My GLE today suddenly decided to lock itself when the ignition is turned off.

My wife turned off the car and went inside a store to buy something while I was waiting in the car in the passenger seat. Her pulse was inside the car and the keys were in it. After a few seconds, the car locked itself (side mirrors folded as well). Then the alarm went off! I had to stop the alarm by unlocking with the key.

When my wife returned, I told her what just happened. We both thought it was really weird as this never happened before. While we were talking, with the ignition still off, the car locked itself and side mirrors folded. Then sure enough, alarm went off again! I think the interior sensor triggered.

I went into the MercedesMe app and tried to look for the setting where the car would lock itself if you shut off ignition and walk away without locking it. I swear I saw the setting a while back but today I couldn’t find it.

Anyone else experience this or know how to stop this behavior? I don’t want the car to lock itself while the keys are inside and I’m sitting in it!

 

The car won't normally lock itself especially if the keys are in the car. Sounds like a trip to the dealer.

 

First, it’s entirely possible that the purse set up some kind of RF shield so the vehicle no longer senses the key. Next, it’s possible that somehow auto lock was engaged. This is the procedure that worked on my 2018 GLE. I’ve never tried this on my 2020 GLE.

For the locks to automatically engage;
turn on the ignition and hold down the door lock button on your car for a couple of seconds until you notice an audible alert and the turn indicators that are activated. This is the way it used to work on many MB’s. Repeat the process to disengage.

Curious if this procedure still works…good luck.

 

This happened to me while washing the car. Keys were inside and after a few minutes it locked itself. It is possible I may have brushed over the key sensor, not 100% sure on that tho. Lesson learned, I won’t wash car while keys are in it!

 

Is this why our cars remind us to not leave our keys inside because you can actually lock them inside the vehicle? I'm going to have to test this with my spare key

 

The strange behavior stopped all by itself. It does not lock itself now with the keys inside.

 

I will have to test it to see but I’ve never set it up that way and the car never locked itself with the keys inside or out. If I leave the car unlocked, I get a message on the MercedesMe app.

It’s no longer locking itself and I haven’t done anything.

 

Mercedes vehicles don't have an auto lock feature when walking away and left unlocked, whether the key is inside of the car or not. The auto lock instructions above are for automatic locking if the ignition is switched on and the wheels are turning faster than walking pace. Basically it automatically locks the doors as you are driving off. Most cars have had this feature for a while now to protect occupants from casual car jackings.

The doors also can't be locked from the outside if the key is detected inside of the vehicle. However, keep in mind that the newer fobs have a motion sensor which puts the key fob to sleep after it's been motionless for two minutes, so if there's a key outside of the car and the key fob inside of the car has gone to sleep then the doors can be locked from the outside.

Washing the car with the key fob nearby can result in accidentally locking it. The sensors are capacitive, so merely having water flow over them is enough to trigger the locks. However, again, if a fob is detected inside of the car it shouldn't lock.

A word of caution to what constitutes inside of the car. The boundaries of what's inside and outside of the car are not a 100% precise as we are talking about radio signals. The key fob can technically be inside, but the car may think it's outside. Such may happen for example if you place the key fob in the door pocket. That's too close to the edge of the car, so it may or may not detect it as still being inside of the car. To avoid locking the key inside of the car, always place it somewhere in the center of the cabin, or better yet, keep it on your person at all times.

Not sure why OPs car locked while the key seemed to be inside and his wife walked away w/o her purse. But possibly something in the purse pushed against the buttons and triggered the lock. That's not unheard of. Can also happen with the key in the pocket of one's pants, especially if it's on a key chain and other keys push against the buttons. There is one auto lock feature in these cars, and that is if you unlock the car with the key fob, but don't open the driver's door within 30 seconds, then it automatically locks again. Some people have managed to lock in their key that way. They unlocked the car, but then only opened the trunk, threw their gym bag in with the key inside and then close the trunk. Then before they had a chance to open the driver's door in time, the car automatically locked itself again with the key fob inside. If that happens, hopefully you didn't also have your phone in the gym bag, so you can unlock the car from the app.