987687 Posted November 22, 2016 Share Posted November 22, 2016 I don't even know how to title this one. I have a 98 legacy with manual locks, when the front doors are locked, then closed, they unlock. Nice touch to keep from locking your keys in the car. On the driver side I know to hold up on the door handle as I close the door, however my passengers (including my GF...) don't understand how to close the damn thing. This results in me sitting in the car until they close the door so I can lock it. REALLY annoying, is there a way i can disable this "feature"? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robm Posted November 22, 2016 Share Posted November 22, 2016 No. That is the way the mechanism works. They are the same on both front doors. Japanese car, sold world wide, so it works for cars sold in Japan, Oz, India etc. as well, where our "passenger" door is their "driver's side" door. Does it work the same on the rear doors? Some cars do, some don't. If they don't, maybe you can adapt a rear door mechanism to the front passenger door? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
golucky66 Posted November 22, 2016 Share Posted November 22, 2016 Hahaha. I have the same issue. My girlfriend does the same stuff. I just wait in the car until she gets out. She always used to ask "why do you wait so long to get out of the car?" I don't have an answer unfortunately. Just chiming in to show my support that you're not along. Lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
987687 Posted November 22, 2016 Author Share Posted November 22, 2016 All my other cars, including my GL and 84 mercedes have power locks. There's some disconnect when it comes to the brighton... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heartless Posted November 23, 2016 Share Posted November 23, 2016 lol, you don't have to wait IN the car until the passengers get out and shut the door - just step out at the same time they do, wait until they shut the door, then lock it up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fairtax4me Posted November 23, 2016 Share Posted November 23, 2016 It's in the latch mechanism and can be disabled by partially disassembling the latch to remove the kick lever that pops the lock back open. It's more of a PITA than you might think to get the latch out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazyhorse001 Posted November 25, 2016 Share Posted November 25, 2016 You can do an operator fix for this without hurting any feelings. Just ask your passenger to check thier door to see that its locked. After a few times having to re-lock the door they'll do it automatically. Much easier to modify the operator, than the machine in this case Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
987687 Posted November 25, 2016 Author Share Posted November 25, 2016 Yea, see, the problem is that many of my friends are millennials and will never understand the extremely difficult concept of manual door locks... Seeing as I barely have the motivation to fix broken brakes and important stuff on this soul suckingly boring car, I'm probably not gonna go ripping the door locks apart to modify them. I've never taken the door lock assembly out of a subaru, but I have on many other cars. It's always terrible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fairtax4me Posted November 25, 2016 Share Posted November 25, 2016 Well good news is you only have to do that to the front passenger door. Rear doors will stay locked when you close them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jseabolt Posted November 25, 2016 Share Posted November 25, 2016 (edited) I had this POS 1992 Nissan Sentra on my property (long story) that did just the opposite. It was a 2 door with manual locks. If I unlocked either door, got out of the car then shut it, the door would automatically lock itself. What the hell? That would suck if you left your keys inside the car and forgot to take them with you and it happened to me! Luckily I had an extra key to it. I had a 1981 Honda Prelude that would unlock itself as you described. Open the door, get out, lock the door, shut it and it unlocks itself. Then someone told me about lifting up on the door handle while shutting the car door so it wouldn't do it. I got into that habit and never thought more about it. One of the weirdest locking mechanisms I've ever seen is on my 1981 Trabant 601. The only way to lock the driver's side door is by using the key from the outside. There is no locking mechanism on the inside of the door. I kind of like the idea of being able to lock all doors while inside the car. You know in case some panhandler wanted to jump in the car with it at a red light. The passenger side is just the opposite. There is a little tab near the door jam you move down to lock the door. But there is no key hole in the passenger door handle! Just like on cars built in the last 10 years or so, they have no key hole in the passenger door handle either. So I guess the Trabant was ahead of it's time! The stupid question was when I bought my Baja was why do the rear windows do not roll down completely. Is there a stop inside the door that can be removed. Is this some safety feature to keep kids from hanging out of the rear windows? I did not take into account there is no rear quarter window on a Baja and because of the wheel arch, the window cannot roll down completely but has to at an angle. Edited November 25, 2016 by jseabolt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
987687 Posted November 25, 2016 Author Share Posted November 25, 2016 My mercedes has vacuum central locks, vacuum engine shut off, vacuum shift control in the transmission.... and a diesel engine. So it's all run off a vacuum pump. When I bought the car none of this worked. It was a fun adventure to fix it. However, the vacuum locks are pretty cool. You lock the driver side then there's a second or two delay. Then all the door locks silently suck down. No clicks or whirs of motors or solenoids, pretty cool. That car doesn't let you lock doors if they're open, kinda skirts around the whole issue, kinda annoying if the power locks break.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fairtax4me Posted November 25, 2016 Share Posted November 25, 2016 Back in the day Mercedes had a vacuum operated self closing trunk lid on some of their highest models. Talk about expensive to fix... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
987687 Posted November 25, 2016 Author Share Posted November 25, 2016 Mine is a station wagon, so it has the hydraulic auto-leveling suspension. It's actually not quite as expensive to fix as you might expect... It's a surprisingly simple system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fish-N-Fool Posted November 25, 2016 Share Posted November 25, 2016 Yea, see, the problem is that many of my friends are millennials and will never understand the extremely difficult concept of manual door locks... Get new friends LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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