Just bought a 1998 diamante, 3.0l v6 auto, when the car is put in drive the central locking locks the doors, is this normal for the diamante? if not what could be causing it?

Its to stop people from car jacking you, I assume this is a USA option.

Car is a jap import, do you know if the feature can be bypassed in any way, but still keeping the central locking when you lock the car up?

Yes. It will be in the user manual. These things can be turned off.

thanks, unfortunately I don't have a user manual, does anyone know how to turn the feature off?

delete system32

no, wait, wrong forum, nevermind...