A strange thing happened while prepping my car for the track. I had just finished putting my track wheels/tires on the car. I put the car into accessory mode and then into learn mode in order to reset the tire pressure sensors with my TPMS tool. While in learn mode, I left the fob sitting on the console (inside the car). I left the drivers door open. I reset the first two sensors, walked back around the front of the car and shut the driver’s door on the way by.

I then had trouble setting the third sensor. I went to open the driver’s door and discovered I was locked out of the car. The weird thing is my car is not programmed to lock automagically. I could see the DIC still said “accessory mode’” but I don’t think it was still in learn mode. Fortunately, I was home so I got my second fob and opened the locked car.

I guess I’ve always left the driver’s door open when in learn mode resetting the TPS’s before. Why would the car lock when I shut the door and would being in learn mode have anything to do with this? Could shutting the driver’s door and the car locking somehow terminate learn mode or does learn mode time-out after a few minutes in the absence of a signal? I don't think 2 or 3 minutes could have elapsed.

BEZ06….if you’re out there do you have any thoughts about this? It’s too late now but I may try to replicate this again on Monday.

 

Wow Wayne - that's a new one!!!

The learn mode will time out if:

• A sensor ID is not sent to the TPMS within one minute of activating the learn mode
  
• A total of 5 minutes passes in the learn mode without completing the process
  
• The ignition is turned off

It doesn't sound as if any of those happened, unless closing the door did something like turning the ignition off.

Like you, I always leave the door open and the fob sitting on the console. There's always a chime dinging away, but I just put up with it and have never closed the door while in the learn mode.

Glad you had another fob or your key available!!

Bob

 

I havn't had this happen but I will remember to leave my windows down now. I always close the door when I do the relearn. And my car is programed NOT to lock automatically (already learned that the hard way )


DH

 

Locked my girl friend in once. Was she mad.

Car also locked itself running. Go figure.

 

It might be that you pressed the lock button at some point when trying to hold down both the lock and unlock buttons to enter TPMS learn mode.

 

I'm sure from when I closed the door 5 minutes had not elapsed. I could still see "Accessory Mode" illuminated through the window but it was hard to hear if the chime was still sounding.

I have always left the driver's door open previously when resetting the TPS's but the point well taken!

I don't think I did but that's a possibility.

I have to run to the dentist and do some other things later but hopefully I'll have time to switch back to my street wheels this afternoon. Maybe I pressed the lock button accidently when going into learn mode but I'm going to try to replicate the same scenario to see if the lockout happens again. I just couldn't see any way being in learn mode (and closing the door) would engage the automatic lock feature. I'll let you know what happens.

Thanks for your replies.

 

Ok, I changed back into my street wheels/tires. I put the car into accessory mode/learn mode and left the driver's door open (the chime is ringing). I was careful I did not press the lock button my mistake. I set the LF and RF sensors without a problem. I closed the driver's door (chimes stop) and hurried to the RR wheel but could not get that sensor to set...I tried twice. The doors are now locked.

I repeat the entire procedure again but I do not close the door after setting the 2nd sensor...all the TPS's re-set without a hitch.

Bob/BEZ06 or anyone else with a C6 and a TPMS tool...would you please try what I did (closing the driver's door after setting the first 2 sensors) to see if the same thing happens to you or if I'm the anomaly.
MAKE SURE YOU HAVE YOUR SECOND FOB/KEY HANDY IN CASE YOU'RE LOCKED OUT.

Please let me know what happens. I sincerely appreciate your time and assistance.

 

I had the EXACT SAME THING HAPPEN TO ME a month ago! Anyways, upon coming home, I contacted one of The Three Wise Men on the CF...Shopdog. Here is my story, his replies and a possible solution of making sure you passive locking disabled:

I had an odd thing happen to me while out of town Drag racing at MIR. I use Drag radials and have a cannister I made under 35 psi pressure with two senors in it. I also have one of those TPMS tools. Anyways. I was taking my DR's off and putting my oem emt's back on ready to go home. I took out my TPMS tool to reset the tires and pressed those two buttons on the FOB to start the process. I left the FOB in the car with the drivers side door open. I was going around the car resetting the sensors and having a bit of problem on one tire. Irritated, I also got tired of hearing the chime from the door being opened so I closed it and continued resetting my tires.

To my surprise when done, the drivers door was locked with the FOB inside the car? Luckily this was not a major issue as I had that trunk key in my wallet and got in that way. But why did it lock the door on me? Thanks

It'll do that if you have passive locking set. When you open the door, the car starts issuing challenges to the fob, and uses triangulation on its responses to see if a fob has exited the car. If one has, it will perform the auto lock 8 seconds after the door is closed. If it doesn't see a fob leave the car before the door closes, it won't auto lock. However, it'll only challenge for the fob for a limited time, about a minute, before it gives up looking. If the door is still open after that, when you do eventually close the door, it'll auto lock even though you left the fob in the car. This is a quirk in the security programming.

Thanks much for taking the time to reply to me. I assume if I dont not have passive locking set, then I wont get locked out the car with the FOB inside the car and the door closed 3 minutes later?

Right. No passive lock, you won't be locked out. It won't lock unless you push the lock button on the fob

One last questiion-with passive lock on, does it automatically lock the doors after you enter the car and then close the door?

Passive locking isn't involved with the doors locking when you start to drive off. That's a different GM feature you can't defeat. Any time the car gets going faster than 8 MPH, the doors automatically lock.

 

Interesting! You might be right...I believe passive door locking is now enabled. I just went to the garage (without a fob) and the driver's door was locked. I did not lock the car when I finished changing into my street tires and after re-setting the TPS's. I never lock the car when it's parked in the garage.

Now I wonder how passive locking in silent mode came to be activated. I've never used this feature preferring to lock the car myself. The car has never locked automatically previously. I did have some work done to my car recently including using a Tech 2 tool to disable the F55 suspension. I don't see the connection but any time someone else works on your car, you never know.

It's too late now but I'll go into the personalization settings in the morning. Surprisingly, I expect I will find passive locking now enabled. I will disable it.

THANKS for sharing your experience and solving my mystery. Now I'm going to wonder how passive door locking came to be enabled.

 

Keep the fob in your pocket, you can still reset the tire sensors, why do you leave the fob on the dash?

 

I have changed my mind. I checked/tested my car again making 100% sure passive locking is disabled. I am now of the belief it is an anonomly in the program when using the FOB with the TPMS tool "learn mode". If you leave the FOB in the car after learn mode and close the door, it will automatically lock it. As mentioned by Kaislick above, the solution is to put the FOB in your pocket while using the TPMS tool in Learn Mode-DO NOT LEAVE IT IN THE CAR.

 

Sure I make mistakes but I truly don't believe automatic door locking was always activated. After I first got the car, I setup all the personalization options and made sure automatic door locking was not enabled. I like the passive door unlocking but I have a 'thing' about my car locking automatically...I don't want it...never have. I prefer to press the button myself to lock my car when I walk away from it.

How do I know it was? I never lock my car when it's parked in the garage. Countless times over the years (after the car sat overnight in the garage) I could always open the door without the fob.

That's a good question. When I use the Corvette I always carry the fob (with the car key and a house key) in the left front pocket of my jeans. I'm not one to leave the fob inside the car except when I reset the TPS's.

Perhaps because I need the fob in my hands to engage learn mode (and knowing I have to get back in the car in a couple minutes to shut-down accessory mode) I just set the fob on top of the console and get out to reset the TPS's. This goes against my customary practice of always carrying the fob in my pocket but I've never had any problems in the past.

I agree it's not an ideal practice. Of course, I've never shut the driver's door mid-way through re-setting the sensors before nor did I ever have automatic door locking enabled (albeit it seems to be now). I honestly don't know how automatic door locking could have been enabled unless it was done by the shop where my car was for a couple weeks. I'm shutting-off automatic door locking and I will keep the fob with me (when re-setting TPS's) in the future.

 

To further confuse or clarify matters, I discovered why I found my car locked the other morning. Evidently, my oldest son borrowed a small air compressor I have stored in the cubby. He locked the car when he put it back away. I found the door locked but the car did not automatically lock.

I checked my personalization settings yesterday and as I originally thought, my car is not setup for automatic door locking. This morning as always, the car I left unlocked remained unlocked...I opened the door without having the fob.

Accordingly, the original mystery remains. I'll consider it an anomaly. When re-setting the TPS's in the future, I'll keep the fob/key in my pocket and I won't shut the driver's door.

Thanks for everyone's help.