Locking the car with the boot open

[_Exocet_]

Hello all.

Perhaps an unusual question for such a simple thing - how do you lock the car with the boot open and the charger in place? The car is a 2015 V8 Vantage.

I have read in the manual that it's possible, but if I hit the lock button on the remote with the boot open, my car flashes the indicators to suggest unlocking and the doors remain unlocked. I have never before had a car that will 'unlock' on the lock button.

The only way that I have found to keep the car locked is to lock the car first, then open the boot via the remote. The indicators again flash to suggest that the alarm system is disarmed, but the doors remain deadlocked. If I hit the lock button in this state, the doors unlock, the mirrors unfold and the interior lights come on.

Whilst the car is in a garage, I'd feel happier knowing the car was in a proper 'locked' state with alarm system activated!

The car appears to lock and unlock exactly as you'd expect when the boot isn't open.

I am stumped!

[Dewi 2]

Charger cable wrapped in a folded tea towel, resting on lower boot bodywork. Tailgate gently lowered, sometimes an initial click from lock although not fully closed, but not squashing rubber seal or charger cable. Guess there must be two clicks of the tailgate latch to fully close

Press key fob lock. Indicator lights flash and door mirrors fold in. Cannot open the door handles. After a couple of minutes the usual click can be heard. Don't know what that does.

When I come to open the tailgate, it usually does require the fob button pressed to release the tailgate lock, even though the tailgate is not fully closed.

Have never referred to the handbook about doing this, but it does seem to work for me as desired.
The cable is fairly thin, so tailgate closed might be OK, but I just want to be extra careful.
Garage doors have internal chains and padlocks, so car should still be reasonably safe.

[_Exocet_]

Thanks Dewi, that may be where I'm going wrong.

At the moment I'm just closing the boot gently, allowing it to rest on to the stops, having assumed that's as far is it should go as the manual talks specifically about not damaging the seal.

[Dewi 2]

_Exocet_ said:

At the moment I'm just closing the boot gently, allowing it to rest on to the stops, ...

I do exactly the same as that. It might even be resting on my folded tea towel more than the stops, I don't really know.
It is only later, when I am disconnecting the trickle charger, do I sometimes (with the car still locked) find I cannot lift the tailgate and so then need to press boot release on the key fob. The tailgate is certainly not fully down, as can be seen where the tailgate meets the rear quarter panels.

If you cannot make this work on your car, then possibly there might be a technical difference, because your car is a slightly later model year than mine.

[JonnyCJ]

Forget the boot, tea towels etc read this and you’ll never go back

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

[LTP]

_Exocet_ said:

Thanks Dewi, that may be where I'm going wrong.

At the moment I'm just closing the boot gently, allowing it to rest on to the stops, having assumed that's as far is it should go as the manual talks specifically about not damaging the seal.

I don't lock my car but I do close the tailgate onto the "first latch" position when I connect it to the battery conditioner.

I lay a piece of microfibre towel on the seal (fluffy side to paint), lay the cable onto that, fold the towel once over the cable (I'm more interested in protecting the paint from the cable than protecting the seal) gently close the tailgate onto the two layers of microfibre with the cable in between then gently push down until the latch clicks into the first position. I've been doing this for over 2 years and the seal is unmarked.