Autolock with key fob inside car
 

I live in NYC and the garage I park in is valet only. Therefore I need to leave my key fob in the car when I park. I have been told by the garage guys to leave the driver side window down in case the car automatically locks with my key fob inside. This seems like something that BMW would have thought of in advance. Does anyone know if the F10 is programmed NOT to autolock if the key fob is detected inside the car with the engine off?

The owners manual says the fob has to be outside the car for it to lock automatically....besides, just keep the spare in your apt so you can open te car if it does get locked in....

That is my understanding as well. The car cannot be locked with the keys inside. Not sure if this is just with Comfort Access though.

On the two cars I've had with Comfort Access, if you lock the car from the outside, open the trunk, then put the key fob in the trunk and close it, the trunk will re-open. I'll try this with my 550i when I get it (which will hopefully be this week, assuming it didn't get flooded out by the hurricane when it hit the VPC in New Jersey).

You are correct, that is exactly what mine does.

1. There is no "Auto Lock" capability on the F10. (I'm not talking about speed activated locking while driving).
2. No, the car cannot manually be locked with the key fob inside.

Remember that episode of "Family Guy" when Peter Griffin locked himself in the car?
Believe he had Comfort Access...
:bigpimp:

There is an automatic locking funtion on the F10 though I'm pretty sure it wouldn't affect valet service.

Automatic locking
The setting is stored for the remote control currently in use.
1. "Settings"
2. "Door locks"
3. Select the desired function.
"Lock if no door is opened"
The vehicle locks automatically after a short period of time if a door is not opened.

Mine is turned on and the only time it has come into play was when my car was in the garage (yes I lock my car in my garage). I unlocked the car to leave, went back inside for about five minutes and it took me about three seconds wondering why my car was locked since I KNEW I had unlocked it. I guess it's a good feature but I'm not sure how practical it really is.

"Lock if no door is opened" means if the car is locked and you unlock it by the remote but do not open the doors, the car will re-lock itself after a few minutes. That is the only time it will "Lock if no door is opened". I'm assuming this feature (this also happens on my wife's Murano) is there to protect you by re-locking the car if you accidently hit the unlock or you get side-tracked after you have hit the unlock button and don't actually go into the car.

I don't have my F10 yet, but on our other 2 BMW's with Comfort Access, here's what I'd do.

I'd slide the metal key out of the electronic fob, and lock the trunk (the underfloor compartment in the case of the X5), securing any valuables, before handing over the fob. That way, even if the valet somehow managed to lock the fob in the car (which BMW says is impossible, but why risk it?), I could use the metal key to unlock the driver's door.

BTW don't forget that you can always use BMW Assist to remotely unlock the doors. We did that once, for a slightly different reason. We were on vacation and had left our 2008 X5 in our home garage, locked. Our neighbors called to tell us that our car alarm was going off (probably a big bug flying around in front of the motion sensor), so from 2,000 miles away we had BMW Assist unlock the car, thereby silencing the alarm.

That's correct and still has nothing to do with an autolock function as stated by the OP. There is NO function for the F10 that will lock unlocked doors when leaving the vehicle. There is no reason to leave a window open for a valet "in case the doors lock" because there is no way for them to lock by themselves.

I'm surprised that worked. I used BMW assist once when I locked my key in the trunk of my E60 ( no comfort access ) and was told that it only worked since my car was parked outside. They said they use sattelite transmission to open the car which will only work if the car is in view from the sattelites. I.e it should not work in a garage.

It drives me crazy when they leave the window open in the garage. The other day I pulled out of the garage and noticed a bug bigger than me in the back seat. Gross!! I usually tell them to leave the windows closed but sometimes it's not the regular guys. The car has never locked itself.

I'd have a hard time giving my car to a valet guy every night. I guess there's no choice though in the city. Do you have to sign a waiver or something in case they damage, scratch, dent, etc?

Here's something similar that's happening to me. I leave my car unlocked in my garage. In the morning I open a rear door, put my gym bag (with the fob in the side pocket) on the back seat, close the door (without touching the CA lock spot on the door handle) and the CAR LOCKS and arms. Wtf? The 'lock if no doors opened' is unchecked. Could it be a low battery in the fob? The car is 2 months old

This scenario should be impossible. First, the car will not lock with a key fob inside the car. Two, CA will not respond to a lock "touch" with the key fob in the car. 3rd, there is no function to automatically lock the doors, regardless of the "lock if no doors opened". Again, that function re-locks the doors if you unlock them with the fob or CA and then do not open the door in about 40 seconds. It does not lock previously unlocked and opened doors.

The only way I think this could be possible is if the lock button on the key fob is somehow pressed when you throw the gym bag in the car, the car thinking you pressed the lock button while inside the car. However, you would be hearing the locks engage when the rear door is open and then would hear the alarm arm signal as soon as you closed the door. Doubtful this is happening this way.

Yeah, I know, weird. Going to try a few things (with a window open...)

- I've got a blackberry in the same side pocket as the fob, maybe some interference.
- The second fob is about 20' away, should be far enough, but who knows
- Told the story to a tech and he mentioned a 'last door closed' event the car looks for. My scenario may be triggering that but in any event, it should never lock and arm without me pressing the fob or touching the CA point.

Try this: get in the car with the fob. Shut the doors. Push the lock button on the fob, and see what happens.

Ca access to open the door, sat inside, closed door, pressed lock on the fob and the car locked. Normal behavior?

Yes, the car will lock using the fob while inside the car with the doors closed. It will not respond to lock commands from outside the car when the fob is inside, using CA for example, when the fob is in the car or trunk.

Interesting. Our garage is a separate one-story wood frame building. Maybe it would not have worked if we were in a multi-story concrete parking structure.

Maybe I should get the BMW Remote iPhone app as a back-up plan.

I've opened my car with the BMW Remote App while being 1000 miles away, and my car was parked at the airport, on a concrete 8 story bldg. I was parked on level 5.

So, the satellite signal travels thru more stuff than it seems...