what triggers auto-door locks (besides speed)?

my '01 Sebring sometimes decides to lock the doors when I stop and hop
out for a minute.

I think it must have something to do with whether I open the door before
or after I put it in park, but I'm not sure.

Could it be a malfunction? Most of the time, it doesn't lock. The
engine is still running. I've learned to make sure I put the window
down before I do this now.

It kind of sucks when your car locks your keys inside with the engine
running.

 

My 2000 300M doesn't lock until you drive a few hundred feet or unless
you hit a certain speed (20 to 30 mph I'd guess). Which ever comes
first.

Idling in park it should not lock by itself.

By rights, the ONLY way you should / could get locked out of a car
(idling or not) is if you opened your drivers door to get out and
manually pushed the door-lock button down on your way out, or pressed
the "lock-all-doors" button. It would piss me off if my 300 locked me
out all by itself.

While on the topic of locking doors, is it possible to alter the
unlocking pattern such that 1 press of the unlock button on the remote
will unlock ALL doors? Is it also possible for ALL doors to
immediately unlock if I come to a stop, put the car in park, turn off
the engine, and open the door?

Those would be 2 items on my wish-list.

 

MoparMan: You ought to check your manual in regards to the section teach
about the Key Fobs. My PT Cruiser manual tells how to disable and enable
certain functions, such as the speed sensitive locking, single vs all-door
locking / unlocking and horn chirp confirmation of actions. For my car it's
generally a combination of turning the key to On and holding one of the Fob
buttons for a certain amount of time.

Al Lewis: You wouldn't happen to refer to your car as Christine would you?
;-) The criteria for an auto lock on my car is that the car has to hit 15
MPH, accelerator has to be pressed and the engine has to be on. Once you
hit 15 MPH, {Clunk} go the locks. I guess it's possible that you have a bad
connection in your door wiring?

-Brayton

 

They do auto-lock when I hit 15, but I've actually seen the door lock on
its own after shutting the door. I've only seen it do that once, but
I've been victim of it several times...only once when the windows and/or
top weren't down.

I guess it's to be expected with a Chrysler if there really isn't some
combination of putting it in park, perhaps setting the parking brake,
and opening and closing the door with the engine running that's supposed
to make that happen.

I have no faith in the thermometer either, and it overstates its gas
mileage, but it's hardly Christine.....then again, Christine really
wasn't a bad car until it got older, was it?