Door Locking question

[scottmoyer]

I found a thread from 2019 where a similar question was asked, but I didn't see if any changes were ever done by FCA.

I have the auto lock feature enabled on my truck. Last night, going to dinner, my rear seat passengers couldn't get out without me unlocking the doors. This was also after the truck was in park. I notice the manual says that all doors will unlock when the vehicle is in park and the driver door is opened, but that doesn't work for all scenarios. The 2019 post mentioned dropping kids off at the school. The front doors open just by grabbing the handle, even with the truck in drive, so the front passenger can easily exit, but the rear passengers are locked in.

Has FCA or any programming been found to fix this? My old Silverado had manual child locks that wouldn't allow the doors to be opened from the inside, if enabled, but I don't see that on this truck. That Silverado had a great locking feature. The doors auto locked at 15mph, but all doors auto unlocked when the vehicle was put in park. Also, just grabbing the handle will allow all passengers to exit, unless the manual child lock was enabled in the back. Lastly, it had a delayed exit option that allowed the driver to exit and lock the doors, but it delayed the locking until all doors were closed for 5 seconds. This allowed the driver to NOT have to wait for all passengers to open their doors before locking.

My wife seems to wait until the truck is completely parked before she gathers all of her stuff. I park and exit, but have to wait for her to lock the doors, otherwise, she gets locked in.

 

[Trippi]

thanks for this post I thought I was losing my mind. All of my chevys had autolock and when you parked they unlocked. I thought the Ram was 'broken' because the doors stayed locked until the driver exited. I don't see why this is at all a good feature. It has caused many an argument to UNLOCK THE DOOR when riding with spouse who has exited first and trying to retrieve things from the back seat.

 

[Scap]

Bumpity bump bump, necropost....

Does anyone know how the back doors can unlock with a pull of the handle?

I don't carry kids around, so not worried about child safety. However, coworkers always struggle to get out when it's my turn to drive.

Not a fan of auto-unlock because Houston is Chicago-Lite.

 

[SpeedyV]

None that I’m aware of. It’s “as designed”. It’s annoying to me when back seat passengers (like my father-in-law) grab the door handles in the back seat every time I park the truck and pull on them repeatedly. Not so different from kids that way, I guess.

 

[Eighty]

Bumpity bump bump, necropost....

Does anyone know how the back doors can unlock with a pull of the handle?

I don't carry kids around, so not worried about child safety. However, coworkers always struggle to get out when it's my turn to drive.

Not a fan of auto-unlock because Houston is Chicago-Lite.

I haven't found a solution to this, and it's annoying as heck.

 

[Sigfla]

I want the engineer who thought it up to spend 10 mins alone in a room with my kids. Idiot! Surely you can swap a front door module with a rear one and allow it to unlock? There must be a way!

 

[DEG]

Maybe I'm not understanding the issue. I haven't tested but the following is in my owner's manual.

 

[Sigfla]

Has nothing to do with child locks. If you are a rear passenger and you want out the driver has to manually unlock the doors for you. All other cars in existence today simply allow you to pull the handle which unlocks the door and you may exit. It’s annoying bc I am not a professional limo driver and my kids get angry if I am not fast enough with the unlock button

 

[DEG]

Has nothing to do with child locks. If you are a rear passenger and you want out the driver has to manually unlock the doors for you. All other cars in existence today simply allow you to pull the handle which unlocks the door and you may exit. It’s annoying bc I am not a professional limo driver and my kids get angry if I am not fast enough with the unlock button

Does your truck not have knurled lock buttons like my 23?

If so, just teach your kids to pull up on the lock to unlock the doors themselves.

2023 Ram rear door lock shown in locked position.

 

[kapinallinen2]

Has nothing to do with child locks. If you are a rear passenger and you want out the driver has to manually unlock the doors for you. All other cars in existence today simply allow you to pull the handle which unlocks the door and you may exit. It’s annoying bc I am not a professional limo driver and my kids get angry if I am not fast enough with the unlock button

Only way for my left rear passengers to get out, is for me to get out and pull the handle.
Hitting unlock or child lock setting has no effect. Pretty sure something is not connected inside the door.

 

[DEG]

Only way for my left rear passengers to get out, is for me to get out and pull the handle.
Hitting unlock or child lock setting has no effect. Pretty sure something is not connected inside the door.

Have you tried pulling up on the knurled knob at the top of the door?

 

[kapinallinen2]

Have you tried pulling up on the knurled knob at the top of the door?

Yes, to no effect, hence the statement of something not connected inside of the door.

 

[Eighty]

Yes, to no effect, hence the statement of something not connected inside of the door.

That particular description sounds like the child lock is engaged. Are you sure the driver's side door has that turned to "unlock"?

 

[kapinallinen2]

That particular description sounds like the child lock is engaged. Are you sure the driver's side door has that turned to "unlock"?

Yes, cycled on/off three times over.

 

[Sigfla]

Does your truck not have knurled lock buttons like my 23?

If so, just teach your kids to pull up on the lock to unlock the doors themselves.

2023 Ram rear door lock shown in locked position.
View attachment 179641

That knob is slippery as heck and very recessed. My kids and even adults shouldn’t have to alter years of standardized behavior and experience because of some idiot engineers bright idea to make all Ram drivers into chauffeurs. If I was an Uber driver it would be a huge safety issue. I can literally trap my passengers if I want. It’s a dumb idea and goes against any other car I have ever been in.

 

[DEG]

That knob is slippery as heck and very recessed. My kids and even adults shouldn’t have to alter years of standardized behavior and experience because of some idiot engineers bright idea to make all Ram drivers into chauffeurs. If I was an Uber driver it would be a huge safety issue. I can literally trap my passengers if I want. It’s a dumb idea and goes against any other car I have ever been in.

LOL. If it goes against every car you have ever been in then you are very young. Because the standard behavior for many decades after they started putting locks on doors was to unlock by pulling up on the knob. It shouldn’t be recessed or slick.

 

[Sigfla]

If you call in your 50’s young. No reason to defend a bad design choice. A few days having to drive and drop off kids/passengers will convince anyone of that. Old knobs had a sort of bulge on the end. These have very little purchase and are not convenient to manipulate. Everyone who is familiar with a modern car is left confused when trying to exit the truck. No reason in my mind for the design choice. It’s annoying and counterintuitive. Ram needs to change it.

 

[scottmoyer]

The exterior door handles are the same front to rear. I wonder if a front door internal handle assembly can be installed in the rear so that a pull of the interior handle DOES unlock and allow the door to open, just like the front.

Next time I take the door panel off the front, I'll check out the assembly to figure out what's currently different front to rear.

 

[HSKR R/T]

Has nothing to do with child locks. If you are a rear passenger and you want out the driver has to manually unlock the doors for you. All other cars in existence today simply allow you to pull the handle which unlocks the door and you may exit. It’s annoying bc I am not a professional limo driver and my kids get angry if I am not fast enough with the unlock button

This comment is just not true. My 2020 Chevy Traverse will not unlock the rear doors simply by pulling on the handle. You either have to put the car in park, to "auto" unlock the doors, or hit the unlock switch.

 

[HSKR R/T]

That knob is slippery as heck and very recessed. My kids and even adults shouldn’t have to alter years of standardized behavior and experience because of some idiot engineers bright idea to make all Ram drivers into chauffeurs. If I was an Uber driver it would be a huge safety issue. I can literally trap my passengers if I want. It’s a dumb idea and goes against any other car I have ever been in.

There is a door lock "knob" that can be pulled up to unlock the door. Unless you have removed it or cut it shorter, in which case that's some twisted **** purposely preventing people from being able to unlock the doors.