Mine did today, and it pissed me off. I know 100% certain that I did not hit the Lock button as I got out, but after just a few minutes the damn thing was locked. And running. Luckily I was only 10 minutes from home and my bride promptly showed up with spare keys, so it was about as painless as could be, but man if I had happened to leave my phone in the console I woulda been seriously hot (I was not where it would've been easy to use a stranger's phone).

Can anyone explain what happened?

 

Hmmm, that is strange. Because our car has a smart system that unlocks itself if you locked it by accident while the car was running and you left the car.

I know you can only lock it when it's running is by using the key fob from the outside.

Interesting.

 

That's what I thought, but clearly something went wrong. Also, when my wife arrived with the other key, it would not unlock by remote - had to use the actual key in the slot, like in ancient times

 

my be a ecu starting to go up?

 

Suggest you try to duplicate locking yourself out at home with the spare key handy. You may be able to lock the doors manually with a key inside. My wife (with a key in her purse) sometimes waits in the car while I run inside a QT to get coffee and she always has the doors locked while she waits.

 

Might be other doors are able to lock the car. But not the drivers door, it will automatically unlock again.

Just a guess.

 

As mentioned, try to replicate it. Could be a fluke. If you locked the doors while inside the car with it on, do you think you could have accidentally re-locked it while exiting? Manually hit the lock? The car was in park not neutral right?

If the door is open and the car is on and in park if you try to lock the doors with the switch they won't stay locked. This is good. If doors are closed, lock them, exit the driver and manually lock it with your hand then I believe it stays locked.

 

Even if you manually lock it, it will still automatically unlock.

 

Yes def. in Park, engine running, lights on. I found a cool spot to take some pics, that's why I got out. All the doors lock automatically when I start driving, but the driver's door unlocks itself when you pull the inside handle. I am sure I didn't manually relock it on the way out, but even if I did shouldn't it unlock itself while running? I will try to duplicate it.....

 

So I tried to MAKE it do it again, and it was impossible. I had it running and tried to lock it both manually and with the switch, and no matter what, it automatically unlocked itself.

I guess it just "went nuts" that one time, but it has taught me to just turn it off and take the key every time. Or at the very least, leave the driver's window down partway if you're going to get out while it's running.

 

The smart key feature on the LS can be a little mysterious. Couple of years ago the LS temporarily locked me out because I unknowingly repeatedly hit the door unlock button on the fob while someone was pressing the outside door handle lock button on passenger door. He thought he was being funny but the 06 LS did not like the mixed commands and locked us out of the car and did not respond to the key fob for about 10-15 minutes. Waiting a few minutes, I tried the key fob again and it unlocked the doors. Those wondering why I did not manually open doors with key using the metal inbuilt fob key, I am slightly embarrassed to admit in the heat of the moment I could not figure out how to use the little slide release tab on the fob get the key to slide out which for me was a major brain fart.

 

I could see that happening - sometimes on our Volt my wife and I will each have a smartkey on us and each be hitting a door handle button on opposite sides of the car and it seems to confuse it. However my LS430 is an '01 so it has a dumbkey LOL, like this one:

 

I know, I'm resurrecting a thread. But this just happened to me about two weeks ago too. Car was in park, still running. Opened the door just to get some leaves off that was stuck on the wiper. Left car running, closed door on the way out. On the way back to the car, door was locked.

I was only walking distance away from home so thank goodness for that, but yeah I'm pretty sure I didn't lock myself out intentionally either. Now I'm paranoid even taking it to the car wash, fearing it might lock itself out again. I'm reprogramming it so that the door locks only at speed, and not changing gears. See if that helps.