Turn off auto door unlock?

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michaellax

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 6, 2017
Messages
102
Sometimes, I want to leave my iPhone in the Bolt EV to charge while I am in the store/restaurant etc. But I have to leave the Bolt EV turned on, so I turn off the lights and radio and lock the doors with my FOB. My understanding is that all USBs and the 12V outlet are powered down when the Bolt EV is powered down.

I notice that after a period of time, the Bolt EV will automatically shut itself off (obviously to preserve battery power), BUT it then unlocks ALL of the doors!

So I am interested in being able to change one or both defaults:

1) Keep the car turned on longer, or never turn itself off; and/or

2) If it must turn itself off, NOT unlock the doors and so that I might come back and find my iPhone (or other items) stolen!

Any suggestions?
 
Could someone reconfirm this for me:

Put your phone in the Bolt EV for charging by USB in the front seat.

Turn off your lights.

Turn off your radio.

Get out of the car.

Use your FOB to lock the car, even though it is still "running."

After a period of time, it will auto shut down and it should UNLOCK the doors!
 
This happens to me too! Has anyone found a solution yet? I'd be happy with either of the ones posted above.
 
Yeah. Buy a "power bank" for $15. Plug it into the car to charge, plug your phone into the external battery. The external battery charges whenever the car is on, your phone charges all the time.

Voilà, you now have a 24-hour charger in your car (or wherever you go). It ain't rocket science.

Here's an example external battery for less than $15 : https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=15120 . It will charge your phone 4 or 6 or 8 times from empty. And it will charge your phone at 2A, whether your car is on or not. And you can take it with you - you can now charge away from the car!
 
I think the power bank will solve charging phone. That won't be an issue anymore. However I really don't think the car should unlock itself under any circumstances unless you initiate it unlocking. There should be a way to override that.
 
I agree; the car shouldn't auto unlock. What if someone didn't realize the car was still on when they walked away and locked it? With an EV, that's much easier to do than with an ICEV. I'm sure there are other cases we aren't considering. But if the car was locked with the key fob, then wouldn't it be best to assume the person who locked it wanted it to stay locked?
 
GetOffYourGas said:
I agree; the car shouldn't auto unlock.
I've never had the car auto unlock on me, but then I never try to leave it turned on when I walk away from it. If the power bank solves the charging requirement, then the car doesn't have to be left on and auto unlocking shouldn't be an issue.
 
SeanNelson said:
GetOffYourGas said:
I agree; the car shouldn't auto unlock.
I've never had the car auto unlock on me, but then I never try to leave it turned on when I walk away from it. If the power bank solves the charging requirement, then the car doesn't have to be left on and auto unlocking shouldn't be an issue.

My concern has nothing to do with charging the phone, and everything to do with unintentionally leaving the car on. If you leave an ICEV running, it simply eventually runs out of gas. But the doors remain locked. If you leave the Bolt running, it eventually shuts itself off to prevent you from using up your battery. And it "conveniently" unlocks all of your doors. I guess I don't understand why you would want that "feature".
 
GetOffYourGas said:
My concern has nothing to do with charging the phone, and everything to do with unintentionally leaving the car on. If you leave an ICEV running, it simply eventually runs out of gas. But the doors remain locked. If you leave the Bolt running, it eventually shuts itself off to prevent you from using up your battery. And it "conveniently" unlocks all of your doors. I guess I don't understand why you would want that "feature".
+1
 
GetOffYourGas said:
My concern has nothing to do with charging the phone, and everything to do with unintentionally leaving the car on.
I guess I'd be more concerned about this if it was easy to leave the car unintentionally turned on. But my Bolt honks up a storm if I try to leave it with the power on or the fob in the car.
 
So... no solution then. Do we know what the time interval is before it auto unlocks, so I know when I need to relock it?
 
In the Volt, to keep it “hot” we used to put a thick rubber band around the shifter so it would constantly “push” the shifter button and that kept it on indefinitely.
 
I just bought a 2020 Bolt. This auto-unlocking of the doors when the car shuts off is a real safety and security concern for me. I can't imagine a scenario when anyone would want this or need this. I can imagine many nightmare scenarios of the car being auto-unlocked either when I am inside it sleeping or when the car is unattended. If I lock the doors, I want them to stay locked unless and until I unlock them.
 
I have a 2017 Bolt, and I have not worried about auto-unlocking. In fact, when everyone is out of the car, about 30 seconds go by and then all the doors lock themselves. Maybe this option can be turned on and off in the 2020 Bolt. This is not a problem, except if you want to go back in after they are all locked, for loading and unloading, then you have to unlock it. When I am in my garage, my work around is to quickly open the tailgate after everyone is out, which prevents all the doors locking so I can load and unload easily. In public of course, I have to remember to close the tailgate. I have left it open before now!!
 
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