I haven't had time to look this up yet - but I thought I'd throw this out there in case it may prevent a problem for someone. I have a co-worker who is in Canada on an aircraft build. Yesterday she went to her rental car (don't know make or model) started it, and then began scraping the windows of recent snow and ice. After about two minutes of scraping all the doors locked. So she is outside with the engine running and locked out. Took Avis 3 hours to get someone out to unlock the car for her.

So, I was wondering if 4runners do the same thing. Do the doors auto lock after some time period? I can see how this might be an anti-theft thing; but maybe there should be a warning of some kind before the locks activate.

Anyway I thought it might be worth mentioning.

If the 4R is STARTED then it will not auto lock unless it starts moving (5mph+ depending on your settings - can be up to 15 I think) OR you have it set to lock after the shifter is moved. Thx for the heads up tough, this sounds like a major desighn flaw in what ever vehicle this is in. I think the Runner won't re-lock its self once you open one of the doors.

Odd that the doors would auto lock while the engine is running. I've had the car "on" listening to music while washing my car or something, and the doors have never locked on their own. This does not sound like anti-theft, it sounds like poor design to me. Or maybe a misunderstanding of the facts.

I do know that with my 4Runner the doors will auto lock after I've:
1. Already locked the door with the key-fob
2. Unlock the door with with key-fob; but, never open any of the 5 doors

It will auto lock after about 2-3 min (though, I've not timed it).

Being from MN, in the middle of winter people leave their cars running all the time while it's either warming up, or at a fueling station. They leave the cars running with their babies inside with the heater running while they fill up. I'd not want to auto-lock my dog in the car let alone a child.

According to the owners manual you can have this auto lock feature set (at the dealership). It can be set for a few specific timeframes or the feature can be turned off completely.

I'm always fearful of getting locked out so I had mine set to at the dealership to: OFF

It won't with default setting (Selecting gear locks all four door).

hehe, at least i dont have to worry about this with the smart key system. keys are on a carabiner that never leaves my pant loop.

my ocd is that if its not on my belt loop, i freak out. i've been doing this since the 80's, so its ingrained pretty bad.

before this smart key system, even when filling up in negative temps, i still have the keys on the pant loop.

in my 2012 SR5 you cant lock the door when engine is running. I tried it to warm up the engine in winter, but was unable lock doors neither with button, other key or autolock. Saying that when I'm not on my driveway I always open a window a little bit when I has to step out and engine is running. You never know when electronics is going to fail on you : )

I forget exactly what I tested but when I just got my 4runner, I tried almost every conceivable way possible to lock myself out while in my driveway and I recall Toyota made it pretty fool proof for the most part so don't worry too much

The only auto lock features I can recall is when you pull it out of park and when you start rolling over a certain speed like someone else above said.

you are correct about it re-locking after a few minutes. Drives me nuts when i unlock from inside the house intending to get something out of the car and when i get there it is locked again. close to busting out a window to solve the problem. Spent 1/2 hour in book trying to find out how to change the settings and like the car itself the book is a piece of useless crap. 2012 4runner, worst car i have ever owned but stuck with it.