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Disabling Automatic Door Locks - '03 OBW


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Good day fellow Scobians,

 

First post as some may note, primarily because most of all my questions, up until now, have already been answered on the forum. Cheers to that!

 

Sooo, does anyone here know how to disable the automatic door locks? Coming from a Forester, which didn't have this 'feature', it's driving me cRaZY...I like to control the locking and unlocking of my own doors, and get a stressed out tick everytime it locks the doors. It wouldn't be so bad if it lock the doors when engage in a gear, but to unlock them you have to either press the button, or turn the car off. Not to mention that if you do unlock them with the button, and then re-engage the transmission from P, they don't relock.

 

Anyway, the alarm/fob is factory..believe an Alpine, and I would be eternally grateful to anyone that could help relieve me of this stress.

 

stress out,

freebeing

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More and more new cars do this, i wouldnt disable it personally. It is done to keep the doors closed in a crash.

 

Maybe you need to destress a bit more, there are much larger issues, oh like trans fat and global warming then your doors locking to keep you from flying out of the car in an accident :-p

 

nipper

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thanks for the link legacy, although info contained on that site is for a Code Alarm...it may help.

 

For now nipper, I'll reserve opinion on 'global warming' and 'trans fats', but according to NHTSA, there is no data to indicate whether or not ADL-equipped vehicles have a reduced likelihood of opening in a real crash... http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/14mar20010800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2003/03-28941.htm

 

In any event, in this particular case, the OBW ADL is a poor design and I'd still like to be able to defeat it. Anyone..?

 

freebeing

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In any event, in this particular case, the OBW ADL is a poor design and I'd still like to be able to defeat it. Anyone..?

 

freebeing

 

Did you buy this car new? If not, it may be an aftermarket alarm. If no alarm "sounding" when opened w/o unlocking first, it could be set to "valet mode" in which the alarm ceases to function, retaining keyless features. If it is aftermarket, a car stero shop could change the setting for you fairly quickly.

 

I unfortunately haven't been in an '03 Leg or O/B and remembered it locking, or having seen an Alpine system from the factory, in any year. Besides, I let the young punk at work mess with all the alarm @#$%, that stuff drives me nuts. I work on 'em with a wire cutter in hand.

 

Lewis

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ya..the alarm is factory - haven't owned it from new, but Alpine is factory for this year OBW : http://www.cars101.com/subaru/keyless.html#alpine

 

ADL are standard for this OBW, and as far as my research has told me thus far, the ADL is control via the factory alarm. In some alarms, there are dip switches that can be set to disable ADL, but not sure about the OBW alarm...or if it even has dip switches...or what those setting would be. So far...no one really seems to know...here or at a couple of dealers I called. :confused:

 

freebeing

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ya..the alarm is factory - haven't owned it from new, but Alpine is factory for this year OBW : http://www.cars101.com/subaru/keyless.html#alpine

 

ADL are standard for this OBW, and as far as my research has told me thus far, the ADL is control via the factory alarm. In some alarms, there are dip switches that can be set to disable ADL, but not sure about the OBW alarm...or if it even has dip switches...or what those setting would be. So far...no one really seems to know...here or at a couple of dealers I called. :confused:

 

freebeing

 

have you tried contacting alpine?

 

nipper

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ya..the alarm is factory - haven't owned it from new, but Alpine is factory for this year OBW : http://www.cars101.com/subaru/keyless.html#alpine

 

ADL are standard for this OBW, and as far as my research has told me thus far, the ADL is control via the factory alarm. In some alarms, there are dip switches that can be set to disable ADL, but not sure about the OBW alarm...or if it even has dip switches...or what those setting would be. So far...no one really seems to know...here or at a couple of dealers I called. :confused:

 

freebeing

 

 

If you can't manage to disable the ADL "feature" on the factory alarm, there's probably the option of completely doing away with the factory alarm/keyfob system and going with an aftermarket keyless entry system which is programmable. They're not that expensive-- I got one for $70 with two fobs.

 

Nathan

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have you tried contacting alpine?

 

nipper

 

I've been to there site - wasn't able to find anything on car alarms, and after some further research I'm told that they no longer (for years now) manufacturer or support car alarms. :-\

 

nathan - I'd prefer to see if I'm able to disable the ADL feature from the alarm (again - assuming that it IS the alarm that controls the ADL) prior to ripping everything out and installing an after market unit - not even sure I'd go that far anyway.

 

I was thinking of maybe trying to locate the wire that signals the unit that I've depressed the brake pedal and cut'n the sucker - but I was hoping for alternatives to that option...like a dip setting on the unit itself or something...

 

freebeing

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It wouldn't be so bad if it lock the doors when engage in a gear, but to unlock them you have to either press the button, or turn the car off. Not to mention that if you do unlock them with the button, and then re-engage the transmission from P, they don't relock.

 

That's odd, the new Toyotas that have that feature lock when you put the transmission in gear, and unlock when you put it back in park.. (Some of them with the transponder keys, or like the Prius and high end Camry and Avalon that have no key at all, won't lock if the key/fob is in the car. (The keyless cars are nice, you just have to have the key on your key ring or in your purse or whatever and when you touch the door handle it unlocks the door and then you just push the "Power" button (Or "Engine Start" for the non-hybrids) and when you get out, you push a button that's in the door handle to lock the doors. It's pretty neat. (Yes, they do have a mechanical key as a backup, but there is no ignition key, just a place to stick the fob if it's battery is dead)

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My wife has an '03 OBW and has the opposite complaint - it does not auto-lock when exiting the vehicle (like her van did). I THINK I read there is a set of connectors under the driver side door sill or behind the panel in front of it that will enable the auto-lock feature. Dunno if it requires any special attention to the alarm. Perhaps the alarm would still need to be activated.

 

Maybe a dealership (or close look through the manual) could explain the feature?

 

 

Carl

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