560SL central locking

[bhatt]

Recently bought a 560SL and found that the central locking works just like it does in my 300SDL -- when you pull the door release lever from inside the car, all of the doors unlock.

Wondering why they did this in an SL. If I leave the top down and lock the car, all someone needs to do is reach inside, pull the lever, then open my trunk. How do I park with a laptop in the trunk? I would have thought that opening the doors with the inside handle in an SL should *NOT* open the trunk also, considering it's a convertible.

What do you guys with SL's do? Do I have to keep locking & unlocking the trunk separately? (turn the key sideways before pulling it out) This could be a royal pain and kind of defeats the purpose of central locking.

My burglar alarm is disconnected as I expect with most MB's of this vintage. Even if it were connected, I'm not sure I'd trust a honking horn/flashing lights to protect my trunk cargo!

Any help someone could provide would be much helpful!!

Thanks
Neal

[DanielG]

I think that is all you can do as confiugured. When you lock the trunk you lock the doors as well, so when you leave the car lock the trunk (take the key out sideways) instead fo the door and you have locked the entire car (no extra step). Also, when you leave the car with a valet you should have the trunk locked and leave only the valet key (when you have something very valuable in the trunk).

I would guess that you could modify the car to disconnect the trunk lock from the vacuum system so that it is not unlocked by the opening of the doors.

Otherwise, you can retrofit an electronic locking system and disconnect the trunk from the doors -- this has been discussed in this forum (see tech forum) and the generaly consensus seemed to be that owners do not want aftermarket gadgets that inherently cause damage to the car (by necessitating the splicing of wiring etc) and/or take originality out.

[Roger]

It's easy!
To keep trunk locked independent of the central locking system:
Turn the master key (key with the red dot) completely to the right and pull it out in that position. Valet key will not unlock it now.
The trunk can now only be opened with the master key by turning it back to the left to vertical to remove key. All the way to the left unlocks locked doors.
So a glance at the key slot shows:
Vertical -- locked if doors locked.
Horizontal-- locked all the time.