Follow me - or read the manual!

I have had my Lancashire for just over 3 years now but the other day I made an interesting discovery - entirely by accident!
I had taken the van to its resting place at the bottom of our garden after dark and had used main beam headlights to go down our back alley. As I put the van to bed I turned off the headlight switch and, remembering that I had driven down on main beam, went to click the stalk back to dipped (as on our Prius) forgetting that the Boxer stalk does not lodge in the main beam position.
To my surprise the headlights came on and the dashboard showed - follow me 30secs.  Sure enough they went out after 30 secs.

YES - it is in the manual together with the information that you can extend the time in 30 second increments up to 3 minutes by successive operation of the stalk.  But who reads the manual to find out about the headlight/indicator stalk?

Am I alone in neglecting this?

And while trying to find the reference I also found two other things:

1:  Two presses on the remote lock button should deadlock the vehicle - but mine does not.
2:  To switch the radio on after stopping the engine and after the 20 mins delay (or 180 mins presumably) you should need to use the ignition key.  That is certainly not so on mine so I infer that A/S HAVE altered the radio wiring and therefore created the "code error" problem.

When I have a free week I may well read the manual from cover to cover !!!  (Or maybe not!)

We have a saying in the motor trade, 'When all else fails, read the manual'..

We have the Follow Me feature and dead locking cab doors too.  To use our radio, we just turn it on, we do get the code error sometimes, but then again, we rarely use the cab radio when we are parked.
I must be sad, I read the manual when we bought the van........

Hi there,

The "If all else fails, read the manual." is a phrase that is very close to my heart.  

I cannot begin to count the number of occasions when I have found it applicable in my own life, for myself as well as others; and I cringe at the memory of numerous occasions when I have failed to do so.   

The phrase goes hand-in-hand with ....


Here's one  memory.

My first contact with the small tipper-trucks used on construction sites was in my local garage.

Although the truck was in for repair, the owner of the garage was using the opportunity to tidy up all the bits and pieces that had been strewn around his garage and yard.  As a result the bucket of the tipper-truck was full to overflowing with a variety nuts, bolts, bits of wire, wiring looms, old tyres etc etc.

I had never encountered a tipper-truck before and as I walked around it the garage owner kindly explained the various levers and controls.

I still remember the      moment shortly after I said the immortal words "So this will be the handbrake then?" ....

.... and pulled on the lever that operated the "tipper" mechanism to spill about a ton of debris over what had been a pristine garage floor!  

Happy Days! 

Best regards,

I bet you learned a new word too, eh Ian? 

Gromit wrote:I bet you learned a new word too, eh Ian? 

Not really ....    

.... just confirmation that the garage owner thought me to be an idiot.   


Ian

ajrm wrote:We have the Follow Me feature and dead locking cab doors too.  To use our radio, we just turn it on, we do get the code error sometimes, but then again, we rarely use the cab radio when we are parked.
I must be sad, I read the manual when we bought the van........

Am I right in thinking that if you are inside the van and press the locking button on the key fob twice then you cannot open the cab doors using the inside handles?

That's right. You can't open the cab doors even if you press the unlock button on the dash. Stops someone being able to open the doors if they break a window.

I presume you guys are talking about the latest (black dash) version?

So........, if 'worried' members started to use this feature as an additional overnight security measure, it could lead to a potential life threatening situation?

Derek

Have to agree Derek.

Paranoia could kill or injure if that's the way the deadlock works. Our van doesn't seem to have one, and I wouldn't use it if it did. If the scrotes are prepared to smash a window they will get in anyway!

That's why we all pay through the nose for insurance. (Could always claim you were gassed!!)

Dave

Gromit wrote:Have to agree Derek.

Paranoia could kill or injure if that's the way the deadlock works. Our van doesn't seem to have one, and I wouldn't use it if it did. If the scrotes are prepared to smash a window they will get in anyway!

That's why we all pay through the nose for insurance. (Could always claim you were gassed!!)

Dave

Dave,

If that really is a "feature" of new vans then the designer just hasn't thought it through!   

Imagine locking yourself into a van that then catches fire and you have no possibility of escape; unless you can find a key-fob immediately on waking up!

Personally, I would hope someone had gassed me so that I could die in my sleep without discovering what a stupid thing I had done!!

Of course, you could just be being a bit cynical ....   

.... but that's just not "you" is it!  

Best regards,

Ian

Y
I'd just go out the Hab door. It's closer to the bed. When the front seats are swivelled, I wouldn't be able to get out of the cab doors anyway. Most A class vans have only one cab door and why would you want to try and scramble out of a cab door anyway?

I think most manufacturers will have thought about the potential problem. For example on the current (just) T5, VW include a central locking switch on the driver's door which is intended to be used with people inside. Unlike the remote control, it only single-locks the doors rather than deadlocking, so they can still be opened from the inside if needed.

On Skoda cars (VW group so lots of features the same as others in the group), they also have the deadlock feature by pressing the central lock button inside and if you pull the inside lever to open a door nothing happens - until you pull it a second time which releases it. Have you tried that?

Oh dear - I have started a panic! The manual states VERY CLEARLY that the deadlocking function should NOT be used while the van is occupied. But the only way tk check that it works (unless you want to break a window!) is to set it while inside and then try to use the inside handle to open a cab door. If I hit cdntral locking twice anc I try to open a cab door it opens therefore I do not have deadlocking. If I did have it then I would use it when leaving the van unoccupied but NEVER while in it. I asked for confirmation to check that I was testing for the provision of the facility correctly.

My Prius has deadlocking and I always use it when I leave the car..
I do wonder if the deadlock functionality is hardware or software controlled.

Paulmold wrote:On Skoda cars (VW group so lots of features the same as others in the group), they also have the deadlock feature by pressing the central lock button inside and if you pull the inside lever to open a door nothing happens - until you pull it a second time which releases it. Have you tried that?

I have not tried that because I don't actually have the deadlocking.
HOWEVER - I reported Toyota to VOSA for what I believe to be an unsafe feature in my Prius.  On th edriver's door there is a button to lock all the doors, as on most cars. The difference with the Prius is that, if the doors are locked with it then only the driver's door will open by a normal pull on the handle and it does not unlock the other doors at the same time.  Passengers must rotate a locking ring and then pull the handle - unless the driver presses the unlock button on his door.  VOSA came back and were satisfied that passengers could get out by rotating the locking ring !  Yes - it's bizarre - but don't blame the messenger!

I recently watched a "You've Been Framed" video where a group of lads frightened one of their number by pretending that a gorilla had climbed into the back seat.  The butt of the joke was so frightened that he failed to undo his seatbelt and therefore couldn't escape from his seat; and VOSA expect people to fiddle with locking rings?

Truly a joke!