Locked Out? We Can Help!
It’s been three days and that one tooth just won’t stop bothering you. Your dentist said she can squeeze you in, but only if you can get there in 30 minutes. You rush out the door and start making your way to the car which, concerningly, doesn’t make its usual satisfying clunk noise when you hit unlock on your remote. You get a bad feeling, but, hey, you’ve got a million things on your mind, not the least of which is the maddening pain which has been your constant companion for far too long now. You get to the car and you whip open the door and—
Except, the door doesn’t open. You pull the handle a couple more times, but it does you no good. You are still locked out. You hit “unlock” a couple more times, hoping, praying that you just didn’t hit it right, or maybe that you were too far away for the car to receive the signal, but alas, no matter how many times you hit that button, still nothing. You start to wish you hadn’t been ignoring the “key battery low” message on the dash for the last couple weeks.
So, what now? Your car is locked, your dentist awaits, and your key is apparently now little more than an expensive paperweight.
Or, is it? You may not be in as much trouble as you had originally thought.
The first and perhaps most obvious solution is a new key battery. Oftentimes, when a key stops working out of the blue, and you know it hasn’t taken a trip to that famous slayer of electronics, the dreaded Washing Machine (or its ugly cousin, the Porcelain Throne), the culprit is a dead battery and there are plenty of online sources where you can find out how to replace them. You can oftentimes rectify this yourself with a quick YouTube tutorial or Google search, or by stopping by our storefront, conveniently located on route 53 in Hanover.
But what if you changed the battery and it’s still not working? Or what if you don’t have any batteries on you and your only means of getting one is the car that is currently, frustratingly locked?
Did you know that 99.9% of cars on the road have a fail safe for this very situation? That’s right, even if the “unlock” button on your key isn’t working, you can still get into your locked car.
The answer is obvious if your car is not a push-to-start key: just stick the key into the lock next to, below, or above the door handle and turn it to one side or the other. You’ll be on your way to your appointment in a jiff!
But what if you have a push-to-start key? Have no fear! Your smart key should have a small emergency key blade for exactly this situation. Find this key blade (if you cannot find it on your own, remember that wise old sage, Google) and then find the manual lock on the driver’s door. On many smart key model cars, you will have to remove a small piece of trim from the end of the handle in order to find the lock (once again, Google is your friend) and you will be into your car in no time!
You made your appointment just in the nick of time and now that your pain is gone and your head is clear, why not think about calling South South Lock & Key for a spare and avoid the stress of trying to get into a locked car with a dead key?
