Can no longer lock with mechanical key

Yes, that's quite possible. The key's lock connects to the latch by way of a short rod that's bent in a few places. I can see were a shock could knock it loose.

 

I am curious if locking the door with the mechanical key would lock all the doors? My guess is no. My guess is that you press the lock all doors button, as you leave from the drivers side.

When I drove as a "Personal Vehicle Driver" for UPS during the Christmas season, I was annoyed that I could not lock my 2013 Prius V two with the car on. It is important to lock the car when it contains UPS Packages, but shutting it off wasting 15 seconds while the car "boots up" when I return. This 15 seconds does not seem like much in normal driving, but it adds up when you make 120 or more stops in a day. If I do this PVD work again, I would get a dedicated mechanical key that I could attach to my belt with a retracting lanyard.

 

Yes it will if the electric locks work.

 

I can't answer your question but it might be more secure to:

1. Lock the door
2. Pull out the door handle as you close the door. The is an old japanese car trick that keeps the door locked.
3. Doors are all locked and you can walk away with the entire key fob. Then you can unlock as you normally do.

This is how I leave the car running and locked.

 

Yeah my 1984 Honda Accord had that thing with the "Hold the Handle" deal to defeat the mechanical interlock that was meant to force you to lock the door using the key. I had a friend with a Honda that got mad at me when I showed him the trick. "Now I am going to lock my keys in my car" was his reply

Honestly, I forgot all about that trick. I am surprised it would work with a modern car.

The thing is when I was delivering packages for UPS, I usually wanted to lock the car while it was running, and I was at the Liftgate or one of the passenger side doors. That meant I had to walk around to the Driver's door to turn off the car (in my big UPS boots), which was yet another waste of time. I gave up. Since the suburban neighborhood I delivered in was really safe, I just didn't lock the car unless I was going more than 100 feet away.

SO: If your handle trick only works with the drivers door, it would only partly solve the problem for me. I have to go out and try it anyway.

 

I went out and tried as many combinations I could think of to lock the door with the engine running (without using the mechanical key). Nothing worked on my 2013 Prius V two, or my 2017 Prius V four. For example:

- I tried stepping out of the car (engine "on") with the driver door open. I had the fob in my pocket, and I was standing between the open door and the car. I then held the inside door handle open, and pressed the Lock all button. The locks cycled on and off in rapid succession sounding like a machine gun, until I released the handle or the lock all button.
- I tried stepping out of the car (engine "on") and closed the driver door. I had the fob in my pocket, and I was standing outside the car. I then lifted the outside door handle open, and pressed the Lock all button on the fob. The driver door simply opened, and the car made the long beep indicating it would not lock at all.
​

Perhaps there is a setting buried in the customization menus of TS that would enable this feature. Or perhaps I need a full size mechanical key. I am going to keep trying.

 

If I had to have ac running in an unoccupied locked car, I would probably go with a plug and play remote start. Toyota has a connector for the purpose.

The operation is shutoff the car, exit, lock and remote start the car. Use the fob to lock and remote start perhaps with the fob attached to your belt for convenience in a delivery job. Ac down time would be maybe 10 seconds.

Considering the engine is already stopped in a Prius means it would not actually start/stop. Reentering the car would shutdown the system, you press the brake and push the interior ignition button and go in seconds.

An addition could add the optional cell phone app to do the same along with tracking the car. I would probably leave the car running and unlocked most of the time. If someone jumped in and drove away I could then shut them down.

The reality is a spare manual key with a bigger handle would be easy and cheap.

 

I used to lock mine (2002 model) on frosty mornings. As I recalled, with engine running you open the door, press the lock all, then hold the OUTSIDE door handle while closing the door. ***

The alternative is to lock it with the mechanical key after exiting. Rotate counter clockwise should lock all doors. It's actually the best way since you don't want to lock the key in the car by accident.

Dan
*** I may be confusing this with my mom's GM car. I was driving it last month and brushed the "lock all" button more than once while getting out. It remained locked if I held the handle out while closing it.

 

If I get to be a UPS Seasonal PVD Driver again next Christmas here in Philly, AC is not going to be the reason for locking the car still running. The reason I want to lock the car while running is to shorten the time it takes from when you press the brake + start button, until you can safely begin driving. Normally people don't seem to mind that short delay, but do that 20+ times an hour, and it starts to interfere with rhythm of the job.

I am including the time that the MFD has blacked out the top 15% of the screen with a stupid message that the Audio is either on or off (my ears can do that). This makes the backup camera useless until the message goes away. During the second month of owning the car, I backed into another car in a parking lot because I did not wait for that message to go away. If I could disable that message, I would.

NOTE: The reason the car has to be locked is the theft of UPS packages, not theft of the car. I could get in big trouble if packages were stolen. Since I would have the Toyota key fob in my pocket outside the vehicle, I would hope the computer would just refuse to get out of park.

If PVD for UPS were a year round gig (instead of 2-3 months), investing in an aftermarket remote starter would make sense. As it is, I will probably live with the delay, or get a minivan with remote side doors.

 

Does that take extra long in a v?

I generally get into my liftback right foot first, on the brake pedal, push the button as my butt hits the seat, shift to D with my right hand while releasing the park brake with left foot, and drive. I'm not sure how much more on a stopwatch I could shave off that....

 

I just did something really stupid so don't listen to me. You are correct. What I said does not work. the power lock just unlocks again. I did manage to get the car to lock and stay in drive mode by:

1. Walking around and going to the passenger seat. Close passenger door
2. Use the power locks to lock all doors
3. Unlock just the passenger door
4. Open the passenger door and get out
5. Lock passenger door
6. Close passenger door

Now the car is on and the engine remains on. A little more complicated than I originally stated. Success?

I cannot open any doors or the hatch with keyfob in hand. I press unlock on the keyfob and it also doesn't work. I guess its a safety measure? No problem, I'll use the good old key. I tried to unlock the driver door with the mechanical key and it does not unlock. The key turns but nothing happens. I now have the car on and I cannot get in even though I possess both keys. Any way, called AAA and they broke into the car in less than 30 seconds.

I took apart my door and found out the key cylinder rod had fallen off the lock mechanism in the door. I did not run into a deer so I don't know how this could've happened. I did notice the glue around the door handle on my interior door panel was messed up as if someone else had been in here before. It was a good 2 hour job because I didn't know what I was doing but someone knowledgeable could've reconnected the rod in like 10 minutes.

My guess at what happened is that I had gotten a second key to be programmed and cut by the dealer a few years ago. I tested the mechanical key turned the lock but I never tested if it actually locked/unlocked the door. The keyfob worked and so I went on my merry way. So while I feel like a bonehead locking myself out of my own car with both keys in hand. At least this happened on my driveway and not on the road.

 

Epic!

 

What trim level is your Prius? I have a 2013 Prius V two (3rd gen), and a 2017 Prius V four (4th gen). The 2013 only has the smart lock/unlock on the drivers door. The 2017 being a higher trim level, and /or newer gen has the smart lock/unlock on both front doors and the tailgate (nice feature). It might make a difference how many doors are smart.

When I was delivering packages for UPS, I was typically removing the packages from the passenger side rear door, or the tailgate. I would leave the car in "ready" to avoid the time it takes to start the car (and to listen to the radio). I tried your 6 steps above, to see if I can lock the car running without using the mechanical key. I could lock all doors sitting in the passenger seat with the door closed, but as soon as I opened it, it unlocked. I tried to press the lock button manually (not using the lock all button) and all the doors unlocked.

Note that you can't lock the car using the mechanical key from the passenger side, because the driver's door is the only door with a keyhole, even on trim level four.

 

I just happened across this article (even though it's from February):

Carjackings Are Up—and Gig Workers Are Getting Victimized | WIRED

I'm starting to wonder how worthwhile it is to look very hard for alternatives to turning the car off.

But part of that is I'm still not getting what you're referring to here:

In my 2010 liftback, "push button, shift D, drive away" takes about as long to do as it takes to say. Is it really that much slower in a v? I mean, in my experience, pretty much any sort of fiddling with the door lock would take me longer than "push button, shift D, drive away."

 

I think the Op really wants the ac to stay running for the dog. Its the reason I might leave it running when its 95f and the UV index is on stun. Overall not a great idea for any duration, especially camping and generator use.

 

Well, there was the "original original" poster in post #1 with the dog, who hasn't been heard from since mid-May, and the sort of "successor" OP with the delivery route, who has been driving the thread for the past week, concerned with leaving the car running while stepping out of it for deliveries, and saving the time needed to start it (which still puzzles me).

 

You would be surprised how fast you get when you deliver 180 stops a day. I would jump into the car, foot on the break, and press the start button before my butt hit the seat. Next step..Right arm, pulling seatbelt.. look over left shoulder and check left side mirror. Next put the car into gear. The putting the car into gear step would frequently fail, cause the car was not actually ready yet.

If I had pulled forward into a space, and I needed to back up to get out was worse. Wait, why does the MFD still have the Toyota logo on it? Cause it hasn't finished booting. Then there is that annoying message telling me the status of the Audio system, which blocks the most important region of the backup camera.

If you are a normal person who might go through this procedure a few times a day, you would not even care how long it takes. At 150 stop / restart cycles, even the few extra seconds get really annoying (that is 20-30 stops per hour). I think the GPS booting on the 57011 MFD could have been the culprit.

X-mas 2020 I was a "Driver Helper" for a UPS driver. I was constantly amazed at how fast the driver could get the truck moving, given all the extra steps they have to go through:

- As they return to the truck, they press the key fob on their belt to unlock the starting system, just as their foot hits the first step.
- As they are swinging into the seat, they press the "prime/start" button. All UPS trucks used to all be diesels, UPS kept the prime step on Gas / Nat Gas / Hybrid trucks even though they don't have many diesels anymore, and the step is not needed.
- At the exact moment that the driver's butt hits the seat, they are pulling the seatbelt over the left shoulder with their right arm, CLICK. Foot is now on brake.
- Press the start button to actually start the truck with the right hand. Note: UPS trucks are fully "telematic". A supervisor will know if the engine is running without the seatbelt being on. This they take very seriously.
- Left hand pushes the left mirror back out at the same time the right hand puts the truck into drive. UPS drivers do everything they can to avoid a backup. Their supervisor counts how many backups per day. Think of this next time you see a UPS truck parked in an annoying way.​

This takes just 3-4 seconds. It is a rhythm that a good driver falls into. It is a Union job with Union wages ($21/hr to start, W-2). Safety is really important to the whole company (not just lip service). As a driver helper, I lost 20 pounds trying to keep up.

 

Ah yes, I have to repeat the shift on occasion too, if I moved my hand right from the power button to the shifter so fast that the READY beep hadn't happened yet. In my case, that's a symptom of not having a super practiced routine. I'm pretty sure from power button to READY beep is under a second, so if I made sure my routine was always power button, seat belt, then shift, I doubt I would ever have to repeat the shift.

Ah, yep, I can see that's an annoyance, and one I don't have any useful suggestion for. What makes it even more annoying is that it isn't even booting. The MFD merely sleeps when the car's powered off. (Interrupt the 12 volt some time and compare how slow it is when it literally has to boot!) That logo is purely there for a time delay selected by some corporate branding dweeb.

I wonder if you could power off, then go immediately to ACC or ON before getting out, so the logo has already been pre-dweebed by the time you get back in, and you can just go from ACC or ON to READY. I hope it doesn't go back to the logo in that case. Haven't run out to check....

Edit: confirmed: pre-dweebing works. Going from ACC to READY does not re-trigger the logo.