I reprogrammed my car so the autolock feature does not engage. But now, I see that the retained accessory power function does not work. Coincidence? I can enable the locking function and see if it has any effect on the RAP, but I think that’s a long shot.
Boy that autolock feature can be a pain in the^$$,it may be set up that way to encourage you to keep it active-Kevin
I don’t understand why you would disable the autolock. It as been proven that locked doors will stay closed much better in an accident. And if you should be in an area that might not be as safe as it should be your doors are locked.
I agree with the other 2 comments already posted and my advice is the same: Keep the autolock.
I have one friend who disabled his autolock. He’s afraid of getting into an accident that will knock him out, and then the car will catch on fire. He fears if the doors are locked, no one will be able to get him out. I told him “Dude, if I see you out in a car that’s on fire, I’m getting in there, one way or another.” As a matter of fact, I carry in my car one of those “hammers of life” that are designed to smash windshield. It also has a device at the end of the handle to slice through seat belt webbing. I also keep it handy when I’m working flagging and communications at Brainerd International, in case I need to get a driver out of his car quickly.
I guess it depends where you live. In highly populated areas, there is a lot more crime and autolock is more worthwhile. I understand that in many rural areas, there is not much theft since it will be easy to figure out who did it. If you never lock your car (or house) anyway, turning off autolock makes sense.
What year make and model do you have?
I don’t live in the best area, so I have auto lock enabled on all of our cars that have this feature
I know it’s minor, but it’s one less thing to worry about
And even in my previous car, which had power locks, but not auto locks, I always locked all the doors before I drove off
Did some digging. The RAP and GEM function are tied together. Some folks decode the RAP as remote accessory program and correlate it to remote locking via the key fob. So, disabling it seems to take out the RAP. Car is a 4 door. Autolock will lock back doors. You get out of car and try to open back door to remove something and it’s locked. U gotta press door unlock twice to unlock back door. I don’t like that. I always put small packages/purchases in back seat. So yes I do use the back door alot
What are you working on? RAP-retained accessory power is a GM term, and GEM-generic electronic module is a Ford term.
“I guess it depends where you live.”
I don’t live in a bad area of town necessarily but I do travel a lot and so does my wife. I want the autolock feature because you just never know where you may be driving or stopping.
I live in a great area of town with a strong police department, yet,we always lock the cars parked outside. I don’t recall any stolen cars, but several cars have been broken into at all hours. When we go to very rural areas we still lock them.
I dunno, I think you need to go back and look at the programming options. Mine are just set so that they lock when I put the gear shift in gear, and unlock when it goes into park. So access to the back doors is not a problem. The other option is that they lock when they hit a certain speed, and then unlock again when at a low speed. That would drive me nuts.
They’re all a bit different, it would seem. Mine lock when the speed is above 5mph, and unlock when I pull the key from the ignition.
The PDLs on my 2000 Focus finally stopped working and I made no effort to fix them(those things drove me nuts,but as the regulars said,there is a security issue-so probaly you are on the whole better off with them-Kevin