I saw in the Owners Manual that my car, which is equipped with "Advanced Keyless Entry", can be programmed by the dealer to lock itself whenever I walk away from the car.

Two questions:

1. Can I do the programming myself, or do I have to take it to the dealer?
2. Are there other things that can be programmed that are not mentioned in the Owner Manual?

Thanks for any info . . . Stu

 

1 - Have to take to dealer
2 - AC can be set to blow colder.... forget how; it is on this site somewhere.

 

That auto-lock feature... Yah, they'll charge you ~100 bucks for it... s'why I never bothered to have it turned on.

 

If your equipped with a factory nav unit, there are some programs that you can get to in it. I think that there is a DIY on how to.

 

I've got "auto-lock" on my other car - it's great.

I never have to worry about locking the car, and if I leave the keyfob in the car it flashes and beeps all kinds of warnings (I guess they have it linked to the airbag passenger sensors so they know why you're not in the car - I'm not sure if the RX-8 will do the same thing, but I'll let you know next week).

. . . Stu

 

OK guys, here's the followup - the dealer charged me $0, ZERO, ZILCH, NOTHING to do the programming.

They told me that they love on the RX-8, the 3 and the 6 that there's programming options because it usually gets new car buyers to come in, meet the service department, and hopefully become service customers. Schwartz Mazda in Shrewsbury NJ - they've been a pleasure to deal with.

And as to the actual function. It locks when you walk away. If you leave the fob in the car, it just sits there unlocked. And, oddly, if you exit the car with the engine running, and close the doors and walk away, it does not lock, and won't lock even if you manually push the button on the doorhandle (in other words, there's no way to lock the car, running, if you and the fob walk away - odd, eh?)

 

Does it beep and flash the lights like if you locked it manually?

I'm definitely calling my dealer to get this done.

 

^^^ Yeah that one makes my turbo timer fun....

 

It always beeps when it locks - and it seems like it sometimes flashes, but maybe I'm missing the flash sometimes - but it always beeps.

And as to my comment about how I thought it was odd that it wouldn't let me lock it, running. I also have a C6 Corvette with proximity sensors that lock and unlock the car; since my earlier post I tested the same stuff on the Vette, and it acts just like the RX-8 (I just never knew it before).

 

Really? I did find instructions on how to reset the AC and that often helps makes it colder again. My AC didn't have issues cooling, but I did the reset procedure anyways.

 

When I have to run back into the house while the car is warming up I just use the key (it's slid into the fob) to lock the car. I don't have the auto lock feature set up on mine though so I'm not sure it it will unlock automatically after using the key. It's a tiny pain to do but since I forget stuff in the house so rarely I don't mind using the key.

 

You lock your car in your driveway?

Strong bad neighborhood...

 

lol no it's not a bad place it's an ingrained habit. After having our house cleaned out once (and I mean nearly everything) as a kid I always lock everything.

 

Oh man that sucks. I never lock my car cause I figure it's too complicated to hotwire and there's nothing inside to steal... unless you realllllly need a St. Michael pendant or a piece of gum

 

I couldn't agree more. I own motorcycle dealerships and what I've seen over the years is it doesn't matter whether it's a good neighborhood or bad, or even if it's a nice vehicle or not. If you give some people the opportunity, they'll steal it.

I keep everything locked and insured - most of my cars/bikes have alarms, some have LoJack.

Some people don't worry about this stuff at all - but I've seen a lot more stuff stolen from people who don't take precautions than those that do.