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Makes me wonder why there are no physical key locks to open one of the doors in every vehicles...
My previous Lexus IS250 had no locks and when either the car battery or the FOB battery were dead, the only way to unlock it was to touch the door handle with they Fob and hope it still had enough juice to activate it. lol
Hi, my battery died on my car and I can not get the door open to pop the hood. Is there any way to open the hood to jump my battery?
This just happened to me. I couldn't believe that because the battery dies I couldn't manually unlock the door. I tried to pop the hood latch with a long screwdriver but it wouldn't pop so I went back and maybe I got lucky but I pulled the door handle and while it was pulled out, in the open position I manually unlocked the door with the key. Not saying this is full proof but it worked for me.
Jack up the vehicle, locate the big nut on the starter solenoid. attach a battery charger or jumper cable to the nut and ground the negative and pop the lock with the key or key fob
To keep this zombie thread alive, I recently had a similar problem with my 2011. Turns out leaving the 12v>USB charger plugged in kills my truck in about a week. The charger isn't warm, but I'm thinking it is either itself, or being detected by the computer is keeping things from going to sleep. Not sure how much the computer is tied into a basic power port, but the computers do control almost everything (see the 30-minute shutoff on 2015+ trucks - the computer does have some control over these ports in some trucks, even if it's a simple relay).
Anyway, my key works fine in the door when the truck has power. I haven't tried it with the battery completely disconnected. "Dead" battery (not enough to crank), the key can work if you use a LOT of twisting force, making it appear the plastic on the key is about to snap off. I don't know what's up with these trucks, but dead battery can make for keys not working. Key works fine normally, so something else is going on.
One thing to note - when I found the truck battery dead, it was after attempting to unlock with the keyfob. The truck begins to do weird things when the battery is just above dead (I've seen the headlights be commanded on by the computer when the battery was near dead). I haven't had the door panels off, but wouldn't be surprised if the power solenoid is fighting you when trying to use the key. It's possible the solenoid is continuing to get power, and fighting against you as you try to unlock the door with next to zero leverage on your side.
Gotta love technology...
This was some great advice. My battery had just enough juice to flash the turn signals. I tried using the keyfob to unlock with no success. The manual key didn't work either. The comment about the truck doing weird things when the battery is almost dead got me thinking, so I used the keyfob to lock the doors, then tried manually opening them. It worked! Maybe there's something to the solenoid theory
The key should easily physically turn the lock, period. I've had these things apart, the solenoid that fires the lock mechanism electrically can be pushed in and out with no trouble.
No WAY the key doesn't work.
When I read this, I thought that it might be a good idea to use the key to unlock the door from time to time 1) to keep parts moving, and 2) to detect problems before the battery dies.
A tool as old as time and one of the more popular ways you can unlock an F150 without the key. Wire hangers work as great tools for this method but what works even better is
This unlocking method is more complex than the previous one I listed, so let’s get right into it:
If using a clothes hanger, straighten out the wire completely until it is a long rod, leaving the curved part as-is at the very end.
Slightly peel open the weather stripping with your finger. The weather stripping is the black rubber seal around the F150 window. Slip in the wire between the window and stripping, either from the top or bottom of the window, holding the straight end and inserting the curvy part first.
The method varies depending on where you’ve inserted the wire. Let’s start with the top part of the window first:
You’ve placed the wire in the interior of your F150 and can see it through the window. Now you need to latch the curved end onto the lock switch on the side of the door
Once you have a good grip on the switch, pull up to get it unlocked.
If the above steps are not working out, you can also push the wire onto the unlock button on the side of the door. The wire might not be strong enough, but it is possible and worth a shot.
If you’ve put in the wire from the bottom of the window, I recommend the passenger door instead because there are fewer cables than the driver’s:
The wire is in the inside of the door and you can’t see it. Feel around for a pin to disengage the lock.
Once you’ve grasped it with the curved end of the wire, pull towards the direction of the back of the F150.
Once unlocked, immediately open the F150 door and retrieve your keys. You’ve done it!
When I read this, I thought that it might be a good idea to use the key to unlock the door from time to time 1) to keep parts moving, and 2) to detect problems before the battery dies.
This morning, I opened my door with the key. To my surprise, this started an alarm countdown with Sync advising me to insert the key to turn off the alarm...which I almost did in time. Is this a bug or a feature?
11-30-2017, 01:53 PM
