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the good one I came across was on a Honda crv, leave the engine running and lift the whiole car on a two post lift, the wheels start to turn just through drag and bang, all the doors lock. luckily I had left a window open, could have been embarassing otherwise though.

Mrcheerful

Mine does strange central locking things every now and then but not often enough to be an issue. It has been known to unlock itself on the drive sometimes or occasionally fail to lock at the key plip. Actually I think it did lock itself once when I was driving a couple of years ago. It always works properly if you put the key in the lock though.

Well you should have at least two spare ones. The main spare plus the master red one. Could be more of a problem if you did this away from home of course. Probably best not to try again before leaving work.

Makes note to self - go and find where you put the spare keys four years ago just in case. I've long since forgotten.

Makes second note to self. When going away for a while take one spare key with self just in case. I didn't bother when I went to Aberdeen for a month in the summer and thinking back that could have been a problem.

ITYF Fords of this age don't have a master key system.

To program a new key, you just need any two that are currently registered to that car.

Chris

In message , mlv writes

I think its a fault. The Mk2 Focus will auto-lock if you unlock the doors but don't open them within a certain time scale. Also I think the US models will auto-lock when the vehicle starts moving.

Seen at first hand with a Chevrolet HHR (GM's answer to the PT Cruiser).

Car starts moving - doors locked - very interesting for the unintiated when the car is being winched onto the back of a car transporter, with the key in the ignition to unlock the steering...

/jk

Have you found it yet? Or has option 3 now kicked in? ;-)

Al.

I thought all modern cars did that?

Which is why, when I do it with the Passat, I remove the plastic emergency key from the fob, so I can leave the engine running and lock / unlock the door.

The Toad alarm retro-fitted to my Merc does this, I think. At least it locks the doors automatically in normal use; I've never left it with the engine running like that!

What age?

See thread 'long shot...'

Ha.

On the Fords, you can enable or disable the anti-carjacking system. Mine is disabled for the very reason the OP has discovered.

I suppose if someone had opportunistically got in and drove off, that would also have been bad? And there *are* people who do that.

The age the OP said his car was at the start of this thread. Or did you not bother to read that?

Why?

Chris

Around 98 onwards. Transits changed, around the same time as the Mondeo of that era. Escorts + Fiestas ran a master key system until the end of the then current model production.

Mark W suggested:

It certainly wouldn't have been good, but they would have to have smashed through a padlocked 5-bar gate to achieve that.

For sure.

I wrote:

I wasn't aware of that. IME, if you unlock a car, but then do nothing else (such as open a door, start the engine, etc.), then after a short delay, the vehicle will re-lock. To re-lock the vehicle with the key inside and the engine running (but no driver) seems perverse. My Focus doesn't re-lock as I drive off, like many cars do.

Al asked:

I wrote:

The spare key was found after a brief, but frantic rummage, punctuated with expletives :-)

I won't be getting caught again... unless the Focus knows some other tricks.

mlv ("mlv" ) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

It was configurable via the computer on the rentagolf.

Ah! Good.