intermittent door locking on 2019 Mazda 3

It is my 3rd week with my new 2019 Mazda 3 and I am noticing issues with the door locking.
I set it to auto lock and most of the time it does work, however it does not always work that way.
The idea of key-less entry and locking is just great - In theory it is a fantastic feature - but walking away from it is risking the door to remain opened.
I think it fails to lock approx 35% of time while 65% of times it works.
I think it has problems with locking when I drive and listen to my radio.
If I just drive back home without the radio ON - I notice the issue less often.
But it doesn't make sense - because the radio is always ON, so maybe it has something to do with how I change the channels etc.?
Does anyone here have the same issue?
 
Yeah I have same issue. It seems to work only if I close the door and stand next to it until it beeps once, then when I walk away it locks. If I close the door as I walk away then it is 50/50.
 
Yeah I have same issue. It seems to work only if I close the door and stand next to it until it beeps once, then when I walk away it locks. If I close the door as I walk away then it is 50/50.

That's how it's supposed to work. The proximity sensors only detect the key fob from a specific distance (not sure what it is), so if you close the door and walk away too quickly, you're probably too far from the car for it to detect the key fob. After a while, I got used to waiting for the beep. I also noticed that in the CX-9, all the sensors seem to be located in the doors and the liftgate, so when I walk to the front of my car, the auto-lock is triggered. Not sure if the same applies for the new 3.

Maybe in the future, Mazda can improve or shorten the time it takes for the car to register a closed door, which would make the response much better.
 
2014 3: If I unlock/pop open the trunk after I shut off the ignition, the doors will not lock after I close the trunk and walk away. Sm1ke is correct in that you need to be close enough to the car when you close the door. If others are exiting the car, I wait until the last one has close his or her door before I close the driver's door. As long as the trunk hadn't been opened and close, the doors will auto-lock 100% of the time.
 
I mentioned this to my dealer just last week. I upgraded from a 13 year old car that had keyless exit which is one reason I choice mazda. I didn't have to hang around my car waiting for beeps, I just shut the door and walked off.

I have noticed on a few occasions I walk off and it doesn't lock, doesn't even beep. I have to go back and open and close the driver door again to get it to work.

My dealer suggested bringing it in but I told him it is probably a waste of time unless you have a software update from Mazda to install.

On another note, what is the point of the lock button in the boot?
 
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I mentioned this to my dealer just last week. I upgraded from a 13 year old car that had keyless exit which is one reason I choice mazda. I didn't have to hang around my car waiting for beeps, I just shut the door and walked off.

I have noticed on a few occasions I walk off and it doesn't lock, doesn't even beep. I have to go back and open and close the driver door again to get it to work.

My dealer suggested bringing it in but I told him it is probably a waste of time unless you have a software update from Mazda to install.

On another note, what is the point of the lock button in the boot?

If you walk away and it doesn't beep, you're probably out of range (or maybe your key fob battery is low). It's just the way Mazda's system works, and maybe it will be improved in the future, but right now it's probably working as intended.

Now, if you close the door and it doesn't beep while you're standing at the car, that's when I would take the car to the dealer (after making sure the battery in the key fob isn't low).
 
If you walk away and it doesn't beep, you're probably out of range (or maybe your key fob battery is low). It's just the way Mazda's system works, and maybe it will be improved in the future, but right now it's probably working as intended.

Now, if you close the door and it doesn't beep while you're standing at the car, that's when I would take the car to the dealer (after making sure the battery in the key fob isn't low).

... thats the whole idea, the car is supposed to auto lock on no detection of the key, that is how is should work as is stated in the owner manual. It would be stupid if it only locked on detection of the key which becomes pretty moot. p.s I changed the key in the fob but I shouldnt have needed to do that after 1 week. The battery in my Laguna key which I used for keyless entry/exit and ignition easily lasted 3 years.
 
You are right

I mentioned this to my dealer just last week. I upgraded from a 13 year old car that had keyless exit which is one reason I choice mazda. I didn't have to hang around my car waiting for beeps, I just shut the door and walked off.

I have noticed on a few occasions I walk off and it doesn't lock, doesn't even beep. I have to go back and open and close the driver door again to get it to work.

My dealer suggested bringing it in but I told him it is probably a waste of time unless you have a software update from Mazda to install.

On another note, what is the point of the lock button in the boot?



You are correct about the functionality of the auto lock. There should be no need to wait for anything.
This is a failure. Period. Our car has a malfunctioning auto lock function. It appears to not work when the first beep is missing.


I noticed two types of behavior when it fails to lock:
1. When I exit the car and shut the driver's door there is no initial beep indicating that the door was closed. If I leave it like that - and walk away - it won't lock. But I figured that if I go and open the rear driver's side door - and then I close it - the car beeps and then beeps again after a little while and then I hear the locking engaged.
2. Unfortunately there is a second type of behavior - that when I exit my car, close the door - and there is NO BEEP - and then when I go and open the rear driver's side door - and then I close it - the car DOESN'T beep at all, no matter how many times I open the damn door and close it. I tried many times. It won't lock.

There is another clue to this locking failure:
If I just drive to a nearby store (1000 ft away) without listening to my radio and just get out and shut the door - the auto lock works almost always.
But if I drive further and go around the settings on the radio, change the stations many times and listen to music - it has a hard time auto locking.
My lock fails to work unusually higher number of times after real life driving - than just short term drives.

I don't believe in coincidences. There must be a reason why this thing won't lock.
I would think it is a control problem. They screwed up with the software.
That's what I believe now.

Maybe the software reads something - or maybe there is a logging function that fails.
Maybe the system is filling up some buffer and once you exit the car it is too busy writing the log and fails to engage the lock.
Whatever they screwed up - they screwed up big time.
 
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