# What happens when I lock my car door?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-when-i-lock-my-car-door/20252
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [May 23, 2000, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-when-i-lock-my-car-door/20252 "2000-05-23T02:48:07Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Llardball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Llardball)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2000, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-when-i-lock-my-car-door/20252/1 "2000-05-23T02:48:07Z")
Sometimes I am in the car driving down a curvy road when I lock the doors. I do this because I think it will lessen the chances of the door opening and me flying out of the car. When I lock the doors, am I just making the door handles non-functional, or am I actually reinforcing the door so it will take a harder push to open?
---
### Author:  [@avalongod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/avalongod)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2000, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-when-i-lock-my-car-door/20252/2 "2000-05-23T02:59:28Z")
I was also told that locking the door reinforces its strength, but I don’t know that for a fact. I suppose it could help prevent an accidental opening, should the door be jarred in an accident.
---
### Author:  [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2000, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-when-i-lock-my-car-door/20252/3 "2000-05-23T03:04:39Z")
You are making the latches immobile, thus making the door harder to open. In some doors, it also frees the door handles from the release mechanism, so that they just flop uselessly when pulled. In others, the handles stop just a short distance because the latch mechanism that they’re still attached to won’t give any slack.
---
### Author:  [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2000, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-when-i-lock-my-car-door/20252/4 "2000-05-23T03:10:43Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*\*
> Sometimes I am in the car driving down a curvy road when I lock the doors. I do this because I think it will lessen the chances of the door opening and me flying out of the car. When I lock the doors, am I just making the door handles non-functional, or am I actually reinforcing the door so it will take a harder push to open?
> \*\*
You are not reinforcing the door. You are making the handles non-functional, which is a good idea IMO no matter where you are driving.
---
### Author:  [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2000, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-when-i-lock-my-car-door/20252/5 "2000-05-23T14:15:22Z")
[hijack]
Q. “What happens when I lock my car door?”
A. You announce to the world, “Hey, there’s something in here worth stealing!”
Sign me,
SOMEONE WHO WOULD RATHER LET THEM HAVE THE $50 RADIO THAN PAY TO HAVE THE $500 WINDOW FIXED.
[/hijack]
---
### Author:  [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2000, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-when-i-lock-my-car-door/20252/6 "2000-05-23T14:25:50Z")
FWIW, the General Motors auto ownership safety website, [http://www.generalmotors.com/ownership/safety\_features.htm](http://www.generalmotors.com/ownership/safety_features.htm) doesn’t mention anything about locking your doors to keep them from flying open. I think they’re engineered well enough so that normally they wouldn’t open just from centrifugal force.
Also, if you’re wearing your seat belt like you’re supposed to, even if the door did fly open, you wouldn’t fall out of the car.
But yeah, my mother used to tell us, “Don’t lean on the car door, it might fall open.” Maybe in bygone times, car doors really did do that occasionally.
---
### Author:  [@Koffing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koffing)
#### Post date: [May 24, 2000, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-when-i-lock-my-car-door/20252/7 "2000-05-24T06:34:50Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*\*
> [hijack]
>
> Q. “What happens when I lock my car door?”
>
> A. You announce to the world, “Hey, there’s something in here worth stealing!”
> Sign me,
>
> SOMEONE WHO WOULD RATHER LET THEM HAVE THE $50 RADIO THAN PAY TO HAVE THE $500 WINDOW FIXED.
>
> [/hijack]
> \*\*
Does it mean the same thing when you lock the door to your house?