neero

Guys - feel really stupid asking this but pls help.
Door locking - set to lock on automatic when car pulls away (w204, avant, at, 2009).
However, from the inside cabin at back seat (even when 'locked' and driving) doors can still be opened by pulling the interior door latch without unlocking ???? this cannot be a safety feature!

whats the purpose of locking the doors when anyone on the inside can open it even when driving at high speeds. (particularly kids/teenagers/suicide prone ppl!)

Also, the driver compartment has the central locking control with a lock on windows. when that switch is pressed, red light comes on and windows at the back cannot be opened. Why can't this be used to also lock the doors at the back as well so windows and doors cannot be operated unless driver releases switch?

Seems a stupid design - maybe the idea was to get people inside the vehicle out if needed .

your thoughts. My previous renault had a good lockign system that was controlled by the driver - no child lock to be engaged. one flick of switch and both the windows and doors at the back would be locked - from the inside.

AMGTTV8

go buy a renault

NickCats

The purpose of the automatic central locking feature is to prevent car jacking. That is odd that you can prevent the windows from being used in the rear, but you cannot prevent the rear doors from being opened from the inside ( useful when you have small children ) – I never thought about that before.

mistersir

Don't all rear doors have child locks? It's like a little white tab that can only be accessed when you open the door. Once you flip it, the door can't be unlocked from the inside anymore.

Sentosa

If you open the rear doors and look near the lock mechanism you will see a small switch. This is the child lock. If you switch it up the rear doors will not be able to be opened from inside the car at any time.

Richard2011

I never new that! My mom's Lexus has this feature, but I never looked for it on my car.
This will be very useful because I have to press the unlock button sometimes because my sister sometimes has a hard time pulling up the door pin.

RLE

Unless you are a policeman with prisoners in the back, there is no good reason to prevent rear seat passengers from escaping in case of an accident or an incapacitation of the driver. MB must have had that in mind when they removed the child locks (doors) from the W204's equipment list. Plus they saved themselves a few pfennigs.

RLE

Not present in US models. Just a rectangular hole with what looks like a receiver for a plug-in something.

Sentosa

Oh yeah? You obviously did not read my reply to OP. And if I had kids in the back I would not like them having access to open the doors at high or low speed.

RLE

I take your point but at what age are children no longer required to be in approved child seats in Aus?

Sentosa

Could it be a receiver for your key to activate the child locks (like our A3). I would check your manual.

Sentosa

Don't have any myself, and they keep changing the goalposts so not sure. However even if the cutoff was 7, I would still prefer to have child locks

AMGTTV8

i repeat - go buy a renault.

if your children are too stupid to know that opening a car door at speed is not safe then there is a problem...

furthermore, the day that you can get your kids out of a fire-filled coffin you won't be *****ing..

safety above stupidity

my 2cents

Sentosa

"It requires wisdom to understand wisdom: the music is nothing if the audience is deaf." Walter Lippmann

And that's my 2 cents

eminnet

I think he's right. On my Audi A4 doors will open if you pull twice the handle.
The setting in Audi is better assuming that one may pull accidentally the door handle or gets hooked to it by accident.
Please stop pretending that MB is the GOD of all cars.
You should accept that there are other brands that do some things much better than MB.

RLE

Perhaps you could post a picture of the lock button? Looking in the hole with a light, I see what looks like a mount for it. The item could probably be ordered for retrofit since it would be purely mechanical.

Sentosa

Not a problem. Attached are two pics. they are not that great but you can see the switch for the lock.

It surprises that MB North America would delete this safety feature altogether. If ya need anything else let me know.

RLE

Sorry. I can't see what you are referring to. That oblong hole below the door latch is what I was referring to. And the door latch assembly doesn't have anything visible aside from the latch itself.

Sentosa

In the child lock pic ("That oblong hole below the door latch") you will see a switch at the bottom of the cutout. If that switch is pushed up it activates the child lock and won't allow the door to be opened from the inside whilst the car is moving. As you say it may be able to be purchased and installed, although it looks like it would be a messy job.

I was just browsing thru the Nth American manual and it does not appear that you have the child lock feature. That said you do have a lot more safety features(whether they are all necessary or not is debatable) than we have in Australia and probably in other Global markets.

Cheers

Reed19x

Strange feature (or lack of) indeed. Maybe we'll see this change come in the 2010s or 2011s. As for now though, just hope people in the back don't pull the door handle. Maybe put up a sign or some caution tape haha.

That being said, for the future...

Don't bring up ANY safety features on this forum, or anything out of the ordinary in general...you will get repeatedly flamed into the ground by rude people hiding behind a computer screen who would never normally have the stones to act like complete *****s to your face.

chilledbenz

Sounds like somethings a miss here, because mine once the doors lock, you can't unlock the rear door without pulling up the lock pin. Might want to have this checked out. For some reason, I think people are reading your statement wrong, from what I gather your not complaining that they lock, your complaining that the door can be opened even when its locked.

aprince2die4

not sure about the backs...but the fronts also open with a pull of the latch even when they're locked...

acr2001

I'm not sure if this changed from 203 > 204, but on my 203 the REAR doors will NOT open when they are locked unless the door pins are pulled up, or I press unlock, or if a front door is opened -all the doors unlock automatically.

Sportstick

The operation of the door lock and interior latch release handle are governed in the U.S. by NHTSA regulation. MB may sell the car with or without the same design in other markets. The term "override" means the interior latch release handle unlocking a locked door and opening the latch. It's been a couple of years since I worked with this directly, but as I recall, in the U.S.:

- Rear door interior latch release handles may NOT override
- Driver door interior latch release handle MUST override
- Front passenger interior latch release handle may or may not override at manufacturer's discretion.

Child proofing the rear doors disables the interior latch release regardless of the position of the door lock.

aprince2die4

Just went out and checked the doors...the front driver and passenger side door latches DO override the lock...if you pull on the latch on either door all doors will unlock...rears door must be unlocked(from front or by pulling the pin) before the door can be opened from inside...

i did not try messing with the child locks...it was 20 degrees outside and i was in shorts and T..