Smax auto locks - keys and kids inside the car!

So, we bought a second hand Smax last year, 19 plate. Twice my wife has managed to lock the car, with keys and kids inside. Not too much of an issue when we're at home and can get the spare key, but the last time she was in another city and nowhere near the spare key - fire brigade were very helpful, she wouldn't have called them except RAC said 4 hours and our 9 month old was in the car alone! 

We spoke to Ford on the phone and they said it shouldn't happen (specifically said the car shouldn't auto lock with keys inside). Took the car to the dealer today and he's said it's a security feature and nothing they can do, but they'll get the techies to look at it.

Essentially, she has the car keys in the changing bag for the baby as she doesn't want to carry two bags. She opens the rear door to get the kids in, throws the changing bag in the car, then when she closes the door it locks - kids and keys in the car and no way to get in.

I understand from the guy at the dealer it's a security feature, but this seems rediculous, the Smax is a family car (literally one of a few we could get that took 3 car seats) and you would always want to get your kids in the car first. (I have suggested she keep the keys on her person instead of the bag).

Has this happened to others? Is there a fix? Does she just have to live with it (and not put the keys in the bag, but one of the better features was the keyless entry as she has to hold hands/pushchairs etc...)

I agree with the Ford Motor Company that it shouldn't be possible to lock the car accidentally with the keys inside and the driver on the outside.

I'm totally at a loss to get my head around what kind of 'security' feature the local Ford dealer thinks this is. Ask them to demonstrate this on other models, and I expect they won't be able to.

Inside the car are a number of receivers that detect when the key is inside the car.

I suspect that the position that your wife is placing the bag with the keys in, is for some reason not being detected by the receiver and therefore it does not know the key is inside. That however, raises another problem, if the car is not detecting the key then how is it even possible to lock the car ?

There is a feature which is for 'security'. If you unlock the car, and then don't open any door within approximately 30 seconds, the car will automatically re-lock. It does this because it assumes that the doors were unlocked unintentionally, perhaps by accidentally pressing the unlock button on the key.

It could be that the car is not detecting that the rear doors have been opened and is therefore auto-locking the car after 30 seconds (or as soon as the rear doors are closed). An easy thing to test. Unlock the car as you would normally do. Place the bag in the rear and close the door. Does the car auto-lock ? Repeat this again only this time unlock the car and open the drivers door, and then close it. Then open the back door and place the bag inside with the key. Does the car auto-lock now ?

This could well be a software bug. I expect you have the child locks enabled on the rear doors. This may be stopping the car from detecting when the rear doors have been opened. Please try the locking experiment and let us know what happens. 

Easiest fix is to slightly open the drivers door just enough to begin with and then proceed to put kids and luggage in car.

I do this often if I'm loading the boot and the OH is wanting to get in the car. Just pull on the drivers door handle enough to unlock the car.

14 hours ago, unofix said:

It could be that the car is not detecting that the rear doors have been opened and is therefore auto-locking the car after 30 seconds (or as soon as the rear doors are closed). An easy thing to test. Unlock the car as you would normally do. Place the bag in the rear and close the door. Does the car auto-lock ? Repeat this again only this time unlock the car and open the drivers door, and then close it. Then open the back door and place the bag inside with the key. Does the car auto-lock now ?

That's the issue.

The car will only refuse to lock if the keys are inside if it's a keyless (passive) locking system with buttons on the handles to lock/unlock.

If it's remote only locking then it doesn't know the keys are inside

There is a fault with the rear latch not telling the system that the door is open

With the ignition on, open the door and see if it shows up on the cluster and turns on the interior light, if not the latch is faulty

As a precaution tell her to open the front door before she opens the rear door to put the bag in, that will stop the car from re-locking

2 hours ago, DaveT70 said:

There is a fault with the rear latch not telling the system that the door is open

Agreed. I suspect the car is not detecting that the rear door has been opened after it has been unlocked.

This isn't a fault, it's the way modern Fords are setup.

The idea is that you can quickly open a rear door or tailgate to grab your lunch, laptop, gym bag, whatever, and then the car will relock again when you close the rear door or tailgate.

As Wino has already suggested, the only way around this is to open the drivers door first.

12 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

This isn't a fault, it's the way modern Fords are setup.

How modern are we talking ?

My 2019 Focus does not re-lock on it's own if I open and close the back doors which is something I do often while putting things on the back seat.

There may be another way around it. Have a look on the IPC cluster under "Locks"  you might have it set to drivers door only (as I do) so unless you open the drivers door first, any other door opened prior to this will auto lock the car. You can alter this to unlock all in the Lock settings as mentioned earlier.

2 minutes ago, unofix said:

How modern are we talking ?

My 2019 Focus does not re-lock on it's own if I open and close the back doors which is something I do often while putting things on the back seat.

Ours does.

7 minutes ago, unofix said:

How modern are we talking ?

My 2019 Focus does not re-lock on it's own if I open and close the back doors which is something I do often while putting things on the back seat.

Yep, I disagree also, my MK4 Focus had passive entry, auto locking and re-locking (Forscan) and if you opened the rear door and closed it again the car remained unlocked

Just to be sure that I wasn't imagining things, I've just been out to my car and tried it a few different ways. 

I can say with absolute certainty that once the rear door has been opened and closed the car does not auto lock.

I've tested that leaving the keys inside, and tested with the keys outside. I've tested quickly opening and closing the rear door, and also tested leaving the door open for nearly a minute before closing it.  On no occasion has the car re-locked itself.

However I can say that if I just open the tailgate (mine is an estate) and re-close it then the car will remain locked.

I can only conclude that different spec models have been set up in different ways by Ford. This should mean that there will be a setting for this feature somewhere inside of FORScan.

53 minutes ago, unofix said:

However I can say that if I just open the tailgate (mine is an estate) and re-close it then the car will remain locked.

Yes, that can catch you out

1 hour ago, unofix said:

How modern are we talking ?

My 2019 Focus does not re-lock on it's own if I open and close the back doors which is something I do often while putting things on the back seat.

2018 Focus Titanium X.  Not sure I've tried it on the 2021 Vignale but will do at some point.  

 

1 hour ago, Wino said:

There may be another way around it. Have a look on the IPC cluster under "Locks"  you might have it set to drivers door only (as I do) so unless you open the drivers door first, any other door opened prior to this will auto lock the car. You can alter this to unlock all in the Lock settings as mentioned earlier.

Ah, you might be on to something there!  I didn't change any lock settings, so if that's how it was set previously, that could explain it.

Yet another 'One Post Wonder' by the looks of it 😧