Flat battery - locked out - BROKE key

[nerdstrike 186]

I do wonder about this aspect of the car. You're pretty boned with keyless entry if your battery dies. Perhaps it's a good plan to lubricate and/or warm the lock in winter before going blood and thunder on the puny key. If you remove the battery or it goes dead, you're also in the situation of not being able to lock the car very easily either.

Batteries die right? Especially as the car gets older. Perhaps it's worth exercising the lock a few times a year to make sure it moves before Twigman's debacle occurs to the rest of us?

[Twigman 93]

Car gone off to be repaired

[Twigman 93]

key super glued

[Chess010 4]

I had problem getting in to car when battery died . Fob would not work and so I resorted to using key which as you know is very small . It has  very little movement and after searching on web to other gt86 forums found info that it takes about 10 minutes wiggling to get the door to open using the key so I went back to car and kept moving it as much as I could without much pressure and low and behold after about 10 minutes the lock suddenly opened. Do not understand why this happens but is worth remembering. I was all prepared to leave it to breakdown service ,who ,I then had to get out anyway as car would not start and this despite car battery changed less than year previously from the Panasonic 48amp to the toyota 64amp. The battery checked out ok and am unsure about the car reliability especially in colder conditions 

[MartinT 514]

On ‎04‎/‎12‎/‎2017 at 8:35 PM, nikndel said:

And get rid of that battery and get the 65 amp one

Will Subaru honour replacing the 48Ah one? Mine's less than a year old.

[Church 209]

misposted. (where is delete? :/ )

[Chess010 4]

I would ask them to replace under warranty and state that you consider battery “not fit for purpose “ as can be demonstrated by number of replacements carried out and indicated on the web forums. They can only say no

[nikndel 509]

7 hours ago, MartinT said:

Will Subaru honour replacing the 48Ah one? Mine's less than a year old.

Is it faulty at this time?

[MartinT 514]

No, it's working fine.

[Lauren 2259]

3 minutes ago, MartinT said:

No, it's working fine.

They won't replace it if it's not faulty. 

[nikndel 509]

And even then they will tell you it's ok when it isn't

[MartinT 514]

Thanks. I'll bring it up with Subaru on my first service.

[Lauren 2259]

If it's any help I got three years and 70K miles out of my original battery, it was fine. So it's not like there is a fault, it's just a bit weak for the car, though it's not really a problem if you drive your car daily and don't leave it sitting for weeks on end. When it went I got the 65Ah one put in under warranty. So they aren't going to change it if it's working fine, only if or perhaps when it fails in the future. 

[Church 209]

Lauren: but even original 48Ah one costs money. And for many it lasted less then 3 years. Imho it would be cheaper to toyobaru to install 65Ah one right from beginning, then let's say, after just 1.5 years change to new one for free. It would also remove one of issues that might be damaging brand image.

[Lauren 2259]

1 hour ago, Church said:

Lauren: but even original 48Ah one costs money. And for many it lasted less then 3 years. Imho it would be cheaper to toyobaru to install 65Ah one right from beginning, then let's say, after just 1.5 years change to new one for free. It would also remove one of issues that might be damaging brand image.

Sure. But if you go to Japan you'll see they fit even smaller lower capacity batteries. What can you do eh? I hired a GT86 for 6 days and they had to change the battery on that! 

[Cerastes 204]

I can't get in mine at all. 

The battery in car is completely dead. No flashing red light in car. Tried key in door, turning left and right does nothing. Look a right idiot, can't even get in a car. 

Any ideas? 

[Church 209]

Find jumping wires or buy in store at some fuel station, find some good chap with car, willing to help, use mechanical key to get in & open bonnet, connect jump wires right, wait 5min for some charging, then start engine. Don't forget to thank chap that helped and worth to keep engine running (or even better - to drive, due higher rpms) for at least half an hour after starting. Ideally one should take battery out and connect somewhere to external charger/battery tender after that, but if you will drive next day too, imho half an hour driving is good minimum for charge to last at least day.

Worth noting, that most batteries don't like to see full discharge, and if it battery was insufficient for usual parked time lengths before, it might be slightly even worse now, possibly holding even less max charge now. If such completely dead battery cases are several, it certainly won't do good for battery

[Cerastes 204]

51 minutes ago, Church said:

Find jumping wires or buy in store at some fuel station, find some good chap with car, willing to help, use mechanical key to get in & open bonnet, connect jump wires right, wait 5min for some charging, then start engine. Don't forget to thank chap that helped and worth to keep engine running (or even better - to drive, due higher rpms) for at least half an hour after starting. Ideally one should take battery out and connect somewhere to external charger/battery tender after that, but if you will drive next day too, imho half an hour driving is good minimum for charge to last at least day.

Worth noting, that most batteries don't like to see full discharge, and if it battery was insufficient for usual parked time lengths before, it might be slightly even worse now, possibly holding even less max charge now. If such completely dead battery cases are several, it certainly won't do good for battery

Didn't read my post then? I can't get in the car to open bonnet to charge the battery. Tried the key numerous times, even with pliers gripping the key as it's so difficult/uncomfortable to hold. Also worried about it snapping like others have had happen to them. 

Why is it difficult to open the door. 

 

[Chess010 4]

On 05/12/2017 at 10:23 AM, nerdstrike said:

I do wonder about this aspect of the car. You're pretty boned with keyless entry if your battery dies. Perhaps it's a good plan to lubricate and/or warm the lock in winter before going blood and thunder on the puny key. If you remove the battery or it goes dead, you're also in the situation of not being able to lock the car very easily either.

Batteries die right? Especially as the car gets older. Perhaps it's worth exercising the lock a few times a year to make sure it moves before Twigman's debacle occurs to the rest of us?

 

1 hour ago, Cerastes said:

I can't get in mine at all. 

The battery in car is completely dead. No flashing red light in car. Tried key in door, turning left and right does nothing. Look a right idiot, can't even get in a car. 

Any ideas? 

Hi

 Move the key in the lock turning it few mm a bit at a time for around 10 minutes continuously and it will probably then suddenly turn and open at least thats what happenened to me. it seems very strange you think nothing is happening but then it suddenly works . keep on trying but careful so as not to bust so even almost nothing turning keep on trying clockwise and anti

clockwise back and forth and see what happnes after 10 minutes

 

[Church 209]

WD40 to the rescue?

[Cerastes 204]

@Chess010 Yes I tried clockwise and anti clockwise until my fingers started hurting. Even tried with pliers but then worried it might snap after reading Rob's post. 

@Church yes will try WD40. Will try tomorrow as it's so dark now. I will try to wiggle it slightly as Chess has suggested. 

Fingers crossed. Thanks. 

 

[surrey86 352]

WD 40 helped mine. Still used pliers.

If yours is that bad take the key to a shop and get a proper blank cut first as it will save you a lot in the long run.

[Church 209]

I wouldn't try with pliers. One occasion mentioned in forum about broken key in such way is enough for me to not force it THAT much :). Or at least i'd first try to exhaust all other means i can think of, eg. warming up in some obscure way i'm too lazy to try imagine mad ideas how, or mentioned WD40 or other sprayable deicer/oil. And even then probably wouldn't try pliers :). I'm thinking, if lack of usable handle on key isn't hackish way to limit turning force/torque, lol

As i'm not sure, if directions to lock/unlock on RHD are same as on my LHD, i won't suggest those, but i'm sure others here can tell it as from their cars, to simplify finding direction, to which to wiggle key for unlock.

BTW, regarding darkness .. smartphones (most now have) can often serve as makeshift pocket light, via switching their led flash on all the time. Charge (guessing for probably at very least 20-30min) can usually be more then sufficient for all rare cases of extra light need in night time. Be it switching flash permanently on via some config option or some freeware app.

[Lauren 2259]

You turn the key anti-clockwise. Moral of the story is that if you don't use your car a lot, then it's worth checking periodically that you can open it with the key in case of this happening. Overnight with WD40 etc should do the trick though. 

[Cerastes 204]

Anti clockwise to unlock? 

Yes. 

 

Thanks, it worked.