Whenever it’s winter or summer, it’s ideal to have your heater or AC turned on in the car. There are also times when you have to leave your car parked to do some errands but you want to make sure that the car stays as warm or as cold as possible perhaps because you don’t want the temperature to change a lot when you get back in it or because you have a dog inside. For that, you have to keep the car running. But how can you leave the car running with the doors locked?
You have to use your spare key, in this case. Just start the car like you usually do and then leave it running while you exit the car. Grab your spare key and then lock the door while the other key is still inside the car. It’s quite easy especially for cars that still use manual keys instead of keyless entry.
The trick of locking your car while it is still running by making use of your spare keys is something of a classic. However, it might not be as simple to do nowadays especially when the locking systems on cars are now more advanced than they have ever been. Moreover, this may also depend on the design of the car you are using because not all cars have the same locking mechanisms. Still, it might be useful for you to be able to learn and find a way to lock your car while it is still running.
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How to leave the car running with doors locked
Summers or winters can be a pain for you especially if you always have to be out driving or doing some errands. That’s because you not only have to drive under extremely hot or extremely cold situations but you also have to exit and enter your car from time to time especially if you are running errands that require you to constantly do so.
When that happens, you’d have to turn the engine on and off a lot, which means that your AC or heater would also have to be turned on and off a lot to the point that the temperatures won’t end up becoming constant. Moreover, if you are carrying your pet with you because you can’t leave it alone in the house, you’d also have to make sure that it stays cold or warm inside the car.
So, how can you leave the car running with the doors locked? Here are some simple tricks.
Trick 1:
- Turn the car engine on as usual and then turn the AC or heater on.
- Leave the car without turning it off while also leaving the key in it.
- Keep your spare key with you when you exit the car.
- Lock the doors manually with the spare key.
Trick 2:
- Start the car like you normally would while leaving the AC or heater on.
- Leave the window on the driver’s side open as you exit the car.
- Reach from the outside to lock the doors. From there, press the automatic window close button.
- Take your hand out before the window touches it and make sure that you have your spare key with you.
Is it possible to lock keys in a car with keyless entry?
If you are using a car with a keyless entry, then yes, it is possible for you to lock the car with the key inside. That’s because keyless entry cars only need the FOB for starting the car and not for locking the car because you can lock the car with a button inside the car or when you turn the car off and then leave it with the FOB with you as the car automatically locks when it detects that you and the key are already far away.
In that sense, you can’t lock the car with your FOB as there is no such thing when it comes to cars with a keyless entry system. The only way for you to do so, as mentioned, is by pushing a button inside the car to lock it or by leaving the car turned off while the keys are with you.
But there are some keyless entry cars that have manual key doors that will allow you to still lock the doors using the key inside the FOB. All you need to do is to start the car, leave it, and then lock it from the outside using the manual key. It would be a different story, though, if your car doesn’t have a manual key or if you need to do a lot of tinkering to get to the manual keyhole.
What happens if I keep my car running and leave with the keyless entry keys?
Meanwhile, if you leave your car running and leave with the keyless entry FOB, the car won’t lock. Remember here that keyless entry cars will only lock from the inside with a push of a button or when you leave the car after turning it off.
You’d have to be lucky, however, if your car was designed to allow you to lock it from the outside with the FOB even when it is turned on. Otherwise, it will keep on running because the FOB is there to only start or turn the car off as leaving with the FOB with you while the engine is turned on won’t turn the car off automatically.
What to do if you lock your keys in your car while it’s running?
So, if you lock your keys in your car while you are running and you don’t have a spare key, you may have to go find a locksmith that would charge you a lot of money just to open the car door for you. This, however, applies when you are using a car that doesn’t come with keyless entry. For keyless entry cars, don’t worry because your car won’t lock itself if the FOB is still in the car while it is running.
How to keep the car running without key
Keeping a car running without a key is only possible if you are using a keyless ignition car because you only need the FOB to turn it on or off and not to keep it running. You can even leave the car running with the FOB with you when you leave the car, and this has led to dangerous situations in different places in the country as some people died of Carbon Monoxide poisoning when they left their keyless ignition cars running in the garage and forgetting to turn them off.
Sources:
https://www.edmunds.com/car-technology/going-keyless.html
https://money.cnn.com/2018/05/14/autos/key-fob-safety-carbon-monoxide/index.html