disable automatic door locking on 2010-2013 TC

[mgreene]

Hello fellow TC owners. I have been lurking for some time on this forum trying to find an answer.  My question is about defeating the automatic locking that happens once the vehicle is in motion.  I tried the procedure outlined on other Ford units to no avail because the manual door lock does not work on a TC like it does on other Ford vehicles.  Thanks in advance for pointing me to answers!

[DonShockley]

Here's the instructions from my 2015 TC owners manual:

 

Enabling or Disabling Auto lock and Auto unlock

 

To enable or disable these features, do the following:
1. Switch the ignition on.
2. Press the power door unlock button three times.
3. Switch the ignition off.
4. Press the power door unlock button three times.
5. Switch the ignition on. The horn will chirp indicating your vehicle is in programming mode.

 

Auto lock: Press the power door lock button for less than one second and release. The horn will chirp once if disabled or twice (one short and one long chirp) if enabled.

Auto unlock: Press the power door lock button for longer than two seconds and release. The horn will chirp once if disabled or twice (one short and one long chirp) if enabled.

 

After programming the feature, switch the ignition off. The horn will chirp once indicating programming is complete.

 

Note: You will have 30 seconds to complete the procedure.
Note: You can enable or disable the auto unlock feature independently of the auto lock feature.

[OLDSCHOOLFOOL]

I had trouble making the 30 sec time limit and trying to refer back to the manual. Thanks Don, cause I think I just may be able to print out what you have here and follow it without having to try and pick out from the manual the important parts.

 

Don't you have to go through the whole sequence for each function?

[DonShockley]

It took me a bunch of tries to get the timing right and get it to work, and yes you have to do the full sequence. I don't know why they made the last two steps seperate paragraphs instead of step numbers 6 (a&b) and 7.

 

And if I recall correctly, somewhere in there I thought maybe there was a typo and maybe I was supposed to be pushing the unlock button instead of the lock button for the unlock procedure. I thought that might be why it wasn't working, so I tried it that way too. I forget when it actually worked. But my neighbors must have thought I was nuts constantly pulling in and out of my parking area and driving up and down the street in short bursts to test the operation each time I thought I had it disabled.

[OLDSCHOOLFOOL]

I am going to say I got it this time. User error. I wasn't pressing first one and then the other. My mind somehow said the unlock was for the auto-unlock and the lock was for the auto-lock. You have to press both buttons one after the other. The order seems to determine which feature you are changing the state of. 

 

Don't feel bad, I just got a bunch of WTF looks doing the same thing at work. HR may call later today to see if I need some sort of "counseling".

Edited May 16, 2018 by OLDSCHOOLFOOL
typo

[sKiZo]

Does that work with the back doors as well, or just passenger and side doors?

[OLDSCHOOLFOOL]

11 hours ago, sKiZo said:

Does that work with the back doors as well, or just passenger and side doors?

My 2016 has only one keyed entry, driver's door. All the locks appear to only work in unison. One more reason that I think it should be legal to strangle at least one software engineer per day. When the key fob starts acting up its going to be a royal pain in the ass. 

[Fifty150]

The owners manual also has a section on disabling the seat belt chime so that you can drive without your seat belt and not get that annoying noise.  Not everyone will need to do that.  But some of us are old school, and will want to drive without a seat belt.

[OLDSCHOOLFOOL]

6 hours ago, Fifty150 said:

The owners manual also has a section on disabling the seat belt chime so that you can drive without your seat belt and not get that annoying noise.  Not everyone will need to do that.  But some of us are old school, and will want to drive without a seat belt.

After a big fat ticket, I have "learned" to drive with the seatbelt on. The chime has reminded me a few times that I should put it on so its not all bad. But if I'm just moving stuff around the yard and shop this could be useful.

The seatbelt only really bothers me when I have the window down at highway speeds. The wind catches the top end of it and sounds a little like a buzz saw. I wonder if I couldn't relocate that end of it?

[Mike Chell]

If there's one safety feature that I totally agree with, it's a seat belt.  I don't understand the "desire" to drive without them on.

Not judging you guys, just voicing my own opinion.

[PhotoAl]

Just returned from a trip to Italy and Monaco.  Had a Ford C-Max Grand rental car.  It's a C-Max but a bit longer with two fold down seats in the back for a total of 7 seats.  As I would expect a lot of the controls were very similar to my '16 Transit Connect.  It had a really cool display in the info part of the dash which had 7 boxes corresponding to the seats.  A fastened seat belt had a green check and if unfastened it changed to red.  The driver could immediately tell who had unbuckled.  It was a very nice system and I wondered if my Transit Connect could be programed to show the same thing.  

 

We went to Monaco for the Historic Races.  One of the groups was the pre war cars.  It was amazing to watch them and see how fast they would go.  These are cars from the 20's and 30's.  The drivers did not wear seat belts!  Monaco is a street course and is not a place to make a serious mistake.  I was amazed at how hard they were driving.  For the gear heads out there the sounds were amazing.  Attached photo is not one of my best but does show the driver and lack of seat belt and roll bar.

[Fifty150]

Seat belt laws are applicable on public roads.  I am not always on a public road.  Sometimes I drive on private property.  If I am slowly cruising through a field, and getting in & out to check on things every 50 feet, I am not wearing a seat belt.  No way I can collide with another car where there isn't one around.  I never wear a seat belt when I'm cruising around a large factory or plant, or driving from the warehouse to the hangarr, and when I'm driving on the tarmac of the airport with all lights flashing.  I guess farmers probably drive through their crop zones in much the same manner.  Last time I glanced at the local vehicle code, there was still an exception for workers to ride in the bed of pickup trucks and flatbed trucks, on a public road, if they are being transported a short distance from one work are to the next.  

 

Don't get me wrong.  I am not driving 70 mph down the freeway without a seat belt.  Yet, I do just that when I'm on the Harley.

[Mike Chell]

Yeah, I can understand farm work, etc.  In cases like that, I'd just buckle the belt before I sit in the seat.

[OLDSCHOOLFOOL]

2 hours ago, Mike Chell said:

Yeah, I can understand farm work, etc.  In cases like that, I'd just buckle the belt before I sit in the seat.

 

This is what I do with my pickup. I don't have any issues with wearing the seatbelt on public roads. None whatsoever.

 

Looked up the steps in the manual and once again its a series of convoluted steps to do it. A simple user interface allowing the owner to change these parameters (virtually all parameters) would be so easy for the manufacturer to provide with todays technology.

Edited May 20, 2018 by OLDSCHOOLFOOL

[Fifty150]

Even with yesterday's technology, the auto manufacturers leave a lot on the table.  That is why we have a large aftermarket for cars and trucks.  If every vehicle came with better lighting, then there would be no need to add lighting.  If every vehicle was sold with all of the performance parts, then nobody would have to make their car go faster.  If every Honda came with stickers, then I wouldn't have to put all of those Fast N Furious stickers on my Honda.

[Mike Chell]

For all of you here, in the U.S.A. ... the reason the manufacturers DON'T give us access ...

"A simple user interface allowing the owner to change these parameters (virtually all parameters) would be so easy for the manufacturer to provide with today's technology."

... is because it's WAY TOO easy to sue said manufacturer.  They can have vehicle owners sign all the releases in the world, and they'd still get sued.

 

One of my employers, when he owned a different after market motorcycle shop, sold a chain, oil and filter to a customer.  That's it, never actually saw the vehicle.  The Vehicle turned out to be one of those balloon tire three wheelers.  The kind that maimed or injured lots of people.

The vehicle owner put the chain on, replaced oil and filter, and went for a ride.  He'd "had a few" while working on the trike.  He wrapped it and himself around a tree ... claimed the vehicle didn't respond to controls.  Lawyers said it's because "those three wheelers were dangerous for this very reason"  and "It's why the companies stopped making them.  They should've all been recalled".

The lawsuit's claim against my employer was that they should've (1) refused to sell anything for "those vehicles" and (2) should've given the customer a written warning about "those vehicles" as soon as they saw what they were ordering for.

 

The claimant won, and the settlement put the company out of business.

 

I'm actually surprised that you can disable safety features, at all, with any push of buttons!

[Garyintransit]

The original question was about the 2010 to 2013 model years. I have a 2011 Transit connect and there are no door lock door unlock buttons instead there's this rocker thing that you can push in for lock and pull out for unlock. Is there anyone out there that knows the trick to disabling the auto locks for these model years?

Thanks

[Wingerr]

I'd like to disable the auto unlocking on my 2013, maybe I'll have to see if there's a similar procedure available for the earlier gen Transits.

It's going to prevent me from being able to lock my doors one of these days, due to the door ajar sensor going wonky.

 

Closest option is to disable the two stage unlocking, but I don't know if that will solve the problem of not being able to lock the doors if the driver door ajar sensor is faulty.

 

Unlocking the Doors (Two-Stage Unlock) Press the button to unlock the front and sliding doors. Press the button again within three seconds to unlock all doors. Press and hold both the lock and unlock buttons on the remote control for four seconds to disable or enable two-stage unlocking. Disabling two-stage unlocking allows all vehicle doors to unlock with one press of the button. The turn signals will flash twice to indicate the unlocking mode was changed.

Edited September 5, 2021 by Wingerr
Addition