Car locking itself

[Woldboy]

I have a 2018 Karoq 2.0 4x4 and experienced the same issues as previously reported here, clicking locks and self-locking.
I took the car to an independent Skoda specialist who informed me that I had a defective Driver’s door lock. This was replaced at a cost of £368 and appears to have solved the problem.

[Italiastar]

I asked Skoda about this and this is the response I got -

"Regarding any possible common issues you have heard about, in this instance the door lock issue, it is difficult for me to comment on this as the issue has not occurred. All we can advise is looking into our warranty options to protect you from manufacturing defects."

Surely manufacturing faults are covered by the Consumer Rights Act 2015 for 6 years so why would anyone need to buy a warranty

[Bramleyapple]

I had this problem last week. Sometimes the car would lock itself, other times it would not open when I touched the outside handle. Sometimes the key was not recognised when sitting in driver seat. Then a message flashed up in dash saying fob battery needed changing. I changed the battery and have not had the problem since.

[RKT]

I have experienced many door locking problems over the last year. At the service last year I asked that the Skoda garage look intio this problem but they found no fault. Today they agree there is a fault and that the front door locks need to be changed at a cost of £800. I believe this fault is not due to me or the way this car has been used. I notice other are having similar issues with door locking. Apart from door locking issues I too frequently get a message on dashboard to say 'key not detected'. Skoda headquarter are aware of my car problems and are going to phone me tomorrow.

[Fairfield]

Our Karoq 1.5 petrol 2018 60k miles has suffered the door locking randomly with keys inside. Left my wife stranded for 4 hours waiting for the AA - phone, keys and purse all locked in side the car. Spare key 230 miles away.


@connerscl
Interested to know if there has been any support provided by Skoda for out of warranty cars given that this fault is a critical safety issue and well known ?

[Chris1001]

Given how much grief this problem gives I'm surprised its not more widely known that there is some sort of design or manufacturing fault in the VAG KESSY front door locking modules. Hope this helps anyone with a Karoq that locks itself and locks owner out.

Symptoms are typically intermittent but include:
1. 'Key not detected' warning when try to start. Will start if you use key fob to lock then unlock then press start button again.
2. When you stop and get out the car locks itself about 10s after closing door but mirrors don't fold. Doors are locked but not deadlocked as anyone in car can still get out using the interior handle. Will lock even if key is in vehicle.
3. Once locked the car will not unlock via kessy but will unlock using key fob buttons.

The good news is that if this happens the car does log and store a fault code in the vehicle management system so it is relatively simple to identify even if intermittent. Bad news is it costs around £400 a lock at your dealer (plus £60 or so to run the diagnostics).

This problem happened on my 2.5 year old Edition and both front door locks were replaced by Skoda under warranty just before the 3-year cut-off. One of those failed at just under 4-years and is being replaced under the extended warranty that came as part of the Skoda all-in service package (very happy I took that out now!)

I really do like my Karoq and I should say my local dealer has been very helpful throughout, but it is a bit pathetic that VAG has been aware of this problem for at least five years and has not resolved it.

[IanW]

Given how serious this could be if a child or animal is locked in the vehicle , has anyone reported it to the DVSA https://www.gov.uk/vehicle-recalls-and- ... ety-defect ?

[toby92]

This is my first and possibly my last post on this forum. Sadly, a very good car in many ways, we can no longer trust our 69 plate 4x4 Karoq Sportline. On Easter Monday we left the keys by the gear lever and unloaded the boot. Closed the boot and went to release the dog only to find everything had locked. The temperature was rising... and we were in a remote part of Wales, so I phoned Green Flag who would be with me in 2 hrs, but I would have to sign a declaration as they would have to "damage" the car to get access. Our spare key was at home 90 miles away - even if we could have borrowed a car there would have been a 4 hr delay before we returned to a fried dog. It seemed that the "damage" was to smash a window, so I did it myself and cancelled Mr Flag. This is the 6th time we have been let down by the locking system - although this was by far the most dramatic occasion. After the first time, when I was able to rescue my wife (thank goodness for mobile phones), I contacted the garage who then checked the car over and said they couldn't find a problem....(funny how others on this forum have had that experience!). The fifth time, I was told that they needed to replace the two front door locks which they did. The warranty was coming to an end and I wrote to Skoda UK saying that I had no confidence in the car but after a fair bit of wrangling, they gave me £300 towards the cost of a further year's warranty (I think I had to pay £30 extra, so it was worth it). That warranty ran out in September, and so any work which needs to be done now will come out of my pocket. The only good thing to come from this sorry saga is that the website "mywindscreen" put me in touch with an excellent glazier who replaced the glass at a third of the Autoglass price. No more Skodas for us - the Dacia Duster which preceded the Karoq gave no trouble, neither did the two Fabia VRS's we enjoyed in the past. I'm looking at the Kia Sportage as a replacement.