BS: pushbutton entry/dead battery

Subject: RE: BS: pushbutton entry/dead battery
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 16 Nov 12 - 09:58 PM

No cutting or butchering required in any case I've seen, RB. There's a latch in there "somewhere" and all you need is a good enough idea of where it is and which way to push/pull on it.

The only real problem is that once you've done it once, you''ll know how to make a better tool (regardless of what one you used) and you'll put it in some handy place where you can be absolutely certain that the next time you need it you either won't be able to find it or you won't remember which side up it goes when you try to use it again.

(Fact of life in the garage.)

John

Subject: RE: BS: pushbutton entry/dead battery
From: Gurney
Date: 16 Nov 12 - 10:38 PM

As John says. You usually open a bonnet lying on your back with your head just under the front and your arm inserted up in front of the radiator grille. Usually.
I don't agree about which 'window' to break, though. It is a mechanic's job to replace a dropglass, and although it needs a few tools, it is fairly straightforward. A windscreen or backlight nowadays is usually glued in, part of the structure of the car, and it is an auto-glass specialist's job to remove and replace.
The insurance company might be suspicious about a windscreen completely broken out. They are designed to keep the occupants inside the car in the event of accident, and it takes something like a felling-axe to make a hole big enough to crawl through.

Buy the glass before you break one, though. Thieves break them, and some are in short supply from wreckers yards.

Don't you have a mechanic service who'll come to your home in situations like this? If you order a new battery from them, they shouldn't charge too much to pop the bonnet.
Or a battery service?
Or the AA, RAC, or whatever the local motoring organisation is?

Subject: RE: BS: pushbutton entry/dead battery
From: EBarnacle
Date: 16 Nov 12 - 10:55 PM

Gurney just posted the same question I have. Can you get AAA or equivalent org. to come out and jimmy the lock? Most of these guys carry a tool called a Slim Jim for just this job. Of course, you have to be a current member. Sometimes a friendly policeman will do it for you. [Yes, they do exist.]

Subject: RE: BS: pushbutton entry/dead battery
From: Melissa
Date: 16 Nov 12 - 11:03 PM

Those are good suggestions for folks closer to cities.
I am rural and don't have those options..or money to spend on calling a service. There's nothing like that in my town.


If the car and I were in the same place, I would work at popping the hood through the bumperhole until I got it.
I would follow that by carefully stashing whatever tool I used in the house..where it would do no good if this happens while I'm somewhere else.

Subject: RE: BS: pushbutton entry/dead battery
From: Bert
Date: 17 Nov 12 - 12:43 AM

John,

When I was in England we used to leave the parking lights on all night every night without a problem.

One thing that I didn't mention 'cos it should be a given. The first thing to do is clean the battery terminals.

I once had to call a locksmith 'cos I'd locked my keys in the car. He had a gizmo that was kinda like a blood pressure cuff which he slid down the top of the door and inflated it enough to get to the latch.

Subject: RE: BS: pushbutton entry/dead battery
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 17 Nov 12 - 02:39 AM

It's hard to make general statements about a lot of automotive stuff, especially in recent years. Doors that had to stay latched and closed driving down the road now have to stay shut if you hit a concrete barrier at 30 (or more) miles per hour, so a lot of things have been "improved."

Auto thefts have been sufficiently expensive that now most recent model cars have overlapping (and sometimes mutually defeating) theft deterents, so several models prevent insertion of a door "slim jim" - just one of the simpler things.

While it used to be common to get window glass at a salvage yard, "environmental activism" has made them far fewer (where you can get to them) and "styling differences" make the special curves and shapes needed for specific models much more numerous, with the result that it's very much more difficult to find the right one for a specific make/model vehicle, so nearly all replacements (here) are with new glass. You call a "window shop" to see if they've got what you need before doing anything. Even if they can't get new glass, their dealer chains probably can find a usable "recovered" one much more cheaply than you can, unless you have "trade contacts."

In most places in the US, any of the plentiful window shops would prefer to come to the vehicle for a windshield replacement, but for a side window you nearly always will be asked to bring it in. Most window shops will travel up to 50 miles or so without charging mileage for the ones that are easy to replace, and if your insurance agent has a little "leverage" (let the agent make the appointment?) sometimes they'll stretch even that a little.

While it once was easy enough to pull the inside panels to get a side window in, with some newer cars you have to (according to the service manuals) break some parts to get the panels loose far enough, which means you have to have new parts to replace them. If they were always the same parts, that wouldn't be much problem, but they're not necessarily all the same for "all brands." Electric window and lock actuators are also in strange places that very from one model (or option package) to the next and may include lots of little "cable drive" connections to make them fit into weird and unusual places, so model-specific information is a good idea before trying to break one of them open.

And with electric doors/windows you do need to disable the air bags before doing much of anything remotely electric. Odds of triggering them may be low, but replacement cost can be very high. Some insurers would "total" a vehicle (some vehicles) based solely on whether the bags have been fired a few years back, although I don't know whether that's changed recently.

My best advice is "call someone who should know" for any reasonably specific problem, and then do enough of your own research to eliminate the most blatant liars.

With older cars, things were a lot more flexible. (I use that excuse to keep Lin driving her 20 year old Chevy truck, but she's starting to raise objections. ($!#%!!) )

John

Subject: RE: BS: pushbutton entry/dead battery
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 17 Nov 12 - 04:39 AM

Look up 'car thieves' on You Tube. It's the best place I know for handy hints ;)
I saw a clip somewhere of two guys with a rubber tube with rubber bulb on one end, where they slipped the end into the tiniest gap by the door lock, pumped the other end, and the door lock sprang opem.
Lots here