This morning in CT, we woke to the remnants of an early spring ice storm. Rucio, my 2014 Countryman All4, was coated in a sheet of it. I popped the driver's side lock with the fob and tried to open the door, but the handle was frozen and I just don't have the hand strength that I used to, to squeeze past the ice and get her open. So I hit the fob again, to open the other three doors, but no joy- all four door handles were frozen solid enough that I could not get in the car. The fob had worked- the locks were in the up position, but the car was effectively still locked. So I went back into the house to get a pitcher full of hot tap water. Now this was straight from the tap, so it could not have been more than 120 degrees F, since that is how my water heater is set. I went back out and carefully and slowly poured the water over the driver's side door handle. (I know that hot water and cold glass are a bad combination. No lectures, please.) As the ice started to visibly melt, I heard a mechanical noise and realized that the driver's door had re-locked itself. I continued to pour and about 5 seconds later, the other 3 doors re-locked themselves. I assure you, while this was happening, the fob was hanging from my belt loop. I did NOT accidentally hit it once, then a second time 5 seconds later.

Once I emptied the pitcher, I was able to open the driver's side door easily (after using the fob once more) and the rest of the morning proceeded normally from there. So my question, obviously is: Why would hot water make the doors re-lock?

I am looking forward to the hypotheses.

David

 

Hypotheses, huh? ...and our testing platform will be?
Without the ability to reconstruct the exact testing conditions I'll take a blind shot.
Most water heaters are set at 120°. Knowing that, factory settings for frozen door handle release with hot water would naturally be calibrated to that temperature with ambient atmospheric temperature anywhere below 32°. So, working within those parameters, the time it took you to go from the kitchen sink to the driver's side door, the temperature of the water you were carrying dropped below 120°. The on board ECU recognized this disparity, calculated that the chance of you being unauthorized to operated that motor vehicle, summarily locked you out.
That's my best assessment. Hope it helps.

 

 

I believe, at least for the newer MINI's, if you unlock the door and do not open the door it will relock itself automatically after a certain amount of time. Some info HERE.

 

 

Observable testing outcomes:
PelicanParts stepped in (as per usual) with infallible data evaluation. Skillful variance analysts detected a non-variable element in the equation.
External circumstances, i.e. unstable water temperature, apparently have no bearing on the outcome.

 

Looks like I need to work on how to write out a hypothesis.

 

I believe its a security thing. A lot of cares re lock if the doors are not opened in a certain amount of time. Good thing in case your kid grabs the remote and hits the buttons while the car is out front.

 

hydrohypothesis:

The water shorted the contacts in the driver's door locks causing the car to lock the doors. It will do this with the mechanical key in the same manner as will pushing the buttons on the remote.

 

hy·poth·e·sis
hīˈpäTHəsəs/
noun
noun: hypothesis; plural noun: hypotheses
a supposition or proposed explanation made on the basis of limited evidence as a starting point for further investigation.

Seemed like a good usage to me.

David

 

The problem with that is that the car has never locked itself before after any period of time, no matter what the weather. I have even tried to program it to do so, and have never been successful. So I don't think it is a security thing. And if it were, wouldn't all the doors lock at the same time?

 

Yup, I noticed that error in spelling. And, I hope you'll forgive my hijacking your thread with a little humor. Sometimes something strikes me just right and I've just got to tweak its nose. A shortcoming that often even annoys my long suffering co-pilot.
I think your quandary did find a satisfactory answer.

 

I agree with automan. Try unlocking your car and not opening it to see if you can get it to happen again. Different than trying to get it to automatically lock after you've opened the car.

 

You can turn on or off autolocking in the personal profile of each key.