On Friday the Wife and I drove south to go crosscountry skiing. The drive was terrible - dark, temperature around freezing, very strong wind and snow. We finally made it to the small village where we were to sleep. The owner of the house told me to turn the car around and where to park it, but I got stuck in the deep snow in his yard. The wheels started slipping, but I was able to get out of the snow and when I parked I turned the engine off with the kill switch (the key was still in the 'On' position) so that I wouldn't have to turn the key again when I write down the trip's data in my log. But first I got out to talk to the owner. When I came back to the car I couldn't open the trunk, which was weird because it always unlocks simultaneously with the doors. So I tried the rear door - locked. Front door - locked. D*mn!!
Why did the car lock the doors? After all, I've left the car many times with the key in the ignition, so what happened? I think that the problem was with the wheels slipping when I got stuck in the snow. When the wheels slipped and started spinning past a certain speed the computer thought that the car was moving and locked the doors and started beeping about my seatbelt not being fastened. All of the doors always unlock when one is opened from the inside, and they all lock when either the car starts moving past a certain speed, or the 'Lock' button on the dashboard is pressed, or the driver's door is locked from the outside with the key. Since I couldn't have pressed the dashboard button after shutting the door, nor could I have locked the door from the outside (the key was in the ignition), then it must have been the computer thinking the car was still in motion, so it locked the doors after I got out, thinking that the car can't be empty since the key in the ignition was in the 'On' position. Why didn't this happen before when I would also get out of the car after using the kill switch? My guess is that the slipping wheels made the computer go crazy, and so it may have thought one of the sensors is malfunctioning and it is safest to assume that the vehicle is still rolling, so the doors should be locked.
So here we are at 10pm, up to our ankles in snow, in strong and freezing wind, with only a light jacket on, standing next to the locked car with its key in the ignition. Everything else is also inside: our money, documents, cell phones, food, clothes, skis, computer. The spare key was at home - 5 hours away.
The owner was very concerned, he told us to go into the house, have some warm tea, use his phone to call home. I called my mechanic brother-in-law and he proposed to try to open the hood, then to disconnect and reconnect the battery, which should reset everything and unlock the doors. With help from the house's owner and his screwdriver I got the hood open, but dis- and reconnecting the battery changed nothing
Since it was very late the owner told us to go to sleep and we'll try again in the morning. He brought us everything we needed, in the morning he brought bread and eggs, let me call my bro-in-law again and use his internet to look for ideas on how to open the car. I checked how much professional car openers charge (since we didn't know if any of the neighbors' teenaged kids had that kind of knowledge and/or practice
) and decided that the 100-150PLN is much more than replacing one of the smaller windows (used for as low as 35PLN).
Finally, we decided that we'll first try to pry the top of the door open and stick a wire in to pull on the door handle from the inside. We even got it hooked and pulled a few times, but it wouldn't open the door. It turned out that the slightly pried open door was pushing too hard on the latch for it to move. Next we tried to press the lock button on the dash, but it is plastic and the long wire's tip would easily slip off of it. Then we tried to press the button which opens the window, but pressing it didn't work because... the car's computer went into economy mode (power cut to all accessories). So by disconnecting and reconnecting the battery over and over again we were able to keep the button powered just long enough to open the window
Thankfully, I didn't have to break (and then replace) any windows, all I have is a dent a few scratches from the prying - I'll have to get that painted before rust settles in.
I'm greatful that this happened where we were supposed to stay for the weekend, and not at a gas station or empty parking lot in the boonies. In the latter case I wouldn't have waited too long before hitting one of the windows.
The
moral of this story is that using an engine kill switch doesn't shut all of the car's functions off (good for EOC), and some of those functions you may not want to be on, like power locks when you get out. Especially if for some reason the computer isn't of the best mental health.
The
deeper moral of this story is that having too many electronic gizmos sucks big time.
