Lock Puzzle

[metalaris]

Hi

 

I have a 2002 TOYOTA COROLLA T3 VVTI which this morning behaved oddly. I am currently using the 'dumb key', the grey one that you're supposed to give to the valet etc., as I have lost my original (with the remote functions) and not yet got around to replacing it. So, in order to lock/unlock from outside the vehicle I have to insert the key into the driver's door lock and turn one way or the other. This has been working fine for a few weeks now, but this morning the unlock turn would only unlock the driver and front passenger doors. Neither the rear doors nor the boot would unlock. Furthermore, the internal driver lock release button beneath the window would not unlock rear doors or boot. Might I inadvertently have activated some child locking functionality? We don't have any young children so have never knowingly used any such feature on this car, which I've owned since 2012. Or is this problem perhaps symptomatic of a more worrying problem?

[furtula]

I think that is the normal function for the valet key,  it should prevent the person using the key from opening the boot, and the glovebox.

Does the manual unlock for each door work?

You should check your owners manuals, it should say in there how exactly it should work for your model.

[metalaris]

Thanks furtula for your swift response, though I'm not sure how relevant it is considering what I said in my original post, i.e. "This has been working fine for a few weeks now, but this morning the unlock turn would only unlock the driver and front passenger doors." 

38 minutes ago, furtula said:

I think that is the normal function for the valet key,  it should prevent the person using the key from opening the boot, and the glovebox.

The conclusion from your suggestion (above) would have to be that, if the valet key is now working correctly, it has therefore not been working correctly for the last few weeks (even though it has actually been fulfilling all my basic requirements).

Whichever is the case, something has clearly happened between yesterday and this morning to alter the way the functionality provided by turning the key in the driver's door lock works. I would like to understand how to get things back to how they were working over the past few weeks and would of course read the handbook (were it not for the fact that it is currently locked in the glove compartment - sod's law!) if I thought it would assist.

Obviously my number 1 worry is that I'll return to the car and find I cannot even open the driver's door. At least opening that gives me access, one way or another, to the other areas no matter how inconvenient that may be. I suppose what I'd like some reassurance on is whether, in the evnt of complete electrical failure i.e. zero power, does the key/lock mechanism still function mechanically?