Locking when inside overnight

Am I right in thinking that it is the Locking Switch on the dashboard that will lock the Symbol doors when sleeping inside? (as in previous VW van)
Presumably if an alarm system e.g.. Sigma is fitted then additional actions are required to deactivate interior sensors?

Yes you can use the switch on the dash or on your key.  As you say, if you use the Sigma fob to lock the doors, unless you have the interior motion sensors turned off, you will have the alarm going off every time you move.  I don't have the Sigma interior motion sensor activated for that reason.

Taurian wrote:Yes you can use the switch on the dash or on your key.  As you say, if you use the Sigma fob to lock the doors, unless you have the interior motion sensors turned off, you will have the alarm going off every time you move.  I don't have the Sigma interior motion sensor activated for that reason.

Thank you.
Not familiar with Sigma (yet) - what is the procedure to deactivate the interior sensors?

Don't know - mine was deactivated when I got the van.   If you have the Sigma instruction book it will be in there.   If not, try looking on Google or Youtube.

Taurian wrote:Don't know - mine was deactivated when I got the van.   If you have the Sigma instruction book it will be in there.   If not, try looking on Google or Youtube.

Thank you.

Often interior sensors are disabled by activating the alarm/lock system twice in quick succession. Works with mine and my car. Only a one time thing, reactivated next time alarm/lock is activated.

Whatever you do, test this............

Having locked it in your chosen way, try opening the doors from the inside, irrespective of whether this sets off the alarm or not.

It is absolutely vital to be able to get out at all times without the keys, you may want to do this in a big hurry if the thing's on fire, or your neighbours is.

IanH wrote:Whatever you do, test this............

Having locked it in your chosen way, try opening the doors from the inside, irrespective of whether this sets off the alarm or not..

Yep, this is important.

I was told not to use the fob when inside as it engages the deadlocks, whereas the dashboard button doesn't.

With the deadlocks engaged you're in trouble in emergency situations.

To be honest I leave the van open when inside. If someone woke the missus up from her beauty sleep they'd be in serious trouble ;)

Greyhound wrote:

IanH wrote:Whatever you do, test this............

Having locked it in your chosen way, try opening the doors from the inside, irrespective of whether this sets off the alarm or not..

Yep, this is important.

I was told not to use the fob when inside as it engages the deadlocks, whereas the dashboard button doesn't.

With the deadlocks engaged you're in trouble in emergency situations.

To be honest I leave the van open when inside. If someone woke the missus up from her beauty sleep they'd be in serious trouble ;)

Thank you....much appreciated

I might very well be wrong, but on our Peugeot Duo to engage the dead lock you have to press the lock button on the fob twice quickly, same as all the cars I have owned in recent years.

That's the way our's works and like has been mentioned, if you lock using the switch on the dash it will also disable any internal sensors at least it does on our Autowatch alarm.

I can confirm on our van you can open the doors internally without using the fob when locking as I have described.
This information is based on our van, so best to try on your van just incase it is different.

Never use the fob when inside!
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Richard

Forgot to mention, locking this way also turns the alarm off thus you don't get the very bright blue led flashing all night

We do a single press of the fob lock button. We use the cab curtains at night. If you put your hand fwd of them, the alarm goes off.
All doors can be opened without key, but alarm goes off.
One press of either unlock button in morning does the trick.

To reiterate, however, please be sure that whatever you do works for your vehicle, and you can ALWAYS get out from inside, ideally without the key

But if you have movement sensors, you need to use the lock button on the dash, on our setup locking this way, the alarm is not set, or the double locking as I mentioned above.

Can only speak for our setup, so other vans may differ, so a testing is required.
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Richard

We just do as Richard, don't use fob, don't set alarm, just press centre button. We can open doors from inside.

Paulmold wrote:We just do as Richard, don't use fob, don't set alarm, just press centre button. We can open doors from inside.

Yep, spot on.
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Richard

Thank you all for your replies and help.
Will try out and check accordingly!

The keys on my van came with a clear warning.  

I understand the issue is the deadlock function. I think the remote is designed to be used when your outside the van. The dash button is designed to be used when you're inside.

I always use the button on the dashboard when inside.  

We also use the cab dash button to lock the doors on our Kingham and the doors can be opened.

Out of curiosity, having locked up with the cab dash button, if you open a door, step outside and close the door again, does it relock? I.E., can you open it again from the outside? I always unlock with the cab dash button before opening as I'm paranoid we'll get locked out!

Like many others we use the dash button at night. Our van has no deadlocks and the Cobra 4615 2 to 1 alarm upgrade.
The dash button locks 3 doors and retracts the step. The alarm is not activated and exit using internal handles is possible without key or switch use. Dectivation of ultrasonic internal sensors is complex and involves pressing an alarm button on the dash just after switching off ignition.

We've only once felt the need to lock the van when we sleep in it, that was on the Caravan Club site in the centre of Cardiff, which is used as a cut through by people returning from a night out. 

But on other sites (we never wild-camp), we never lock the van when we go to sleep; are we alone in this? are we being naive?

I recall that some years ago Gromit posted a thread on the Forum about the idiosyncratic behaviour of the locks. The bottom line was to the effect "Never leave your keys inside the van if you're not with them!".  Having managed to lock myself out a few times in the early days of ownership, it's valuable advice!

Cymro

Achilles heel wrote:We've only once felt the need to lock the van when we sleep in it, that was on the Caravan Club site in the centre of Cardiff, which is used as a cut through by people returning from a night out. 

But on other sites (we never wild-camp), we never lock the van when we go to sleep; are we alone in this? are we being naive?

I’m 50/50. We tend to judge whether to lock or not based on the site...... although on occasion the wine has made me forget to lock up