Pet Peeve - Doors don't unlock!
 

Is it just me or is it a pain to always have to hit the unlock all doors button after I turn off my car so my wife can get our kid out of the backseat?

Is there a solution? I want the doors to lock while driving so I can't turn that off.

I had Patryk program my car this weekend and he said he programmed the car to unlock all doors when the car is off, but it doesn't work. I have keyless entry if that helps.

What am I missing? Any help greatly appreciated.

I think this is BMW. Mercedes and Range Rover are the same. I had a 2006 and 2007 Lexus, and when you turned the car off, the doors unlocked. I can see this as a feature, but it can also be unsafe if you are in a bad neighborhood, or possibly parked in a dark, underground garage. I actually like having the unlock the doors myself. I control the "safety aspect".

It gets annoying, for sure. My current process is:

1) Fold mirrors in
2) Turn engine off
2.5) Eject key (if it's in the slot; I have Comfort Access)
3) Hit unlock button on dash

Meanwhile, between coming to a complete stop and step 3, my passengers sometimes say they can't exit the vehicle and start talking about how they're "locked in" and "can't get out."

Then I have to go through the process of explaining how it works, each damn time. Or they wrench on the door handles and finally let themselves out. I can see a door panel coming loose because of this. Kind of dumb, if you ask me. At least let us choose. We can choose to use DRL's or where the air comes out of the vents on the fly, but not a basic locking functionality?

I don't know why BMW misses some of the obvious convenience features, e.g., on all my Fords the unlock button is on the drivers door, not the center of the dash. That makes it quite easy to unlock and lock the doors when getting out.

Except for the fact that on coupes, its easy to pull the window away from the seal, insert a coat hanger and hit the unlock to break into a car. I did that to my own Neon years ago when I locked the keys in it once.

I bet it is to save $ (suprise) for both left and right side drive cars in different markets.

Not a good excuse, as if that is a concern one can simply place it such that it requires a firm sideways, not up-and-down movement to activate.

Or as another alternative which would be more convenient that the current placement, put it on the console area in the center, not high on the center dash.

am I missing something here? When I turn the vehicle off you just have to pull the handle twice...second time opens the door. I never have to use the unlock button on the dash.

True but folks not familiar with BMWs pull once, panic, and either try to pull up the button, or pull real hard at the door handle.

The easiest way with passengers is just to hit the unlock button when pulling to a stop.

Penguin: Older BMWs had it on the console behind the gear shifter along with the power window switches too.

I believe you can have your x5 coded to unlock all doors when you put the car into park....

It was coded... and I finally figured how to get it work as coded.

There is a setting that limits the unlocking to the drivers door or the whole car. It wasn't easy to find and doesn't mention it in the manual. Min was set to teh drivers door only so it wasn't unlocking all the doors. It works now. Great feature.

Can you share the instructions? Thanks.

I am sure there are many legal issues to why USA BMW's do things that the same BMW's do in other counties. I can see the legal complaint now from some money gubbing lawyer (not all lawyers are bad)

My client stoped HER car in a parking lot with the doors locked. She reached for her purse on the drivers seat and was looking for her cellphone when an assailant opened HER car door up and did "INSERT BAD STUFF HERE" Now my client did not unlock the doors because she feels safer and always makes sure nobody is around before unlocking and opening Her door. She can no longer drive a car because she of her mental anguish. BUT for 150K+ she can figure out how to cope.

I would also be interested in learning how to do this. I spoke with my dealer to see if they could code this while they had my 2007 x5 in the shop. They told me this was not possible. :dunno:

I just had my 2012 coded to do this. It involves hooking up a laptop to the ODBII port, and sending in new code to the car's computer. After the recode, I do have to leave the car setting to automatically lock the doors after 10mph, but after I turn off the car, all 4 doors unlock.

For it to work, it has to be coded. What happened with mine was that there is a setting in the menu that was set to drivers door only. Once I changed it to all doors it worked as coded.

I believe it's under "settings > door locks. Then change "Unlock button" to "All Doors"

Isn't this a programmable key feature? Pretty sure the wife's key locks all doors when the car starts moving, which then requires two pulls to get out (one to unlock, and the second one to open the door), while my key does not.

I was really surprised there was no option for "unlock doors when park is engaged" option, which seems like a logical pairing with the option it does have for, "lock doors when drive is engaged".

My Dad's Lincoln from 20 years ago would unlock the doors when you parked. Dunno why BMW doesn't make it a simple option in iDrive.

Anyway, all the coding business aside, I just turned off the auto-lock feature.

So is there anyone in the Greater Detroit area who can do this for me? Or I could take it to my regular dealer (Erhard) and see if they can code it. Is this like a 15-30 min labor fix?

To Alan Smithee: we are referring to the ability to auto unlock all 4 doors, when you put the car in park. I would like my doors to auto lock when I start driving but then auto unlock when I put it in park. To other's points, this should be an adjustable feature via iDrive.

From what I have learned, this is not configurable via iDrive. It has to be programmed. My dealer said its not even possible. I don't think the dealers know how to do this kind of stuff (i.e. turn off the nav pop up, watch movies while in drive, etc...) it's probably liability reasons.

I had a guy named Patryk from Europe do it for over the internet. He uses remote desktop and a cable he sends you. It takes about an hour. Cost depends on what you want to change.