I have a 2008 Toyota Sienna. I’m the past 2 months it has been automatically locking the doors. I’ll park it, leave the keys on the seat, shut the door, and it locks. It’s never done this before. How can I get it to stop?
If you leave the key in the ignition it shouldn’t lock. Or you could read the owners manual, it explains how to set the doors locks to activate differently. Such as lock when putting the van in gear, not locking automatically at all, etc. if you don’t have the manual get one for free here:
Apparently the van is more concerned about it not being stolen than you are. Leaving the keys on the seat isn’t a smart idea even if you leave in your garage like that, let alone out in the open.
This problem would be completely solved if you’d just took your keys with you.
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I can’t imagine why you would do that. I have my vehicles locked and the keys with me even when I am working in the garage and they are in the drive way .
+1
I live in a semi-rural area with close to zero crime, but I lock my car and take the keys with me even when the car is parked in my garage.
My wife has a 2006 Sienna. If you unlock the doors with the key fob, they will automatically lock after a short wait if you don’t open a van door. We’ve never encountered your situation since we always lock the doors after we exit the van.
I suggest you check the Owner’s Manual as this may be an adjustable setting.
Ed B.
I owned both a 2011 Sienna and a 2017 Sienna. Both automatically lock the doors after a short interval unless the key is in the ignition.
I have an attached garage and I do leave the key in the ignition when the vehicles are in the garage and the garage door is closed. If we would happen to have a fire, I could quickly get the vehicles out of the garage without having to search for the keys.
I live in a rural area with 0 crime I can’t remember the last time I locked the house & my truck key’s are alway’s in the ignition.
Sorry Renegade , but that is just plain foolish .
While I first thought this was strange, it dawned on me that I put my keys on my dash when it is in the garage. Because I always carry the spare key fob in my trunk, I always have the window open enough to be able to grab the keys if it locks on me. That way if I’m out and about and happen to lose my fob, I can call Onstar and have them open my trunk. Never lost a fob though or a car and no gun shots around here, just fire crackers once in a while. So just open the window so you don’t get locked out or reprogram.
Like I said it is a very rural area in the 12 year’s I have been here the police have come out 2 times & all they were looking for was who owned the horse’s that got & was on the road it is so far out we can’t get pizza delivery’s.
I was on the way to the cabin one night about dusk and there were some cows that had gotten loose on the side of the road. I called 911 to report it and the guy asked if they were brown or black. Guess it helped him figure out whose they were. Rural Minnesota. 30 mile drive to get something to eat after 8:00.
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One possibility is that the lock switch on the door is worn out or the wiring to it is damaged or loose, so that the jolt of slamming the door is triggering the lock action. Does this happen if you close the door gently?
To my great surprise, I discovered that my friend’s 2008 Rav-4 does the same thing.
Perhaps the OP’s car has a similar trait.
I once owned a 1954 Buick. The ignition switch had three positions: Lock; On; Off.
I only used the key to lock and unlock the doors. I didn’t need the key in the ignition lock. I would flip the switch to “Off” without using the key. To start the car, I turned the ignition switch to “On”–no key needed. The starter was activated by flipping the ignition to “On” and stepping on the accelerator. When the accelerator was about 1/3 of the way down, the starter engaged. As soon as the engine started, the starter disengaged automatically. If the engine was flooded, you pressed the accelerator to the floor which opened the automatic choke…
I rarely had the key in the ignition switch. On a few occasions, I would turn the switch to “Lock” and remove the key. I had several keys on my keyring including a skeleton key for the front door of the house where I rented a room. By not having the key in the ignition lock, I didn’t put undue stress on the lock.