"Stupid people will always manage to break something or hurt themselves or someone else." For every moron out there that rides around with their baby on their lap there are plenty of smart people that occasionally make mistakes. Personally I sometimes let my mind wander and maybe that label or that lever I pull is enough to keep my brain on track. Maybe I should have one of you perfect people that never make a mistake operate my OPE to save me and my family from my imperfect self. Go ahead and take off the switches, levers and labels and let all the stupid people chop themselves up so they don't polute your perfect gene pool.

When replacing a fob battery, "GENTLY" brush the battery contacts with a pencil eraser. This will clean surface corrosion which could cause a voltage drop and reduce the transmitters output. Cost plays a huge role here, but even with all of the tools and equipmnent that I have I do not and cannot reasonably afford to purchase the additional equipment that would recieve signals from a key fob to measure it's output and attempt any servicing for many of those systems. We truly are limited to dealing with the components onboard the vehicle, following any appropriate service bulletins, and then if unsuccessful either leave it unrepaired, or go into parts swap mode. (Which I HATE doing, and usually would turn the vehicle away) In order to protect vehicle security it is necessary to make purchasing the things needed to perform this kind of service expensive, that's why a dealer will have the equipment for the brands that they sell, but it is not reasonable for someone like me to get involved with beyond the level that I do. Keep in mind some systems use the vehicles radio antenna for the key fob reception. (The radio in this case IS the reciever and communicates the command signal to the BCM). One thing that I can do with my scan tools is watch for the communication to occur between the modules. If I don't see the communication, which if the system does not unlock the doors is quite likely the result I would then do testing to confirm that the modules can and do "wake-up" with certain commands. Then from there attempt to be certain that the antenna system is working correctly, even if that means pull the radio and use a substitute antenna. In the event the car works for a while like Jems, but does not work after a specific period of time I would suspect there is a vehicle problem where the BCM deliberatly shuts the system down to protect the vehicle battery. I would be testing that car to make sure modules eneter sleep mode at the right times, and then of course wake back up when commands are given. A radio reciever that does not wake up to the fob transmission can never send an unlock command to the BCM, likewise even if the radio does send the command, if the BCM cannot or will not follow the command, the result is the doors don't unlock. Keep in mind, the problem could easily be a door lock solenoid failing, as well as the latch simply stiffing up and requiring to much power for the solenoid to operate.

A number of Dodge cars have had some form of automatic door locking feature since at least 1989. Usually, after a front door has been opened, all four door locks are activated upon passing through 15 mph. This doesn't hamper the front passengers since their doors will unlock upon moving the inside door handle, however, the rear passengers may find themselves locked in depending on the setting of the rear door child locks. Even when the child lock has not been set, the rear passengers may find that they have to manually move the lock button to the unlock position before the door handle will unlatch the door. There are many variations on this theme. For Dodges, there is a routine of on-off-on cycles executed through the ignition switch that can activate or de-activate the auto-locking feature. I suspect you vehicle also has a similar method that won't require a trip to the dealer. However, I have never de-activated this feature in my car since it does not cause an inconvenience and the procedure is not intuitive; 6 mo later, I won't remember the sequence and would have to look it up again. However, in your case, unlocking all doors upon key removal could get to be a nusiance. If you can't find the arm/disarm procedure in your 3rd party repair manual, you may be able to find it on-line at your local library.

"Hope my hint helps, most crooks wouldn't think to look under a license plate for a spare key." Maybe they will now? :) But you can be sure there's not many "secret" hiding spots a crook won't look. The license plate is a common hiding spot. Sort of the mobile "key under the doormat" (or flower pot) So be aware that you do take your chances if you do that. I used to keep a spare key on the vehicle. Whenever it had different keys for ignition and door lock I'd only hide the door key outside. Sometimes put a spare ignition key inside though. I haven't been able to get spare keys made for this one. Nobody has the right key blanks for it so I suppose I have to go to a dealer. The one that's supposed to fit it doesn't. Tried it at several different places. One guy who knew quite a bit of what he was doing told me it wasn't right but might fit and that I could try it right away and bring it back if it doesn't work. Currently I have one with the keyring fob with the remote control. It hit me one day how STUPID it was to use it like that! If you lock your key in the car, you also lock the remote in there! LOL How stupid! That's as dumb as carrying both sets of keys on the same keyring! So I took it off there and use a belt clip to keep the remote fob on me at all times and the keys are on another belt clip. If you unlock the doors on mine with the remote, you have a certain time frame to open a door or else it relocks. I think that is a good feature. It also will not let you lock the doors with the engine running and a door open. Found that out when I wanted to warm it up one day. I wanted to let it run and lock it like I always do with other vehicles but nope, can't lock the door that way. Nice feature in some ways, but bad feature in others. I'd like it better if it would let me use the fob to lock it but nope, no go. Oh well, stay with it when warming it up or watch it closely.