Locked in the Car and Unable to get Out - Food for Thought

buckeyefarmer · Feb 3, 2023

nyone said:
Who the hell cranks a car until the battery is dead?

Usually the crank behind the wheel.

Hambone · Feb 3, 2023

newbury said:
Are we ever going to be told the details of the car? Make, model, year?

I don't reckon
On my old 15 F150, it would shut headlight off after a while, even without being on auto.
But, if you switched it over to parking lights it would go plum dead

gstrom99 · Feb 3, 2023

Like many of you, I just went out and tried mine. 2019 Jeep Cherokee.

Locked the doors from the inside. No key. Opened just fine with the lever.

Must be more to the story... ?

Cougsfan · Feb 3, 2023

A friend of mine related a different auto door locking story: On an icy and snowy day some lady in a VW Bug (the new ones) turned the corner in front of his house and slipped, jumped the curb and got stuck. She got out of her car to look at the situation and shut her door. Unfortunately she had left the car in gear, The wheels were spinning slowly but the car was hung up on the ice and was not moving. The doors on the car auto locked themselves and she couldn't get back in. She knocked on my friends door for help. They called a locksmith. She was invited in and they enjoyed a cup of coffee or three while waiting for the locksmith. Some time later the locksmith showed up. He unlocked the doors and they put the car in reverse and with a shove were able to get the car back on the road.

Cougsfan · Feb 3, 2023

My wife's 2018 Hyundai Kona only has an electronic door unlock feature while my 2018 Chevy Volt has a manual unlock lever on each door. The Hyundai is continually locking itself up when she doesn't want it to. Make her mad.

I hate the auto locking features on car doors these days. You'd think everyone lives in a crime ridden neighborhood and you have to lock up every thing you own in every single moment. On my pick-up truck, the keys are almost never removed from the ignition or the doors locked for the last 20 years. No one has stolen it yet. Where I live it is more than a little unlikely it will ever get stolen. That is one of the reasons I live where I live. Many of the more modern cars don't have auto lock bypass features anymore.

I also wish they had a fixed storage point for FOBs on new cars. I guess the expect you to never leave the FOB anywhere but in your pocket. That might work OK if you are the only one who drives your car. My Volt is confusing because you can't easily tell if the car is on or off.

Torvy · Feb 3, 2023

gstrom99 said:
Like many of you, I just went out and tried mine. 2019 Jeep Cherokee.

Locked the doors from the inside. No key. Opened just fine with the lever.

Must be more to the story... ?

To be fair, if you want to test the theory, you need to pull your battery cable to simulate a dead battery.

OP, no offense to the lady, we can only hypothesize with what we know.

KennyG · Feb 3, 2023

Cougsfan said:
My wife's 2018 Hyundai Kona only has an electronic door unlock feature while my 2018 Chevy Volt has a manual unlock lever on each door. The Hyundai is continually locking itself up when she doesn't want it to. Make her mad.

I hate the auto locking features on car doors these days. You'd think everyone lives in a crime ridden neighborhood and you have to lock up every thing you own in every single moment. On my pick-up truck, the keys are almost never removed from the ignition or the doors locked for the last 20 years. No one has stolen it yet. Where I live it is more than a little unlikely it will ever get stolen. That is one of the reasons I live where I live. Many of the more modern cars don't have auto lock bypass features anymore.

I also wish they had a fixed storage point for FOBs on new cars. I guess the expect you to never leave the FOB anywhere but in your pocket. That might work OK if you are the only one who drives your car. My Volt is confusing because you can't easily tell if the car is on or off.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of people live in places where you can't leave anything unlocked. I know someone who lives in the middle of nowhere and had an anvil stolen from an unlocked shed. Nothing else, just the anvil. I once had bricks stolen that were piled by the garage I was building. Where do you go to fence bricks?

I think the autolock is actually a crash safety feature. If I remember correctly, the doors are less likely to open in a crash if they are locked so they have to automatically lock at a certain speed.

MossRoad · Feb 3, 2023

In all of our Chevy's since 2000 you can disable the auto lock feature, make it autolock when put in drive, unlock when put in park, only driver's door unlock when put in park, etc..

It's all done through the radio, or dashboard controls. Is that not available anymore?

Molalla1 · Feb 3, 2023

I'll just keep my 06 ram 1 ton, and a few others a little older

.

ljjhouser · Feb 3, 2023

Kinda feel like a good battery would recover enough to operate locks if she could relax and wait for 15 minutes. Maybe not. I am glad she could call for help.

3930dave · Feb 3, 2023

stuckmotor said:
There are tools sold in many places that are comprised of a hammer to break the door widow and a seatbelt cutter. I suspect the elderly and infirm might be their main market. In a panic situation, I'd never find mine, if I owned one.

I've carried these for many years:

resqme® Car Escape Tool, Seatbelt Cutter / Window Breaker

Used it for real once; works well on regular auto glass side-windows. USA made, easy to keep on a keychain.

Worth knowing..... you'll need a saw to get through many modern side-windows, as they're laminated....

Some Car Windows Are Harder to Break in an Emergency, Says AAA

Scanned the pages, but didn't notice the make/model of the problem vehicle that started this thread....

Rgds, D.

Streetcar · Feb 3, 2023

MossRoad said:
All of our Chevy's from 2000 on turn the headlights lights off after a few minutes if you leave them on with the engine not running.

Ford has automatic setting that will do this but she pushed switch to manually on

gstrom99 · Feb 3, 2023

Torvy said:
To be fair, if you want to test the theory, you need to pull your battery cable to simulate a dead battery.

OP, no offense to the lady, we can only hypothesize with what we know.

We still don't know what the car model is/was, so we're all just guessing. My Jeep inside door handle physically engages the unlock thingy.

Thomas · Feb 3, 2023

One of reason I like my simple 4 WD GMC 2015...doors don't lock until put in D or R and has roll up windows.

Jstpssng · Feb 3, 2023

Something like opening the car door from the inside should be intuitional. In an emergency you shouldn't have to fumble for a lever or an obscure button.
Here's my "locked door" story...

It was sometime in the mid-90s that we were travelling up "The Golden Road", a privately owned woods road which is one of the main arteries into the North Maine Woods. It was a cold, blustery winter day when we came upon a guy standing in his shirt sleeves next to a running car. We stopped and he told us he was locked out; he had gotten out to get rid of a cup of coffee and the doors had locked themselves. (?) We gave him a ride back to a payphone, and he explained that he was an engineer and had flown in from New Hampshire for a meeting. He was early so decided to take a ride in the rental car. We dropped him off at a payphone and offered to wait; but he assured us he would be fine so we went on our way.

MossRoad · Feb 3, 2023

Jstpssng said:
Something like opening the car door from the inside should be intuitional. In an emergency you shouldn't have to fumble for a lever or an obscure button.
Here's my "locked door" story...

It was sometime in the mid-90s that we were travelling up "The Golden Road", a privately owned woods road which is one of the main arteries into the North Maine Woods. It was a cold, blustery winter day when we came upon a guy standing in his shirt sleeves next to a running car. We stopped and he told us he was locked out; he had gotten out to get rid of a cup of coffee and the doors had locked themselves. (?) We gave him a ride back to a payphone, and he explained that he was an engineer and had flown in from New Hampshire for a meeting. He was early so decided to take a ride in the rental car. We dropped him off at a payphone and offered to wait; but he assured us he would be fine so we went on our way.

Sounds like a plot from Breaking Bad.

arto98607 · Feb 3, 2023

KennyG said:
All the cars I have seen with batteries in the trunk have jumper terminals under the hood.

2008 Mercedes E320 Bluetech (W211) sedan, very large battery in the trunk but no jumper terminals under the hood.
According to owners manual, only station-wagon models have terminals under the hood.

Doors are always opened manually from the inside no problem.

Mtsoxfan · Feb 3, 2023

I have never been in a car where you could get locked in. At least in the front, electrically locked doors have always opened from the inside. Not saying there isn't one out there, I just have never seen one...

cqaigy2 · Feb 3, 2023

Ha ha, i have being locked out story too.

I dropped my girl friend off at her car, she gets in starts it up and drives off. I return to my still running car, 71 Torino, and can't open the door, it's locked. I think to myself, WTF? Only thing i could figure, was i noticed it was harder then normal, turning the key in the door lock, to unlock it. I think part of the mechanism was frozen. Anyway, i walk to a phone booth, and call tell my girlfriend what had happened and to bring a coat hanger, so i can unlock my door.

I wait about 30 minutes, her car pulls up and she jumps out and with a big smile and hands me a plastic coat hanger. My face must have betrayed my thoughts, cause she start laughing so hard she almost couldn't stand, then pulls her other hand from behind her, and present a metal coat hanger.