I was walking past my NX several hours after I had parked it, locked it, and threw a car cover over it. I heard a strange noise coming out of the back hatch and figured that had to be the sound a lot of people talk about when they write here about weird sounds coming out of their NX. I decided to check my app just to make sure nothing was coming up strange. Sure enough it said my door was unlocked. But I know I locked it hours ago. The side new mirrors were folded in as it does when it locks. I remember hearing the lights beep and the doors lock earlier. But the app said the front driver door was open, so I pressed the remote lock to lock the doors. Nothing visible happened with the mirrors (already in lock position) and no beeping sound that usually occurs when you lock it happened either.

The only thing that happened is that I got a pop on the app that said “the NX vehicle is now locked.“ No beep, no mirrors folding.

But how could the NX have had left the driver’s door unlocked if it went thought the normal locking sequence?

 

A common situation where a Lexus is locked but the App does not show Locked is when you lock the car by pressing the inside Driver's door handle Lock button.
While locking the car this way does actually lock the car OK, it does not set the alarm, fold the mirrors or notify the App that the car is locked.
Locking by either touching the outside door handle with a fob present or pressing the Lock button on the fob itself does it all, lock, alarm, mirrors, app notification.
Since you specifically mentioned the mirrors were folded, this is not the case with your scenario.
Since it did eventually correct itself, it would appear to be a simple App and/or phone situation.
Standard phone stuff, sweep off the Lexus App and log back in, be certain to cycle the phone completely once a week or so, turn it off completely: dark dead Off.
Sometimes there is a delay in the App getting notified by the car. You can touch the picture of your model car and sweep down on your phone screen to refresh the App.

 

if that was me I wouldn’t have pressed anything, I would have taken the car cover off to see if the pass door was really unlocked. By pressing the remote fob you will never know if the passenger door was really unlocked.

 

I had something similar happen to me. The passenger door was not completely closed but the side mirrors were folded so I thought the car was locked. I did not hear any beeps but I later saw on the app that the door was not closed. Unfortunately I had left the car in long time parking and when I got back a week later the battery was dead. So now if I'm leaving the car locked for a while I check to see that the doors are actually fully closed. Weird.

 

. I hear you, but since I was able to see that the mirrors were folded in, I didn’t have to take the cover off to confirm. And usually if I leave anything unlocked for more than ten minutes, the app pushes a notification that tells me which door/window was left open/unlocked. It had been several hours since I locked it, not a single notification. And when I hit the lock button on my app, I was only a few feet from the NX, so I was able to see that there was no mirror movement, beeping, at any other sound. And it was the driver door. My main concern was to make sure the NX was not in a state that would drain the 12 volt overnight. Not sure if being “unlocked “ for a few hours would do that, but didn’t want to take any chances.

 

That sucks!!! I trusted the beeps/mirror folding to indicate a locked car. I physically pushed the door lock on the handle, so this isn’t just an app thing where if you lock it from the app, it can look like it locked but didn’t really. So now if I “lock” it to go to a restaurant, or park somewhere, I have to monitor the app to confirm the driver door is not wide open for someone to open, get inside to steal stuff, or cause a dead battery? Hate that I have to add one more thing I have to baby a car I paid this much for. I don’t want to have to wonder if my “locked” NX is actually locked.

 

Some ponderings...

Does your car cover exhibit any static or some kind of electrical conductivity when moving across the surface of the vehicle? It may have triggered a door unlock the same way sometimes spraying water on the side of the car could trigger a door unlock. The mirrors themselves are not hard linked to the door lock operation, they are only instructed by the computer to do so in tandem with the door locks if the vehicle is so programmed and I'm not entirely sure what they would do in this circumstance of having something hanging onto the mirrors (whether there is a resistance to fold limiter?, how snug is your cover?). In my case my mirrors are linked to my engine switch, not the door locks.

Another possibility outside of the usual suspects (inadvertent pressing of remote button as example) would possibly be a communications issue. Locking the door on the NX doesn't really do anything physical, its just an electronic status whether the computer is willing to trigger the e-latch from the external handle or not. Would be interesting to see under what conditions you might see this again, and if so, perhaps there could be communications codes stored. Not all stored codes will trigger a warning light on the dash, so a peek at the ODBII codes might be something to do if you see a reoccurrence.

Finally, there have been a handful of complaints about people's doors suddenly showing open during a drive, perhaps related to the door not being 100% closed (slightly ajar, rubber trim pieces still very new and firm pressing the door outward, sensor slightly out of adjustment) but initially appearing so, only to later indicate not. As I said, there really isn't a physical lock per se so if out of the blue the car decides the door is not closed, then I suppose in theory it then decides the door isn't locked either. If so, the logic flow the computer follows might bypass the mirror commands because its no longer being triggered by a "user commanded" unlock.

 

. Wow, interesting thoughts here.

1. Does your car cover exhibit any static or some kind of electrical conductivity when moving across the surface of the vehicle?

I don’t know. It’s cotton underneath.


2. It may have triggered a door unlock the same way sometimes spraying water on the side of the car could trigger a door unlock. The mirrors themselves are not hard linked to the door lock operation, they are only instructed by the computer to do so in tandem with the door locks if the vehicle is so programmed and I'm not entirely sure what they would do in this circumstance of having something hanging onto the mirrors (whether there is a resistance to fold limiter?, how snug is your cover?). In my case my mirrors are linked to my engine switch, not the door locks.

I set the mirrors to fold/unfold with the door locks so I have a visual (or so I thought) confirmation on the status of the car. The cover is a bit snug on the mirrors, but not restrictive. In the worst LA winds during a trip, the cover didn’t seem to trigger any unlocks. So I’m not sure about the cover suddenly being a problem.

3. Another possibility outside of the usual suspects (inadvertent pressing of remote button as example) would possibly be a communications issue. Locking the door on the NX doesn't really do anything physical, its just an electronic status whether the computer is willing to trigger the e-latch from the external handle or not. Would be interesting to see under what conditions you might see this again, and if so, perhaps there could be communications codes stored. Not all stored codes will trigger a warning light on the dash, so a peek at the ODBII codes might be something to do if you see a reoccurrence.

I’ve never seen it unlock without the mirrors unfolding.

4. Finally, there have been a handful of complaints about people's doors suddenly showing open during a drive, perhaps related to the door not being 100% closed (slightly ajar, rubber trim pieces still very new and firm pressing the door outward, sensor slightly out of adjustment) but initially appearing so, only to later indicate not. As I said, there really isn't a physical lock per se so if out of the blue the car decides the door is not closed, then I suppose in theory it then decides the door isn't locked either. If so, the logic flow the computer follows might bypass the mirror commands because it’s no longer being triggered by a "user commanded" unlock.

Seems sadly possible. Strange that the app wouldn’t notify me as it usually would if I left something open.

 

I can confirm on my '22 NX350H that if I have my fob with me and am washing the car for example, spraying water directly at the door handle will activate the door lock feature. Also spraying water on underside of back bumper will activate back hatch/door to open too.

I have mirrors set to fold too, and they move in and out accordingly to indicate a locked or unlocked visual, even in these water scenarios.

With the door handles, if door was locked, water spray triggers push button on inner surface of handle, beep and unlock occurs, if you don't actually open door it will re lock after a few seconds.

 

Yep, that is why I put the fob in the house after locking the car. Then I put the cover on. If I have the fob on me, set the cover under the back bumper while standing to close, the rear hatch will open. So I lock the car, then put the fob in the garage or house, then wash or cover it. Never had a problem this way.

 

I really think that is just was a case where the door was not fully closed, because you have to slam it pretty good, and when I just got my car, at first I was not used to that hard slam, and pretty much every time I closed the door it was never closed the first time, and I had to open and slam it harder in order to fully close it the second time. So you may think you fully closed it, but in reality it was not, it was almost but not quiet and in time the seal just pushed it a little and it was like in a middle position not opened and not closed

 

Interesting. But would it initially lock in that “not fully closed” state? And if the seal pushed the door out just enough to unlock later, wouldn’t you need to push it shut before it locks again? In this case I just tapped lock on the app and it locked. If it were truly slightly open, you couldn’t lock again it without actually pushing it shut.

 

If the door was really open and unlocked and you press the app to lock the door, I was unaware Lexus had automatic doors that pulled closed. I’ve test drove a BMW once that had soft close doors. The door once close enough would pull itself in all on its own and close tight. No longer had to slam the door closed. This is an added feature you must pay for (I think BMW lumps it in a package)

So the Lexus NX does not have this feature so it makes me think how did it close the open door that was once unlocked and ajar with a push of an app button to be closed and locked? I guess I’m not understanding. Is the door really open or just closed and unlocked? Or was it really open and unlocked? Without checking under the car cover how would you really know?

 

I think the door is considered closed just by a sensor somewhere (do they still have the little buttons somewhere?). If the door is closed enough to trip the sensor, but not quite enough that the latch has a full grip, I see that as the most likely cause of unexpected door openings. Whether the door is locked or not is no longer relevant with the NX because all the lock does is disable the electrical buttons on the handles; there is no mechanical function to additionally block the door from being opened. The only thing holding the door closed regardless of if its locked or not is the e-latch.

 

I admit I’m still trying to understand the electronic door e latch system. This is still all new to me. I’ve never had a vehicle with this type of door mechanism.