Unlock All Doors When Parking Honda Ridgeline
I’ve had a Honda Ridgeline for a little over a year now and one of the absolute most annoying things about this vehicle is that when you drive, it locks all the doors, but when you stop, it only unlocks the driver’s door. Now, this is independent of the child safety locks that are switch-activated for the back doors. This is just a pure annoyance that makes me want to strangle some engineer somewhere about three times a week.
So, it finally bugged me enough for me to figure out if there is a way to change this behavior, and it turns out there is (apparently it’s in the owner’s manual, but who reads those things when you have the Internet?). The answer is pretty simple:
1. Make sure the shift lever is in the Park(P) position.
2. Turn the ignition switch to the ON (II)position, and make sure to close the driver’s door.
3. Push and hold the rear of the master door lock switch on the driver’s door. You will hear a click.
Continue to hold down the switch: Until you hear another click(after about 5 seconds) toactivate the driver’s door unlockfeature.
--Or, until you hear two more clicks(after about 10 seconds)to activate the all doors unlockfeature.
4. Release the switch and, within 5seconds, turn the ignition switch to the LOCK(0) position.
Thanks to this thread for these steps! I just tried it, took it up and down the driveway, and it actually works. One less frustration for me in 2010!
Comments
Julian M Bucknall said on 05 Jan 2010 at 9:20 PM
Steve: Happens on my wife's Acura TL as well. I wonder if the same trick works there too... (Yeah, yeah, I could RTFM and find out for sure :) )
Cheers, Julian
Carl Camera said on 06 Jan 2010 at 10:49 AM
In an attempt to try to tie this post somehow to the stated focus of this blog...
The software concept here is reasonable default behavior and user-customization. When shipping a new Honda Ridgeline, the engineering team had to decide among the various behaviors which would be the best default behavior.
I think Honda engineers chose well in this case; the lock-all/unlock-driver behavior would be the most acceptable default behavior as it provides safety to rear passengers, most likely small children for this vehicle. The standard behavior also provides additional perceived security for the gentler sex who would prefer that folks not be able to enter the vehicle by default when it stops. Apparently, this is not a concern for karate-wielding, ex-military officers, but would be for standard suburban soccer moms.
In software, we make these choices all the time: we choose default behaviors based on what we believe will benefit most customers. Then we provide the ability to alter default behavior for those bell-curve outliers who wish something different. In the case of a vehicle, the only way to know that there are these options is to read the manual.
I mean, it's not your fault that you're driving a sissy soccer-mom SUV but, hey, your choice.
Randy Eppinger said on 06 Jan 2010 at 11:30 AM
Steve,
That drove me crazy on our Odyssey for weeks until my wife got tired of my complaining. She read the manual and fixed it. Honestly, like Julian the thought of reading the manual had not occurred to me...
Randy Eppinger said on 06 Jan 2010 at 11:32 AM
One more thing. If it makes you feel better, Steve, Todd says he can't change the behavior in his Camry. Toyota must have thought YAGNI!!!
masterkylelewis said on 17 Jan 2010 at 7:34 PM
i like this i might actually research this more in depth!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Brendan Enrick said on 18 Jan 2010 at 5:09 PM
I like how you cleverly left off any credit to the person who told you about that.
I did this trick for my mother's Insight and my brother's Civic as well. I assume it works on any relatively new Honda.
So you guys don't read the manual cover to cover when you buy a new vehicle??
links london said on 28 Jan 2010 at 2:15 AM
I did this trick for my mother's Insight and my brother's Civic as well. I assume it works on any relatively new Honda.