All, I have owned 2009 Gen2 Prius for about 1 year now, have been reading this forum, absolutely love my Prius, and strongly believe this is a wonderful group with lots of friendly people. This is my first post, I have searched similar questions, doesn't seem find a perfect match. Question: how to use physical key to lock/unlock ALL doors while car is running? Detail: I can use physical key lock/unlock driver side door while car is running. But I expect that if I turn to left twice, I should be able to lock all the doors, if I turn to right twice, I should be able to unlock all the doors. And I'm pretty sure I was able to do that months ago and something must have changed and I no longer be able to lock/unlock all the doors by turning the physical key twice. This becomes annoying and I would like to see if any one has any insight on this. Thanks in advance! VA201512009
Lock all of the doors using the inside lock button, then lock the driver's door with the mechanical key. Tom
Thank you Tom! That's indeed my workaround. However, I still think I should be able to lock/unlock all doors using the mechanical key as I'm pretty certain that I was able to do that unless my memory just doesn't serve me well any more...
The mechanical key will activate the lock solenoids assuming 12V is available. When you turn the key, you can hear the power locks operate. What I don't know without trying is whether this operates the same way when the car is powered up. It may have a different behavior when off. Give it a try both ways. Tom
Tom, thanks for your information. I think you are right. I tried. It turns out the key performs differently depends the car is on or off. If the car is off, I can use mechanical key to lock/unlock all doors, while the car is on, it only works for the drive side door. Well, still not so ideal but at least mystery solved. I wish there is a configuration item for changing that behavior. Anyone knows?
On my 2006, the mechanical key locks everything whether the car is ON or OFF. In order to unlock everything, I have to turn the key to unlock twice.
And as a point of clarification, this only works when you have 12V power. If you use the mechanical key to open a Prius with a dead battery, it only opens the driver's door. If I recall correctly, with a dead battery you have to pull the door open while holding the key turned, or perhaps it's only a matter of turning the key a bit more. I recall it being a bit harder than normal. Tom
I wonder if how many doors that unlock when there's 12v power depends on changes you've made to the defaults... I think my metal key locks all the doors, but I've changed the defaults so my smart key touch unlocks all the doors at once.
Thank you BAllanJ. Interestingly I did have dealer changing the setting to allow smart key open all doors and maybe my mechanical key stops opening all doors after that. If that's the case, I probably have to keep the current way as I do want smart key to open all doors.
The instructions to change that setting are in the owner's manual. I have rarely locked the car with the metal key (leaving the ac on on a hot day so i could leave a dog in the car while we ate in the restaurant) and don't remember if I had to unlock the other doors after unlocking the driver's... maybe that happened when I grabbed the handle to open the door. I assumed I had locked all the doors when I locked with the metal key... but it was over a year ago last time so don't remember checking.
