Bizarro door lock behavior?

[ljmattox]

So about a month ago, a week after I got my 5, it locked me out.

I spent the day admiring it from the outside till my wife got home with the second set o' keys.

I chalked it up to "must've accidentally hit the lock button on the way out", but wondered. We park inside our locked garage, so our habit (it may be a bad one) is to leave the keys on the console, so whoever jumps in has keys available. That day...yup, my keys were on the console, locked inside. I since formed the habit of leaving the keys on my workbench nearby.

So today. Hopped in, opened the garage door, drove 20 mins to meet some guys for bfast. Got there, opened the door, and powered it off. As soon as I removed the key, the doors locked! I didn't touch nuttin': not the door lock switch on the door, not the door lock button on the switchblade remote. Just to make sure, I did it again. Closed the door. Started the 5. Opened the door. Turned off the 5, and removed the key. Click...doors locked.

So it happened again.

Reviewing the owner's manual, I don't see this behavior described (and hopefully nearby, instructions for telling it to knock it off). There's language about the auto unlock function, and various anti theft things (if you unlock with the remote, and don't open a door, it'll relock them after 30 seconds) but nothing about "sometimes" deciding to lock all doors when you remove the key.

Anyone else observe this behavior?

I stopped for some shopping on the way home, but didn't have this happen. Nor when I pulled into the garage after arriving home.

So it's a puzzlement, so far.

 

[Mazda5wannabe]

You mean it actually locked you into the car? Never seen that before!

How old is your 5? Maybe a dying battery is causing the key to do strange things.

I have a 2006, and the battery started dying last summer and would only unlock the driver's door. Double pushing "open" did nothing. Had the battery replaced and everything went back to normal.

I never, ever, leave my keys in my car, not even a locked garage!

 

[ljmattox]

Indeed, it was surely bizarre.

I'd never seen that exact behavior before, and I didn't trust that I hadn't set it off until I experienced this again this week. And got it to repeat it at that moment.

I thought through a bunch of possibilities of helpful behavior it may have been trying to exhibit, but nothing matches. It might be some malfunctioning "lock the doors once you're moving" feature like many modern cars do, but our 5's don't do this. And it was stationary anyhow.

The other is that "if you don't open a door within 30 seconds after an unlock signal, the doors automatically relock" programming the 5's have. Some version of that gone astray may be what this is.

Mine is a very new 5, my 2010 Sport I've had about 6 weeks or so, so presumably everything's still on fresh batteries.

One thing I mean to try again is to drive a ways, stop, then sit awhile before exiting. Both times this has happened, I believe I had been sitting inside for some time (answering text messages, or somesuch) before opening the door.

 

[Mazda5wannabe]

Hmmm, I've sat in my car, parked with the engine off, talking on the phone, or replying to a text for long periods of time without the doors locking. And I mean for ten minutes long, not a couple!