Manual door lock inoperable at my gas station
 

I have noticed a very strange quirk with my Turbo S where I fill up with gas. It is a typical high volume pump your own with many pumps and a convenience store. The pumps are electric credit card reading types, nothing out of the ordinary.

When I pull my car in next to a pump to fill up, and I go into the store to get a soda or whatever before I use the pump, I cannot lock the doors pushing the button on the outside driver door handle. I can lock it with the key fob button no problem.

This only happens at the gas station. Any other place, home, other stores! etc., I get out, push the door handle lock button, "chirp chirp", it locks.

What on earth could be going on at the gas station to interfere with the door handle lock button? I am thinking maybe something electronic at the pump is interfering with the car recognizing the key fob in my pocket, so the car won't lock thru the door handle button?

Any thoughts? Very strange.

It is your 911's advanced low-grade gasoline proactive warning system (ALGGPWS) which senses the gasoline quality, and if, either low octane or excessive water is in the gas, it gives warning by preventing you from locking your doors

Hehe........your guess is as good as mine, but I use good gas.

It senses the soda purchase, knowing no food or drink is allowed in a turbo and wishes the car to be stolen by a more worthy owner.

Ok, joking aside, I think you are dead-on "I am thinking maybe something electronic at the pump is interfering with the car recognizing the key fob in my pocket, so the car won't lock thru the door handle button?"

There is either a strong signal coming out of the pump for the express-tag (or whatever that station calls their system where users have a key tag or a tag/sticker on the inside of their window which allows them to gas-and-go), or there is some other radio signal coming out from/near the pump (maybe for the remote reader inside) or possibly a strong cellular booster for the credit card processing device inside the pump...but you are right there is some strong radio signal is interfering with your key/car connection.

Happens to me when my key and phone are in the same pocket.

It's called "RFI", Radio Frequency Interference, and it's strong enough at that location to interfere with your vehicle's RF receiver.

When you push the door lock button, the vehicle is looking for that (very low power) RF signal, which is constantly emanating from your remote (upon movement).

When you press the remote button instead, that same RF signal is amplified significantly, and it gets through the RFI easily.

This is typical behavior for these types of RF products...

OK....makes sense. I figured as much. Thank you for the explanation. At least it is not the "anti-soda warning system", hehehe!

Probably easier to just change gas stations for a more Porsche-remote-friendly one- LOL