Self Locking

[john.voisey]

Have searched the forum and can't see any reference to a V70 Self Locking but mine does.
If I unlock the car with the blipper but don't open a door it will relock itself after 3 minutes.
If I forget to lock the doors they will eventually relock themselves. Im not sure how long this takes but its around 3 to 4 hours.
I thought that I was accidentally operating the blipper in my pocket so have left the keys indoors out of reach and it locks itself.
Not mentioned in the manual.
Is this normal?
My V70 is a 2001 170SE that was owned by Volvo and has a few extras on like, reversing sensors etc but I have never heard of Self Locking as an optional extra.

[mhon72]

Quite normal.
It's a security feature in case you accidentally unlock the car without realising.
If the doors are not opened within 3 minutes the car will relock itself.
No chance of locking the keys in the car as you have to open the doors first.
Unfortunately, the car will not lock itself if you forget to do so yourself.

[bigandquick]

No it's not normal for it to lock itself after a number of hours.Don't know what's happening there, but if you unlock and don't open a door it will re-lock in a matter of minutes.

[RAGTRADE77]

Originally Posted by john.voisey

Have searched the forum and can't see any reference to a V70 Self Locking but mine does.
If I unlock the car with the blipper but don't open a door it will relock itself after 3 minutes.
If I forget to lock the doors they will eventually relock themselves. Im not sure how long this takes but its around 3 to 4 hours.
I thought that I was accidentally operating the blipper in my pocket so have left the keys indoors out of reach and it locks itself.
Not mentioned in the manual.
Is this normal?
My V70 is a 2001 170SE that was owned by Volvo and has a few extras on like, reversing sensors etc but I have never heard of Self Locking as an optional extra.

I have an S/H XC60 bought a year ago. Quite recently I got out of the car and stupidly left the key fob in the slot in the car. A few minutes later there was a click and I found the car was locked with the key still inside. I've since found out that this is a 'Feature' of some but not all modern cars. Fortunately, I was at home and had immediate access to the spare key with which I unlocked it - but imagine if I had been miles away from home. What do you do then? You can't move the car - you can't get into it - so, you are 'stuffed' - just something to check out when you buy a new car: Does it have 'Self LOCKING' in which case avoid.becaue you could accidently find yourself with a major issue when you least need it. I cannot for the life of me understand what the car designers were thinking about when they came up with this (but see later on). In order to protect the car if it was not left locked you lock out the owner of the car? Which is the lesser evil? 99.999% of cars left unlocked will not be touched so why force them to lock themselves at huge inconveniece to the owner & then not warn them? Such a system should only be instituted when there is a viable means for the owner to get into the car by other means. For example, if the key is left in the slot and the car door is opened an alarm should warn the driver that something is amiss - This happens on my old Peugeot when the lights are left on as you get out!

I'm sure many other people have walked away from their car and left the key inside on many occasions. The last thing you need is to find you can't get back into it. If it's been stolen or contents stolen then yes it's a tough lesson but at least you are mobile and should have insurance. So I can only imagine this system is done at the behest & protection of insurers who don't want to pay for a stolen car. They don't give a toss for the owner being stranded with a locked up car. At least give the owner the option of making a decision as to whether to have 'Self Locking' - Come on Volvo - Think about your owners rather than the insurers! I for one will be very circumspect when buying again!

[richmac]

If you drop into a Volvo dealer, they can enable the audio reminders for you.