My Jetta randomly Auto Locking

While on a road trip to Montana, my 2010 Jetta started autolocking the doors at random when I close any door. I can unlock it, keep the doors open for a few minutes, turn the engine on, then off, get out, close the door and then the car just locks on it's own. There are various types of scenarios where I don't start the engine when this has happened.

When I realized I had a problem was when I had stopped on a road in Glacier N.P. to do photos. Left the windows open, did not lock the car, came back to car 5 minutes later, opened the drivers door and set off the alarm.

No rhyme or reason to it. The battery in the remote is good.

Any thoughts?

btw. I just past the 3 year warranty mark but just 127 miles shy of 36k.

I'd start by checking the Central Electronics module for faults.

I don't have the gear to do that. I did do quite a bit of gravel roads while out there. Wonder if dust got in somewhere.

OlyJetta said:

While on a road trip to Montana, my 2010 Jetta started autolocking the doors at random when I close any door. I can unlock it, keep the doors open for a few minutes, turn the engine on, then off, get out, close the door and then the car just locks on it's own. There are various types of scenarios where I don't start the engine when this has happened.

When I realized I had a problem was when I had stopped on a road in Glacier N.P. to do photos. Left the windows open, did not lock the car, came back to car 5 minutes later, opened the drivers door and set off the alarm.

No rhyme or reason to it. The battery in the remote is good.

Any thoughts?

btw. I just past the 3 year warranty mark but just 127 miles shy of 36k.

Click to expand...

My wife's 2009 Jetta has done it infrequently since new, has not gotten worse, and is completely random. You have to just be plain lucky to reproduce it for a service tech. However, while under warranty, we did get it to happen at the dealership and asked Volkswagen to "fix" it. They failed and indicated that even their tech support folks at VW were stumped.

I am convinced when she buys another car, and it is not a VW, it will be solely because of this. I admit it is mildly entertaining for me to hear her out in the driveway cussing her car.

Of course, when I walk out to the driveway to get something out of the car and find it locked, it is not as funny

Here is my theory. My 2013 Golf will re-lock the doors if:

A: The doors are locked
B: You use the remote to open the hatchback
C: you close the hatchback again without unlocking any other doors.

You then hear all the doors re-lock. This is intended behavior, but I have always suspected the random locking in my wife's car is rooted in this "feature" having gone haywire. Just my theory but I'm sticking to it....

Good luck and let us know if you find a cause. My wife would probably send you a present....

I know with mine if I unlock the doors but do not open any, it will auto lock in about 1 minute. There also might be an option in the previously mentioned Module and it maybe toggled to auto lock when it used to be not auto lock. Any one with VCDS maybe be able to assist you.

So this is what's happening with the random auto locking.......
1. Key fob to unlock, get in car, as soon as I close door, the auto-lock occurs and the anti-theft actuates.
2. The car will not auto lock if I open a rear door after opening a front door.
3. Sometimes I will unlock the car with the remote, deactivating the anti-theft, and the car will re-auto-lock within 2 seconds.
4. Sometimes I will get out of the car after having driven it and it will auto-lock as soon as I get out and close the driver's door. I can still open a rear door, but the alarm will go off.

oilhammer said:

I'd start by checking the Central Electronics module for faults.

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You can speculate and guess all you want, this ^^^^^ is where you need to start.

OP, Oilhammer is right, check the module for faults. Anything else is just chasing your tale.

not sure when i'll be in olympia next, but i'm near puyallup and wouldn't mind helping you out with VCDS as I do have one. Should at least be able to point you in the right direction without going to the dealer should it actually be storing any codes.

So earlier had sort of the same thing, but not quite.
Was driving down the highway about 20-30 miles, take off ramp and come to a red light. The doors unlocked unlocked when I stopped, light went green so I take off and they relocked. Next light (maybe 100 yds) it didn't do anything when I stopped. When the light changed the doors tried locking, then unlocked, then locked again.
It did this a few more times, then went to normal.
I was driving in sport mode when it first happened, and tried normal D and it did it also.
In case my signature doesn't show anything, it's a 2010 jetta.


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oilhammer said:

I'd start by checking the Central Electronics module for faults.

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O/H speaks the truth.

These digitally controlled cars are very different then the old analog cars of the past. If you can't see into what the controllers are doing and seeing, you are wasting your time.

The new technology is really amazing, but it does take a different approach. For a Dub you will need VCDS as a generic OBD2 reader won't read VW specific DTC's (codes).

I know a guy with vagcom, if I can get hold of him.
May be someone else local also.
Just remembered, it is under warranty for another 9k or so. Lo


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79jasper said:

I know a guy with vagcom, if I can get hold of him.
May be someone else local also.
Just remembered, it is under warranty for another 9k or so. Lo


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Click to expand...

As much as I hate dealers, there's your answer.

Try to find a dealer in your area that's known to be compatent. Some dealers don't have a clue and will throw parts at the problem until they fix the problem or destroy your car through incompatence.

Not real sure if this one is great or not. Only one local though. (Don Thornton)
I feel the same way with most dealers, and shops in general.


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My car literally just did this while driving. Locked, unlocked etc back and forth 3 times. When I pushed the lock/unlock switch during this time it did nothing and the orange light for locked didn't come on either.

I'll take it in as its on warranty but I sort of doubt they will be able to replicate the fault.

Has anyone solved this yet by doing something through the computer as earlier mentioned?

(2014 Jetta)

Have you all gotten the emissions software tsb completed?? just kidding.

If you have soaked your keyfob, put through wash, taken white watter rafting etc, you may have a possessed key fob. this happened to me and manifested itself with the panic feature while driving, talk about making you feel like a tool or possibly a felon.

pop open your battery compartment and see if there is any moisture residue/ rust. you can clean them out with spray contact cleaner, like crc or lpg No Flash, leave em in a suny spot open to dry them out good for a day or two and see if the problem has gone/ changed.

In other thoughts, do you often have both keys in the car? keep the spare on you or your passenger? may be inadvertently pushing a button wile driving, essentially your key fob is telling the car one thing and the central electronics is auto locking at speed as designed.

Final thought, in the setup menu on the mfd you can reset to factory default, you may wish to try that as well.

beyond this, find someone with vcds.

Door locks unlocks randomly while driving.

Same here on my 2013 jetta. Just locks unlocks randomly. Ok for 100 miles and all of a sudden here it goes. Then ok for a period of time. Took it to dealer car under warranty. They change the driver side door latch. No help. Took it again. Change the entire body contol modue. No help. They can't replicate, but I took a video and showed them that I'm not full of it Now they have the car for the third time. Lemon law???

Any luck with resolving this jimi g? My Jetta does the same thing. Locks unlocks randomly on the higway, lower speeds whenever...

We never took ours in for it. I was away for 4 months, but I believe it quit doing it.

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