Automatic Door Locking

[DOCTORBILL]

Has anyone ever been locked out of a Geo Metro
due to the door locking device?

I am afraid to leave my '93 Metro with the engine running
because it might lock the door with the keys in the
ignition and the engine running.

I warm the engine up in the cold mornings in my driveway
out here in the country.

Can one be locked out by this device?

DoctorBill

[serenity]

Couldn't you keep an extra key in the houe some where? Just in case, or a magnetic key holder some place hidden on the car. It's a metro surely noone would go to much trouble to search for it to steal a metro! Get caught boosting Geo metros you deserve to go to jail. I love my little vert but if I wanted to steal a car even for a joy ride I'd pick any number of cars over it.

[mik13usa]

In my experience, if you are talking about the auto lock feature in the 3 door hatchback like mine, you have to be moving forward at least 5 MPH before they will lock.

[DOCTORBILL]

Originally Posted by mik13usa

In my experience, if you are talking about the auto lock feature in the 3 door hatchback like mine, you have to be moving forward at least 5 MPH before they will lock.

Now THAT is the answer I was looking for !

So your Geo has never locked you out?

Also - why does it do the locking door bit only on the driver's
side? Or is mine malfunctioning?

Love this little bugger! Drives like a little sports car.

DoctorBill

[DOCTORBILL]

Originally Posted by serenity

Couldn't you keep an extra key in the houe some where? Just in case, or a magnetic key holder some place hidden on the car. It's a metro surely noone would go to much trouble to search for it to steal a metro! Get caught boosting Geo metros you deserve to go to jail. I love my little vert but if I wanted to steal a car even for a joy ride I'd pick any number of cars over it.

I have a key in my wallet just for that purpose for both my cars.

However, sometimes I take my wallet out of my pocket and put
it in the door slot so I don't have to set on it - so full of money...
all $27 in odd bills.......

If the door locks when I do that, the key is irrelevant.

The bollody door shouldn't lock if no one is in the car - THAT was
my question.

Thanks for the advice.

DoctorBill

[mik13usa]

Doctor Bill,
Both doors should lock. If the little switch in the rocker panel is malfunctioning the signal is not given to lock the door. I have also seen the rubber boot foul the switch, (it gets broken and wedges up in the switch itself) I think Suzuki had a technical bulletin about these switches, but don't hold me to that. I haven't been locked out, my little Metro likes me .... Hope this helps you out!

[geojim]

Since I don't have any young kids, drive alone 98% of the time and always use my seat belt, I didn't see the need of being automatically locked in. So I disconnected the auto door locks at the inside panel just forward of each door. Now all is quite and the doors remain the way I set them.

[bigredmetro]

I know this post is over two years old, but I thought I'd post anyway. My 93' 1.0 has these auto door locks also. I have been locked out numerous times. They lock work whenever they feel like it. Sometimes they don't lock at all, sometimes they lock at 5 or 40 mph, and sometimes they lock with the car ideling in neutral. This is a real pain in the butt because I deliver pizzas in this car and have been locked out at the most inconvenient times. Now I just roll my window down enough to get my hand through. But, there is an easy way to get back into your metro if you lock your keys inside. Grab a piece of rebar, a broomstick, or anything of that nature (the skinnier the better). Now grab the top of the door on the upper right hand corner and pull. Amazingly, at least on my metro, you can pull the door out enough to get the that stick in and use it to pop the lock button to unlock. I gotten some weird looks from people when I'm doing this, but then again, I get weird looks from people all the time in the metro. It doesn't bend the door too much, and if it does, you can just bend the door back a little when it is open. Hopes this helps someone. Ross

[geojim]

I rather lock the doors myself when I want to. It's very easy to simply unplug the door connectors at the inside panels forward of each door. No more auto locking...

[way]

For what it's worth, my old 94 w/auto did lock me out several times. I had it since new and I never had a problem except toward the end of its life when rust became an issue. By that time, the door switch didn't work any more and I junked the car before I ever got around to replacing it. I got 120K out of it though, not bad considering the salt it had to go through.

Doc I think if you stay on top of your door switches and make sure they don't rust out, you shouldn't have a problem. If you start to notice your light doesn't come on when you open the door, that's when you need to be on notice to take care of the switch.


HTH

[flashlight]

I can safely say that I have never been locked out of my car when it is running. My door automatically locks when I go between the speeds of 10-15mph. And the reason that only your drivers side door is locking is that unless you are unlocking the passenger door it will only lock the drivers door.

[RossT]

When I bought my 93 a few years ago, it had one door that would not automatically lock when driving. I wanted to disable the auto locking feature. From looking at the FSM wiring diagram, I found the the locking control module up and behind the glove box. There is ONE wire that inputs the signal from both doors. If you cut this wire, the car is fooled into thinking that the doors are always locked, thus no light comes on in the dash and the car doesn't attempt to lock the doors everytime you take off. If anyone is interested, I will look up which wire to cut.

[spy1309]

I locked myself out of my 2000 Chevy Metro, 2 locksmiths and one cop COULDN'T open the doors despite all the lock picking and tools used.
LOL the cop told me that my car is harder to steal lol than a Cadillac.


PS -Not because of the advanced lock system but .......the flimsynes of it ...read cheap

[DOCTORBILL]

For every car that I drive, I have the door key to it in my wallet in a
credit card flap in the center of the wallet.

Only God knows how many times that those spare keys have saved my arse!

In winter, I carry another key on a string pinned into my inner coat pocket.

If you lock yourself out of the car with your coat and your wallet inside the
car - then you deserve what you get - you are too dumb to drive a car....!

Have somebody who is walking nearby kick you in your butt!

DoctorBill

[Hugemoth]

I unplugged the little white box behind the glovebox that controlls the automatic locking system. Problem solved.

The car did lock me out once, fortunately at home, but I didn't have a spare key. I used a long wire through the rubber in the back window to move the lock button on the door.

Q