Can You Lock Yourself INSIDE Your Vehicle?

My '20 Cherokee has the lock "button" made in the door handle, and can be manually manipulated. Sounds like another one of those "made up stories" one sees constantly on FB.

I think it became standard (and perhaps required by regulation) for there to be in interior release lever in the trunk which glows in the dark a bit so that someone trapped in the trunk should be able to get out. I'd like to think they took similar care of the car itself, but perhaps the method might not be obvious.

I have a 2007 BMW. For me, in 12/06, it was amazing to have a fob in one's pocket and be able to get in and out and start the vehicle without a key.

I also found it cool to have no buttons on the door handles, just touch.

As the years went by in this series, decontenting took place. Like the cigarette lighter, that cool 13 speaker stereo, flashlight that recharges in the glove box, sound suppression in the hood area, etc.

One of the dumbest decontenting? The key'd lock that can open the trunk.

Why? Because the battery happens to be in the trunk.

imho, it's designed to be jumped from the under hood terminals.

Whether it makes sense, or it does not, there were endless posts over the years, HELP!!! I can't get my trunk open, no battery, and I can't get to the battery because I can't get my trunk open! I have the LCI that doesn't have a key!

At any rate, it would seem that hooking up power to the under hood terminals doesn't help, or there wouldn't be all the posts. I'm not wanting to play project farm and try it, I'd be ok since mine has a key as well. But I think the context of the above was work was being done on the car, battery disconnected, then owner forgot and shut the trunk, and can't get it opened to reconnect the battery. The car design should have taken this into consideration, even if it's technically user error. They went to the trouble of having a system that could heat the vehicle for 20-40+ minutes, without the engine running, they could have made it so the trunk can be opened without electricity. I used the rest heat feature once in 16 years--I got a battery warning light at the end so I stopped lol, it was about 20 minutes. Imagine the typical person idles 20 minutes just for that heat.

What is the vehicle in question in the OP?

My stinger has no trunk release from the outside. If the battery goes dead (which btw is under the floor in the trunk). One has to manually get in, open a rear door, get in, recline the seat back, then crawl into the trunk to get at the release lever.

There is an aux battery hookup point under the hood. So long as the hood can be opened, a battery or other 12V source hooked up to provide power to unlock/unlatch the trunk.

All doors have manual lock/unlock door lock levers.

Innovation!!

I remember a BMW I've driven, vintage 2009 as I recall, that had a dash mounted button near the emergency flasher button that would open the doors. That most likely depended on the availability of the battery.

I've also owned a mid-engine 2000 Porsche that had front and rear trunks that had electrical release mechanisms. The battery was in the front trunk. That trunk, in the event of a dead battery could be opened by a cable tucked up near the passenger side headlight assembly and accessible via the inner fender well. Many owners, myself included made up a 20 foot 2-conductor cable with cigarette lighter plugs on each end. If you needed to open the trucks you just connected two cars together via the cigarette lighter sockets and you could then open either trunk. You couldn't use it for a "jump" because of the current draw but you got access to the battery. I only had to use it once and it worked like a charm.

My '17 F-350 has crank windows (to match it's crank driver). If my mechanical locks were both to fail I could still climb out the window.

I wonder if the Americans with Disabilities Act might apply in any way?

Please note: I didn't say ADA. Many messages here (and elsewhere) use acronyms that aren't apparent to me. I realize that folks that use their phones for message boards like this don't have keyboards but for those with actual (not virtual!) keyboards please spell things out. BTW I had to do a search (duckduckgo in my case) to learn what a "stinger" is. Should I elaborate on F-350?

Hahahahaha! I know what a f350 (inc f150, f250, f450) is. I thought everyone knew what a stinger was. It's not an acronym!! Typing on a real, proper keyboard. It's wireless, but it's full size with a palm rest - https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/411H54EYJ3L.jpg. It includes a rodent too, but I prefer a trackball.

Here's the stinger - https://i.imgur.com/GNPgpfe.png . Note the primer color. Apparently those are common these days. I would of gladly settled for a proper silver or better yet gun metal.

In my 2015 tahoe if the doors are locked all i have to do is pull 2x on the door release and the door opens,once will not open it.Drivers door on the outside has a keyhole so no problems there either.

doing this kind of stuff and seeing for myself. Remember I bought a RV battery charger for $127 during the pandemic (prices have almost doubled in some cases), and discovered it provides the full 55A at 13.2v i.e. cleanly (it has to 12V appliances in an RV depend upon that)....

Well my latest interest has been jump packs. I got one for $99 on amazon and project farm couldn't start anything with it, and another forum member on the other forum said I'd return it.

Lightbulb went on. I have a car in my driveway that hasn't been started in over 3 years, and I have already removed the battery. Pretending that I had my own YouTube channel with 2 mil. subs, I proceeded to try to start the car. It did. Amazing lol I had to hit the boost button which is protection where when the voltage is below 2V, the jump pack doesn't work. Because I saw people on YouTube jump cars with no battery, and project farm had fake wooden batteries as a joke, I felt it was ok to have no battery. Imagine that car, sitting 3 years, starts and runs? I'm going to junk it for $600 or so.

My wife's GM, I also locked the keys in it. It has the old style fob with buttons. I threw my stuff into an open hatch, got the item I wanted, closed the hatch, key fob inside. Today, I always make a habit of unlocking a door, prior to opening the hatch, just in case....

^^With the keyless entry, I can't remember the last time key/fob was outside my pocket for any reason other than to place it in its holder inside the house. The previous car was a '12 G37 (also had keyless entry) which I got in late 2011, so over a decade at this point.

I leave the house, lock front door, key/fob goes in pocket. Reverse on return. I did have to surrender the fob portion to the dealer last time it was in for repair. ymmv

I like to keep a set of spare batteries for the fob in the car and make sure every driver knows how to replace the battery. A few years ago the wife could not start the car; message was fob not recognized. Fortunately she wasn’t too far from home so I drove over with my fob. It was a just a matter of replacing the fob battery.

2nd thing, which might have saved me, is even with a weak fob battery, most cars have a specific place to position the fob, usually on the dash area, and that will permit a start. I was unaware of this at the time.

I had a Ford Escape, and currently have a Honda Accord. Both cars had manual door releases. I am not aware of any cars that do not have manual door switches.

I'm so happy that my vehicle alerts me to a weak fob battery with a "Replace fob battery."

and not because a particular make of car has it or doesn’t have it, more that the driver may or may not see the message. In my case I know the car displays the message but the odds are high the wife didn’t notice it.

I think all cars have to have a manual door lock release, can't think of any that are 100% electrical dependent.

Sometimes we don't want to pretend we're on YouTube and have 2 mil subs, but I'm pretty sure that on my 2 cars that have fobs and keyless entry, the battery can be totally dead and the car can be driven. Both also have keys inside of the fobs, and actual keyholes on the door handles.

Both have CR2032 cells.

Both can be placed into the dash.

One has a twist to start key switch, which many have said is moronic--why would you have keyless entry, then have to twist a traditional thing a ma jig to start?

Point being, on a modern car, the driver is not making a decision on how long the starter is actuated, the computer is. Even on my wife's GM which has no keyless entry. Whether you twist for 1/2 sec or 5 sec, you're not deciding when the starter engages or releases. that's a mind blower when your starter is gone, as it is today. Her car is off the road and disabled.

Much as I love the GM cars, they sure as heck need so many more repairs than what I would consider to be average (steering rack and AC failed < 30k miles for starters lol)

John, if the battery seems to have a charge, you might not need anything beyond a starter relay. See the link at https://shop.advanceautoparts.com/find/chevrolet-starter-rel... for content related to Chevrolet, although the use of a relay is common in all GM products except for anything EV.

Both in terms of locking out and locking in.

Maybe in the engine compartment?

The garage replaced the starter and I can see new bolts on the catalytic converter (front one), which is removed to access it.

One of my wife's BFFs works for Toyota in CA, and husband is a tech. He told me never replace a starter, rebuild it yourself for under $20. That will be the best you'll ever get (better than "new" that is sold by auto parts). But, I don't think I would do that on a newer car. My Maxima I DIY'd 3x due to faulty "new" starters, all warranty, all my labor. That car can literally be done in 1/2 hour, totally accessible from above.

FYI...we were charged $371 for a new OE starter--I can get it online for $160 (I get it we can't expect a shop to do that for us).

If I gave it to them to install purchased online, I would have saved $210, but have no warranty. If I let them charge $370, it's 2/24. So I paid them to do the whole job...

John, the difficulty in rebuilding a starter is knowing the whereabouts of a starter/alternator rebuild shop. They are few and far between these days although they can be found by searching "automotive electrical" without the quotes. Alternators are another thing that should be rebuilt as opposed to replacing; and they are usually accessible being at the top of the engine. Very often this involves the replacement of a diode ring and not much more.

Urban legend. Didn't happen.

There is a manual release for virtually any car. If she called the dealer - which is why this story can be seen as faked - they would point out the lever on the floor or wherever (or on some cars, pulling the door handle twice.)

The other reason why it is obviously faked is that once the battery is so low that the starter doesn't crank, there is enough juice to operate the door locks 200 times in a row. (Ask me; I live in Manitoba!)

Without a cell phone, she could have reached across the passenger seat, pulled the special super-secret handle attached to the ... glovebox. Open glovebox; read manual; look up manual door release. Done.

There is one true story of a driver spending hours in a Cadillac because he didn't have a phone and didn't keep his manual in a glovebox. Because he was the typical moron who never read the manual, he chose to panic instead of reaching down to find the CLEARLY MARKED door release on the floor beside the door, or crawling through the pass-through to the trunk to find the CLEARLY MARKED luminous trunk release.

One can't make anything totally foolproof because fools are too ingenious.

By the way, even Teslas and other pure battery vehicles always have a manual release. RTFM.

The only make that would be a problem is BMW with their strange 'electronic double-lock deadbolt' system, where if you lock the doors with the remote or by turning the key past the initial locking position, it 'double-locks' the doors that cannot be opened from the inside. One would have to be pretty flexible to lock it with a key on the outside lock from the inside, and pretty stupid to lock it from the inside with the remote. But again, a battery too low to run the starter would still operate the locks multiple times before it was completely flat.

They also reproduce at an alarming rate.

Tks for BMW's tip, prepare cannot open the trunk in case and it's real

for Toyota, the fob will bip you a lot when battery in low condition and it's also the button next to the door to reopen the door without fob, still not tested if fob without battery, will do it later

Agreed one point, still love Acura MDX 2013 with key, not fob as new vehicles now on the market, especially Tesla

Hope we can find new nice vehicle without the hassles! Take cares all!

I recently encountered a battery issue that I did not know existed. When I went to move my wife's car (which she had driven earlier in the day) it informed me that its battery monitor had detected a low condition and had disconnected the battery. (FWIW, the car had had routine scheduled service at the dealer about 3 weeks earlier, which supposedly included a battery check.)

Not only would the starter not operate, but the power door locks would not operate in either direction. We were at home and it was not a major problem to cope with this, but I can see how it could have been an issue if we had been elsewhere and the electrical system disconnected itself with no prior warning.

To compound things, I was told that after battery replacement it would be necessary to use a special tool to reset the monitoring system. Things have definitely changed since the days when I did all of my own maintenance.

- Tom -

^^What car is this so we can avoid it?

My 2016 GMC Sierra has a feature that won't crank the engine to start if the battery goes below a certain voltage.

The radio still plays and all the accessories still work - including the door locks!

the doors will lock when car moves and unlock when you put it in park, unless its a real old car.

My 2013 VW Tiguan locks the doors when you get over 20 miles per hour and unlocks when you turn off the key and remove it. It also won't let the cover over the gas cap to open when the key is in the on position.

…to listen to "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere" By Bob Dylan.

I can choose multiple unlock behaviors in my 2020 vehicle setup pages, including "unlock disabled". The doors have to be locked, but they can be triggered either by accelerating above 10 mph, or shifting out of park. Unlocking can be set to the inverse of locking, i.e. by decelerating below 10 mph or shifting into park. However, there are two additional options for unlocking: upon shutting the engine off, or "disabled". When it's set to disabled, decelerating/shifting/turning off engine will not unlock the doors. However the individual doors will unlock when pulling the interior lever that opens the door.