Walk-Away Locking.. faulty or normal?

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CX-5
I swear my walk-away lock only works half the time. So often I head to my car in the morning to find it unlocked. It works enough to make it habit for me to walk away from it and expect it to lock, but then doesn't always work. I'm not sure how that even happens. If the Fob is away from the car, it should lock right? I asked the dealer and they said I'm walking away from the car too fast? I have no idea what that would have to do with anything.

Is this just a poorly executed feature or is mine faulty?
 
I swear my walk-away lock only works half the time. So often I head to my car in the morning to find it unlocked. It works enough to make it habit for me to walk away from it and expect it to lock, but then doesn't always work. I'm not sure how that even happens. If the Fob is away from the car, it should lock right? I asked the dealer and they said I'm walking away from the car too fast? I have no idea what that would have to do with anything.

Is this just a poorly executed feature or is mine faulty?
This Walk-Away Locking feature on CX-5 is not guaranteed working that’s for sure. Mine works about 80%~90% of the time, which makes me slowing down and paying attention to the beeps while I’m walking away. If yours works only 50% of the time you should bring it up to your dealer’s attention.
 
Wait are you pressing the lock button or is it supposed to lock by itself (no pressing on button)?

That's a new feature if the later.
 
It's supposed to lock by itself when I walk away. It's amazing when it works, but just doesn't work all the time. On top of that, when you come back to your car to open it, you hit the button on the door to unlock it, which actually just locks it (since it never locked when you walked away), which causes you to crank the handle of a locked car. Insult to injury!
 
The system needs improvement. I can walk up to the passenger door, press the button to unlock it, stow some belongings in the footwell, close the door, walk around to the drivers side and during that walk it auto-locks despite me remaining no more than a foot from the vehicle.

Also, I can open the liftgate, close the drivers door, remove my belongings/groceries from the back, close the liftgate, walk away and it will not lock anything. Maybe this scenario is similar to what happened to you?
 
Same "problem" here.
We noticed it on the CX-5 we tested about 6 months ago.
But since the car was new to us, we thought we just did something wrong.
Now that we have a CX-5 ourselves, we noticed it on this one as well.
Often it works perfect, sometimes it doesn't.
Haven't found any real logic to it yet but it appears as if it usually happens when we open the trunk after driving, take out our stuff and close the trunk again. Then it seems the car doesn't want to close by itself.
But we also had it when I, as the driver, got out first and my wife, as the passenger, got out second. By the time she closed her door, I was already about 10 meters from the car and I had to use the remote on the key to close it myself.
 
Try changing the key fob battery to name brand like Energizer. It would probably giver you more power thus more range.
 
The owners manual explains the procedures for a successful walk away locking process in detail.

Also when getting into the trunk, and then after closing it to walk away, you should use the seperate LOCK REQUEST switch on the rear hatch. (not the hatch open button), to lock the vehicle.
 
Install a auto folding side mirror module. Once lock the side mirror folds just one glance/ look back and you know it's locked or not.
 
The owners manual explains the procedures for a successful walk away locking process in detail.

Also when getting into the trunk, and then after closing it to walk away, you should use the seperate LOCK REQUEST switch on the rear hatch. (not the hatch open button), to lock the vehicle.

Yep. This.

Read the manual closely. Basically you have to be within a couple feet of one of the door lock sensors with the key at the time that all doors are closed. If you have others with you and their door isn't closed yet before you leave the zone, it won't work. It's a PIA but it works 100% of the time for me when I follow the rules of how it works. Listen for the beeps. One that it's initialized and one as you walk away saying that it locked.
 
Totally agree. Mine works 99% of the time. The only time it doesn't is when I have people with me that are slow to get out of the car and I'm out of range.
 
Let me chime in. Do 2 things OP:
Case 1 - close doors but step away out of the proximity range fast - by fast I mean swing the door and start brisk walking - be out of the promixity range within a second of the door closing. Observe results.

Case 2 - close the last door - but stay within the proximity range and hear the first beep then walk away. See the results.

Do these two things - please understand the proximity range varies from where you are standing - near the rear hatch or the side doors. So please repeat this step.
What I found out was - there is an amount of time your key must be within the proximity range to ensure the walk away feature works. In many cases you have two or more riders in the car - so understand - your key needs to be within proximity range when the 2nd rider or last exiting rider closes the door.

Its not a poorly executed feature- poorly understood maybe but not poorly executed.
 
Yep. This.

Read the manual closely. Basically you have to be within a couple feet of one of the door lock sensors with the key at the time that all doors are closed. If you have others with you and their door isn't closed yet before you leave the zone, it won't work. It's a PIA but it works 100% of the time for me when I follow the rules of how it works. Listen for the beeps. One that it's initialized and one as you walk away saying that it locked.

Same here. If other people are slow getting out of the car I have to stand by and wait for them to close their doors before I walk away, but it always works.
 
Dldude, keep in mind that the proximity range is pretty small, especially to the sides.
My experience is the same as the others- it usually works as advertised.
 
The trick is when you exit the vehicle, you need to move slightly away (not to far) for the first beep to happen. That means it's preparing for auto lock. Then when you move further away (as in leave the vehicle entirely), it will beep again and auto lock will fully engage.
 
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The feature is much more predictable once you get a firm grasp of how it does / doesn't work.

As other have said:
- Once more than a few feet away or outside of the sensor zone for the specified period of time it will not work
- If you walk out of a sensor zone while another door is still open it will not work
- If you've met all conditions the car will beep once, that means the system is primed. If you get back into a sensor zone quick enough the operation will be cancelled.
- If you hear the first beep and don't open another door, the process should complete. However that isn't guaranteed until you hear the 2nd beep.
- It helps to program yourself to listen for the beeps.
- I'm now in the habit of locking via fob if I've been in the tailgate as walk away seldom works when that's been the last thing open.
 
I have this features since my '08 CX9.
Love it.
Just wait for the beep to confirm auto-locking.

Avoid putting your fob near your cell phone. (same pocket, for example, bad idea)
 
It’s simple for me to just push the button on the door. One beep and all the doors are locked. A couple of times one door is not totally shut so that alerts me.
 
It’s simple for me to just push the button on the door. One beep and all the doors are locked. A couple of times one door is not totally shut so that alerts me.

Or the button on the tailgate
 
It’s simple for me to just push the button on the door. One beep and all the doors are locked. A couple of times one door is not totally shut so that alerts me.

This!(iagree)
 
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