as this possibility.

 

[Tell]

I'm leaving it to the expert. Normally you'd probably get done for £200 diagnostic charge so it paid for itself. Just generated the code they would see on their equipment so we are onto the next stage. It pays for itself in many ways of customising the car how you want it. Early Atecas had the long hold on the Kessy button to get the mirrors in. Seat gave up with that two years later falling into line with the normal one touch method and the option in the set up. That option was one of the suppressed menus you could release with coding. People with the first Atecas will still be holding the Kessy button for three seconds to get the mirrors in.

Seat also messed up the mib2 high in these unit putting the WiFi in the car in transmit base station mode rather than in received mode. No toggle. That toggle could be released. Their first Seat Mib2 high apps wouldn't work in the first generation of these cars due to them not putting in that that WiFi toggle which you find in home routers like Asus etc. Not your free ones with broadband.

So Obdeleven and coding in general let you iron out the initial coding issues the car shipped with. Ofcourse clearing SVM errors if you start changing the infotainment software. The curse of stop start can also be dealt with in this generation of vehicle.

I never recommend buying the one click app type of device which doesn't allow un picking of what they have done in the car since you never see the coding that they do. Black box solution to coding. Carista and the micro payment app side of Obdeleven. You can buy them just to run fault checks. VCDS and Obdeleven Pro for coding.

As for fault code checking you get to know the routine things they pick up that aren't significant on the Ateca. Databus error, front camera, impaired radar (water etc) and stop the ones you haven't seen before. Clear and see whether they come back. Really the first one that hasn't gone away and is telling you something. A broken sensor.

It's 1980s computing in the car taught in computer science at Universities in the 70s. Distributed control systems. A bit of nouse and you can do things with it. It's only going to report what it's finding or a device going out of alignment if it doesn't register to the system correctly. The one click apps are for kids.

MQB Evos on Leon4 and Formentors are something different where anarchy rules it appears on the error codes they generate.

 

[RUM4MO]

Yes I only use VCDS for changing "things" on family cars, I have Carista as well, but bought that so that I can have access to fault codes when away from my house, I even bought the genuine Carista dongle for our second car very cheaply on a special deal Carista or Amazon were running. That Carista scan tool was bought very early in the life of Carista, so like all early adopters, I don't need to pay extra if I want to use it for some other tasks like battery reg'ng, that is significant because the current version of VCDS is a lot more restrictive than the older versions in as much as you buy it with a set number of "VINs" - and some people that I might want to help will not always be willing to pay me for using up a "VIN" working on the car with VCDS, so only Carista gets used for that, VCDS is only for family cars where needing to use up a "VIN" tasks are involved.

 

[Christopher Waters]

Hi

My 69 plate has always had this little "quirk/feature". Not sure if this VAG wide but I have been caught out a couple of times and it is very annoying, Forgot key in bag chuck bag in boot and close it. If you are quick you will notice the car does a double flash on the indicators to warn you of the impending disaster and you have precisely 2 minutes to retrieve the key before the car locks you out.

What follows is a an embarrassed call to the other half to bring spare key as i have "done it again".

Chris

 

[Tell]

Well it's suppose to read the key is in the car so it's a failure of that. You find it in early experience of Kessy. I think each Kessy lock has an aeriel built into it, so the back one isn't working too well at picking up the keys.

 

[TheRomeo]

Sorry for not getting back to this thread sooner but last week my Ateca came face-to-face with a Cupra technician.

The technician had about an hour with the car and ran a load of diagnostics that all came back healthy with no issues. I completely expected this and thought that would be that. However, they have admitted that there is an issue with the car/keys, they have no idea what the issue is, but there IS an issue. They ran a few manual tests with the keys and changed the batteries (which were brand new) but couldn't get to the bottom of it.

The car has been rebooked in for the end of June so they can run extensive tests which will take 3 - 4 hours. They also want to run side-by-side tests with other Cupra's of different ages and models to get a better understanding of the fault.

Fingers crossed I can get some more information in the next few weeks that I can pass along. I'm not entirely hopeful but it's promising that they've acknowledged there's an issue and want to investigate further rather and just fobbing me off.