Dead Battery Lockout
Here’s something that’s rapidly going away, the old fashion key and two button key fob. These things are being replaced by modern keys that well they don’t fit into anything. These things they go in your pocket and they send out a signal so that you can touch the door handle and unlock the car or lock it for that matter. Stays in your pocket, you get into the car, put your foot on the brake, touch a button on the dash or console… the car starts. Pretty neat.
All of these things, as nice as they are they have a downside. What do you do if the battery in the car is dead, or the battery in the key fob is dead. Well the first thing you should have done before the inevitable happens is you should have read the owner’s manual to see what you do.
In this particular case the key fob is designed in such a manner that you pry the lid off of it and here inside we have a little key. That little mechanical key goes into the door and you unlock it and that way you can get into the car. Now o.k. that’s fine, but not all cars have an exposed lock such as this one does.
Now the other thing is many of these things will be hidden. You’ll find it may be back behind the license plate or tag or whatever you call it and it may have a cover over it you have to pry the cover off and be careful not to scratch the paint.
All these different procedures you have to know what is proper for your car. And some people who may have a Ford it may have something like this car has with the keypad on the door. Well, if the battery is dead in the car that doesn’t help you any because it doesn’t work.
Now the other thing is what do you do if the key, the battery in it goes dead. Well, you still have to know how to get into the car and once inside the car you have to know what to do with this key because some of them you’ll hold up against the side of the steering column and push the start button. Others you’ll lay them in one of the cup holders. Still others you may put it into a receptacle in the console and there’s all kinds of different configurations for these things. So you have to know which one is right for your car so when the inevitable happens, you know what to do.
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