I went to a party this afternoon in a sketchy neighborhood and of all times for this to happen, the doors would not lock! I tried everything, doing it manually and the damn thing would not stay locked. Eventually I just gave up and went to the party and luckily the car was still there when I left.

Can you think of any reason why this would happen? The only thing I am thinking is that I have two sets of keys and I accidentally left the second set inside the car. Could that prevent you from locking the doors for some reason?

By the way, I have done a search on this and haven't found anything.

 

I don't think the car will manually lock if a key is inside (but, you can lock it with key electronically from outside with your second key inside). Was your second key inside? If you manually lock the car with a key inside, the doors will not lock and a message will appear in the gauge cluster saying something like the key is detected inside. There should also be a high pitched warning sound.

 

That plus if it's on or a door is ajar. In either case there should be a warning buzzer. Check the remote battery too.

 

you mean you click lock on the remote and nothing happens ?

and you click lock on the inside door and it locks but quickly unlocks?

no warning message on the dash?

 

It locked but quickly unlocked. Very strange. I wonder if maybe I left it in accessory mode by mistake? But then after 4 hours wouldn't the batter be dead?

 

When you say manually lock, do you mean lock with the metal key attached to the fob?

 

No I mean by pressing the lock button on the inside of the door (I haven't tried the lock area on the outside door handle, but I assume it is the same). How were you trying to lock the car?

 

First I tried pressing that little spot on the door handle. That didn't work so I pressed the button on the key fob. It locked but then when I checked the handle it unlocked. Then I pressed the lock button on the inside of the car (all four doors). Nothing worked. The doors would not stay locked.

 

Was a second key inside?

I think you locked the car with the FOB and they unlocked it when you touched the door handle. You should be able to lock your car with the FOB even if a key is inside.

 

Regardless I just tested it in my driveway and it works fine so I am going to assume this was just some flukey thing and hope it doesn't happen again lol.

 

Could have been one of the three things already mentioned, 2nd key, door ajar, ignition or accessory mode still on. Or one other thing might cause this. Transmission in neutral or any position other than park.
It's hard to fool the computer in these cars, they programed it pretty good.

 

Sometimes the lock spot on the handle doesn't repond immediately for me as well. I'm not sure why. But from your post you said u locked the car with the key fob and checked the handle. If you stick your hand in the handle when locked by design the car will unlock so you can unlock the door without holding the key fob or with out pressing the button. Perhaps this is why the car unlocked.

 

Really, it's supposed to do this? Hmm well how do you ensure that the door is locked if you can't check it? Due to the fact I was in a weird area I wanted to double check the doors.

 

When I lock the doors, I always lock it from the button located on the inside where the window switches are, because if I lock it from the key remote, I have to open it with the key remote, it won't unlock by touching the outside door handle. If I'm traveling in the middle of the hot summer with my two dogs in tow and stop at the rest area to use the facilities, I leave the car on and lock the doors by using the hidden key that is inside the fob. This allows me to leave the car running with the air condition on, but keeps it locked so no one can get in and steal the car with my pets inside.

I have had the issue come up if I'm running inside somewhere for a few minutes and I take my wallet and my key fob but not my purse, leave the purse in the car and the extra key fob is in the purse, then the door does not stay locked. This happened to me today, as a matter of fact. I usually try and leave the extra fob at home to avoid these issues.

Also, for us ladies with purses, it doesn't take much of a distance to end up with our purses to be far enough away that the fob can't communicate with the car. Lots of times, when I'm putting groceries in the cargo area and come up to the car, I have to make sure I bring the purse close up to the back end of the car. If I leave the purse in the grocery cart, which to me is still pretty close, it usually is still not close enough to open the back tailgate or unlock the car. It seems like there's only a two to three-foot range. But I guess as far as checking if the doors are locked, particularly for the male RX drivers on this site, just touch the door, and if it unlocks, that means it was already locked.

 

All Lexus' built with keyless entry unlock when the fob is dectected alongside either driver or passenger front door, that's a key feature of the design. Sounds like you were locking the vehicle and then trying the door handle which would then automatically unlock the door. You ensure the door is locked by the audible feedback when the button is pushed and/or lights flashing (depends how you have the system configured). Spend some time with the manual, you'll be amazed on what the car can do.