Walk away locks

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bamba415

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I've enabled the walk away lock feature (which is really nice). When I walk away from the car, it will sometimes issue a rapid succession of beaps instead of the single confirmation beep. It sounds like a warning but the motor is definitely off. Anyone else experience this behavior?

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All the time. Those beeps mean that the car either couldn't detect the keyfob, or it thought the key was still in the car. I get them basically every time when I open the trunk to retrieve my groceries.

When the rapid beeps happen, that means the car decided not to auto-lock because it couldn't be sure you left with the key.
 
Exactly, if you open the trunk, it wants to make sure you didn't accidentally put the keys in the trunk and lock them in the trunk. It is just a way to make sure the car doesn't lock your keys in the car.
 
Somewhat related, I wanted to start a new thread but maybe throw this in.

Situation: my wife has the key in her purse, we arrive and she gets out but I stay in the car. Car auto-locks. How do I get out without triggering the alarm?

You can get the same result by turning off the engine, and locking using the key fob (for example to activate the climate only).
 
This 'protection' against locking the keys in the trunk is my only major annoyance with the car. Not being able to close the trunk, setting off what sounds like an alarm of some sort (however non-blaring) is not the sort of attention you want in a shopping center parking lot. I haven't figured out how to avoid it. On the weekends, when I'm loading a bike rack on and off the trunk, I disable it.

The actual 'lock the car when I walk away' feature, when it doesn't involve the trunk, is cool.
 
Vezz66 said:
Somewhat related, I wanted to start a new thread but maybe throw this in.

Situation: my wife has the key in her purse, we arrive and she gets out but I stay in the car. Car auto-locks. How do I get out without triggering the alarm?

You can get the same result by turning off the engine, and locking using the key fob (for example to activate the climate only).
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Both situations means the car is locked and it assumes nobody is in the car. Opening the door from inside will trigger the alarm. Try turning the car on in accessory mode and have the wife walk away. I'm not sure if there is a timer that will shut off the car and lock it. You can also try leaving the door slightly open. When she is out of range, close the door and see if it auto locks. You can also have your wife lock and unlock the car with the fob while you are in the car and see if it prevents it from auto locking.
 
One thing I don't like about the auto lock is I will be putting stuff in the car and close the doors and try to open the back door and find it locked on me. I then have to touch the front door handle to reopen the doors. I think using the fob to open the doors might prevent it from locking but then it defeats the purpose of leaving the keys in your pocket.
 
All of these weird behaviors and constant beeping is why I turned off the walk-away feature. In theory I like the idea, but the implementation is bad enough that I will just use the key fob or the button on the door handle to lock the doors.
 
Emanuel Green said:
All the time. Those beeps mean that the car either couldn't detect the keyfob, or it thought the key was still in the car. I get them basically every time when I open the trunk to retrieve my groceries.

When the rapid beeps happen, that means the car decided not to auto-lock because it couldn't be sure you left with the key.
Click to expand...

KevinW said:
All of these weird behaviors and constant beeping is why I turned off the walk-away feature. In theory I like the idea, but the implementation is bad enough that I will just use the key fob or the button on the door handle to lock the doors.
Click to expand...

Makes sense. I know in at least one case when I heard a succession of beeps, I was walking in the opposite direction of where the car was facing (so I would have walked by the trunk). I still find the feature pretty handy even if it isn't fully baked.
 
Does it auto lock after a little while even if it does the multiple beeps? I too have heard it a few times when using the trunk but wasn't sure if it was still locking or not.
 
It's too simple guys. What's happening is the car cannot allow the auto lock to activate if any door (including the trunk) is open. The beeps are only warning you that auto lock has been interupted. Also If the key fob remains closer than about 5 feet from any sensor (after the initial beep)the auto lock won't function. So give the auto lock time to lock the doors by stepping away from all doors until they lock, then open the trunk etc.
 
neal adkins said:
It's too simple guys. What's happening is the car cannot allow the auto lock to activate if any door (including the trunk) is open. The beeps are only warning you that auto lock has been interupted. Also If the key fob remains closer than about 5 feet from any sensor (after the initial beep)the auto lock won't function. So give the auto lock time to lock the doors by stepping away from all doors until they lock, then open the trunk etc.
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This accurately describes 95% of the times the auto lock fails and I get the rapid beeps, although I do still occasionally get that even when I follow the exact same walk-away pattern that I always do in my driveway.
dnb said:
Does it auto lock after a little while even if it does the multiple beeps? I too have heard it a few times when using the trunk but wasn't sure if it was still locking or not.
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I have never had it auto lock after the multiple beeps, personally, unless I then opened and closed a door or the trunk to "re-arm" the auto-lock feature.
Vezz66 said:
Situation: my wife has the key in her purse, we arrive and she gets out but I stay in the car. Car auto-locks. How do I get out without triggering the alarm?
Click to expand...
I haven't figured out a workaround other than unlocking it manually with the fob before you walk away or leaving a door cracked. Boy does my wife get annoyed when I walk away while she's waiting in the car and it arms the alarm on her.

In a more general sense I feel the need to vent that while I absolutely adore auto-lock, and Honda's implementation has logic to it (open a door too quickly, open the trunk too quickly, or hang around next to the car for too long, and no auto lock), Honda really botched the execution of this feature. The Volt has exactly the same feature, but in the entire two years I owned my Gen1 I never had it not lock when I expected it to--the only failures were when I left a door cracked or left the fob in the car. Basically the feature in that vehicle is "auto lock when the fob is more than X feet away from the car" when , which works really well and accounts for getting stuff out of the back or hanging around to plug in or wait for someone else to get out of the car. I have no idea how other companies implement this, but I was shocked that Honda did such a poor job of it after having such a good experience with Chevy.
 
Personally, I find the auto-lock on the Clarity to be too aggressive.

Nearly every day I'll open the passenger door, dump my backpack in the passenger footwell, walk around to the driver door, and just before I get there, the car locks. Then I have to wait a second to reset before I can unlock my door!

It also happens on the way out: Get out of the car, plug in to the charger, car locks, go back for my stuff, have to unlock the car again!
 
Glad I read this thread. I didn't know what that fast beeping was, and didn't know why the alarm kept going off. I love the auto lock feature, but these annoyances are too much for me. Back to manually locking it I guess.
 
kcsunshine said:
One thing I don't like about the auto lock is I will be putting stuff in the car and close the doors and try to open the back door and find it locked on me. I then have to touch the front door handle to reopen the doors. I think using the fob to open the doors might prevent it from locking but then it defeats the purpose of leaving the keys in your pocket.
Click to expand...

Is it possible to extend the distance before it locks?

I had the same issue when I tried the walk away feature and it seems it engages a bit too early (as in you're just walking around the car vs away from it). Walk away is turned off right now
 
It seems to be a problem with new Hondas in general. My wife drives a 2017 CR-V and it does the same thing occasionally. On either car if you open and close the door it will fix itself. I have no idea what causes it to happen.
 
M.M. said:
In a more general sense I feel the need to vent that while I absolutely adore auto-lock, and Honda's implementation has logic to it (open a door too quickly, open the trunk too quickly, or hang around next to the car for too long, and no auto lock), Honda really botched the execution of this feature.
Click to expand...

Yeah its odd that they made it more complex... seems it should just have a 10ft (it says 8ft iirc which I don't believe at all since walk away area seems tiny) and then locks assuming all doors are closed. It seems to trigger too quickly and like others have said the trunk open makes it angry.

Should just be simple auto lock after certain time or distance or both.
 
Definitely Not 8ft; may not even be 3 ft! Finally turned mine off after the doors locked again after I double checked my 8yo son's LATCH system with my son in the car.
 
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