I found that section in the owner's manual and had to read it a few times before I realized the same thing. I tried the steps a few times without any success last night and will look at the iguide to see what I'm doing wrong.

 

OK, what am I doing wrong? I still can't change the auto lock feature to not lock the doors when the car is taken out of PARK. Here's what I've done...

1. Parking brake - ON
2. Doors - CLOSED
3. Shift lever - PARK
4. Foot - NOT ON BRAKE
5. Press POWER switch 2x
5. Within 10 seconds, press and hold driver's door lock switch in the LOCK position for 5 seconds

When I do this, the doors do not lock and then unlock and the feature does not change. I've even tried doing it twice (assuming the car thinks the first time I'm doing it is to enable the feature--even though it's already enabled)?

 

Kevin...I don't know what you are doing wrong.The isnstructions read "Place the transmission gear selector in the Park position" perhaps you need to start in N, and move it to P? I will try mine again and report back in an hour or two.

 

Kevin: The "key" is to hold down the "unlock" side of the driver's door power lock button after putting the power to ON. Then repeat the sequence using the lock side.

Let me know if this works.

 

Jeff,

Thanks, I'll give it a try. I sat in the car for about 10 minutes trying every imaginable combination with no luck. Will the doors physically lock and unlock as described in the manual? When the manual says power "on" it is referring to pressing the power button twice, but not starting the car, right?

 

I got mine to work. I had to realize that there are two separate procedures on two separate pages (43 and 44). One affects whether or not the doors auto-lock, and when they do it (shift or drive). The other describes how to get the doors to auto unlock and when to do it (shift or power switch).

The two are not tied together. For instance you can have the doors autolock, but not auto unlock. You can also have them not autolock, but unlock automatically.

Regardless, I turned off the autolock feature so I don't have to shift to park to let someone out.

 

Marc,

You want to drive up to the DC area and do mine? I'll figure this out some way!

"I'm not a smart man."
- Forrest Gump

 

Off-topic, but thanks to Paul for cluing (clue-ing?) me in to toyotaguide.com! I had not seen that resource on the internet yet.

 

Just to update this for new TCH owners who find this thread when looking for answers (as I did):

Provided is an example to change dook locking from being linked to shift position, to being linked with vehicle speed. The two main things I found were that the manual was pretty accurate accept that: 1 - I believe it is required to disable the existing setting before applying the new one (i.e. I don't think you can go directly from "linked to shift lever position" to "linked to vehicle speed") but that is not specifically stated in the manual, and 2 - that it will not work if the parking brake is applied (which is contrary to what the manual recommends).

Disable existing (linked to shift position) setting:
1 - Doors closed.
2 - Foot on brake.
3 - Turn off parking brake (against the recommendation of the manual).
4 - Shift lever in "Park."
5 - Turn POWER switch to ON.
6 - Within 10 seconds of step 5, hold down drivers door switch in the "LOCK" position for 5 seconds and then release. As per the manual, the doors should rapidly lock and unlock to confirm the change.
7 - Apply parking brake (skip if proceeding to apply the new setting as outlined below).
8 - Turn POWER switch to OFF.

I haven't really tested whether you need to wait any period of time before applying the new setting, so if it doesn't work immediately afterwards, give it a some time and try again. I also doubt you can disable and enable without turning the POWER to OFF and then back ON again, but if anyone gets that to work just let us all know. Finally, I'm not sure exactly what this disabled state means for door locking... probably that you need to lock the doors yourself, but I never drove the car in this state to confirm this.

Enable new (linked to vehicle speed) setting:
1 - Doors closed.
2 - Foot on brake.
3 - Turn off parking brake (against the recommendation of the manual).
4 - Shift lever in "Park."
5 - Turn POWER switch to ON.
6 - Move shift lever to "Neutral."
7 - Within 10 seconds of step 5, hold down drivers door switch in the "LOCK" position for 5 seconds and then release. As per the manual, the doors should rapidly lock and unlock to confirm the change.
8 - Move shift lever to "Park."
9 - Apply parking brake.
10 - Turn POWER switch to OFF.

To go back to the original settings, just perform the reverse of these steps (disable - linked to vehicle speed, enable - linked to shift lever position). The same rough outline should work for the automatic unlocking feature described in the manual.

Hope this helps.

Steven

 

I know this may be besides the point, but...

Don't the front doors unlock when you pull on the handle to exit?

On mine, even with the doors locked, they will unlock as you grab and pull on the handle. (without hitting the unlock button, transmitter, or manually pushing the little manual switch above the handle)