Locked Out of Car - Page 2 - 911/Carrera GT - PistonHeads UK

Any ideas on how to get over this? Car has been left for a week, so the immobiliser has gone into low energy mode. The trouble is, unlocking the car manually with the key isn't working, so can't open any either door. Alarm is still set and the red indicator light is functioning. How do it get it unlocked? Car is a 2001 996 turbo. Thanks in advance folks.

The door should open with the key, however if you strip the wheel arch liner off from the near side front wheel there is a wire you can pull which will release the front boot, from there you can access the battery and recharge it. If you can get in the car there is also a jump start point on the fuse board. Try the other key fob and key 1st?

As above, the door lock should physically turn and unlock with the key to enable you to open the door, whether your remote is flat or not. I don't know how it wouldn't. Usually when mine stands and goes into power saving mode I have to unlock the door with the key (turn key so top of key moves to right) but then I don't open it, I press the remote and it disarms everything, then I open door. Turning the key wakes up the remote part. Looks like Pete's option of the emergency cable is your best bet, but get those locks looked at as that is very strange. Good luck.

pete a said: The door should open with the key, however if you strip the wheel arch liner off from the near side front wheel there is a wire you can pull which will release the front boot, from there you can access the battery and recharge it. If you can get in the car there is also a jump start point on the fuse board. Try the other key fob and key 1st? I thought the fuse board thing was to supply power and absolutely NOT to jump start.

Supersport your spot on . The emergency power connection lead on fuse board is to feed enough power ( via a slave battery) to operate the electric bonnet/ boot locks . This will then gives access to battery / engine bay to allow correct jump start connections . Regards

Won't forcing the alarm to activate cause the car to come out of sleep mode? Don't understand why the key cannot open it manually, that's what I do with mine.

Thanks folks. I am leaning toward thinking that there is a problem in the lock mechanism and it's mechanical connection to the handle on the outside of the car. Activating the alarm is a good idea I think. What's the best way to do that? Rock the car or similar?

Try rocking it and if that fails jack up one side.

Hmm, puzzling. Managed to set the alarm off, but the car didn't respond to the fob. Still can't get in.

Sounds obvious but are you sure there is power to the fob? Change the battery.

Sounds obvious but are you sure there is power to the fob? Change the battery.

Fob has a new battery. I can only think that the handle on the outside of the door is not connected (inside the door) to the lock mechanism. Going to have to smash a window at this rate.

Have you tried fitting the fob battery back to front (briefly)?

Sounds to me like the fob has failed. I tried a new battery (which didn't work) and ended up having to get a new fob and having it reprogrammed. Do you have a 2nd fob to try?

Yep - have tried the second fob, with a new battery in it. Have tried switching the battery around. Neither any good.

Hi, Sad as it sounds I know your pain - got myself in the same situation. The previous owner disengaged the lock mechanism in the door and I found myself in the same situation as you're in now. Disconnecting battery, triggering the alarm or rocking of the car wont help. Also, when the car is clocked the internal door handles are disengaged (we tried to pull them through the seals. Long story short... Order a new driver side glass and use a hammer I called multiple "specialists" asking to open the car and no one was able to help me. Sorry mate. [edit]Mine is 2004 996 C2[/edit] -- Peter.

Hi Peter, I was fearing that. However, I have spoken with the guys at Northway, who spent a good fifteen minutes on the phone with me. The suggestion, is that I strip out the wheel arch liner, pull the luggage compartment cord, disconnect the negative from the battery and repeatedly flash the battery, until the windows drop. Then, key into the ignition and should be able to clear the immobiliser and open the doors. The Northway folks, were incredibly helpful, patient and full of free advice. I have also spoken with an OPC who are very close to Northway (absolutely zero use - "bring it in and we'll take a look at it") You see, there's a bit of a problem with me doing that. I guess I'll try this route before I go smashing any glass! I too have hooked the door handles by getting past the window seal, but to no avail. It's a swine of a situation Peter, but thanks for your reply. Edited by Nobby Diesel on Monday 23 June 15:17

If the doors are deadlocked then smashing the glass won't get them open - so it will probably not allow you to open the bonnet either (on early cars the door physically covers the cable pull, on later ones the button's usually electrically disabled by the door being shut), so all it's likely to allow you to do is undo the steering lock and take the handbrake off in order to get it recovered. That, and make a big mess and cost you a window glass plus fitting. I'd certainly favour getting the bonnet open with the pull cable. Either that, or get underneath and connect a jump lead to the starter motor positive lead - carefully mind! The negative lead can go to anything solid and metal (the engine itself is the obvious one). I know it sounds obvious, but have you been trying the passenger door too? If the cable's come off the driver's door handle it'll never open, but the passenger one should do.

Goose, thanks for your reply; it makes a lot of sense. I agree about the deadlocking. In retrospect, I think that the issue is around the key and its effect, not the handle pull. So, here's what i think...... When I insert the key into the drivers door lock, and turn in 90 degrees right, it doesn't have the usual effect of opening the doors. Either of them. I think that this is the key point. I don't think the blade of the key is turning the lock module inside the door. As a result, the car is never going to be woken from its sleep mode. The only solution I can now see, is to get into the car (however, by breaking a window, popping the bonnet via the cord and flashing the battery) and then removing the door card, with the door still closed. Sounds like a tall order. Having done that, I can get the lock module out and turn the key slot with a screwdriver. This should "wake" the car. I can only imagine that the alarm will be going off, all this time. Edited by Nobby Diesel on Tuesday 24th June 01:19

Stupid question maybe but do you only have 1 key?

I have 2 keys, both with new batteries, have tried both doors, used the key to open, used the remote to open blah blab blah. It's deadlocked, the alarm is in power save mode and the door handle doesn't appear to be connected to the lock or the key isn't turning the lock. I am locked out. It's a total pain in the backside.

I think it's worth first connecting a volt meter to the starter motor permanent positive and earth to at least check what power you have in the battery. If plenty then maybe try as you suggest, if not then power the car up properly (via the starter ideally, or otherwise via the battery, which will mean opening the bonnet and setting the alarm off). Oh, and removing a door card from a locked shut door is a nightmare, and probably impossible without damaging it in some way (e.g. its formed cardboard structure can break/snap under the surface, depending where the break is determines how unsightly it'll be once put back properly). I've not done it on a 996 only on a BMW, but I have removed a 996 one with the door open and I don't imagine it'll be much different to the BMW with it shut.

Hi Nobby Diesel, agree with Northway, by flashing the negative lead it will reactivate the central locking system,or leave it disconnected over night, if its safe to do so, I have never had to break the window to open the car. Chris

Hi Chris, thanks for your reply. Do you know which side wheel arch liner I need to remove, to get to the emergency pull cord, for the luggage compartment?

Passnger side at the front.

Thanks Pete A

Update then folks - I'm in!!!! Thanks to all of those who replied. Couple of things that might help others in the future....... Firstly, when i replaced the lock module, i didn't engage the blade from the back of the outer door handle, into the white conical cup of the lock module. This renders the key ineffective when trying to unlock the door or when trying to wake the car from sleep mode! Secondly, the emergency pull cord was finally located, on the drivers side (RHD). I couldn't see it, let alone reach it, with only the front section of the wheel arch liner dropped. I found it an awful lot easier to jack the car up 6 inches and drop the rear section of liner too. This gives you more viewing room, when looking for the pull cord. The pull cord has a loop on the end of it and was located, right up in the corner, between the bottom of the headlight, the inner wing and the front of the car. I couldn't reach it, so a coat hanger straightened out, with a hook on the end was used. You would need to be Mr Tickle or Stretch Armstrong to reach it without. The alarm will go off as soon as you jack the car up and again when you pull the cord. Thirdly, flashing the battery with the negative terminal will again set off the alarm, but after a few attempts, it dropped the windows a fraction, which woke the alarm, allowing me to silence the racket and open the door!!! Thanks again for the advice. Also, great advice from Northway. There is a thread on Rennlist with some picture too. Knowing what I know now, I could be in within 20 minutes.

Nobby Diesel said: Update then folks - I'm in!!!! Thanks to all of those who replied. Couple of things that might help others in the future....... Firstly, when i replaced the lock module, i didn't engage the blade from the back of the outer door handle, into the white conical cup of the lock module. This renders the key ineffective when trying to unlock the door or when trying to wake the car from sleep mode! Secondly, the emergency pull cord was finally located, on the drivers side (RHD). I couldn't see it, let alone reach it, with only the front section of the wheel arch liner dropped. I found it an awful lot easier to jack the car up 6 inches and drop the rear section of liner too. This gives you more viewing room, when looking for the pull cord. The pull cord has a loop on the end of it and was located, right up in the corner, between the bottom of the headlight, the inner wing and the front of the car. I couldn't reach it, so a coat hanger straightened out, with a hook on the end was used. You would need to be Mr Tickle or Stretch Armstrong to reach it without. The alarm will go off as soon as you jack the car up and again when you pull the cord. Thirdly, flashing the battery with the negative terminal will again set off the alarm, but after a few attempts, it dropped the windows a fraction, which woke the alarm, allowing me to silence the racket and open the door!!! Thanks again for the advice. Also, great advice from Northway. There is a thread on Rennlist with some picture too. Knowing what I know now, I could be in within 20 minutes. Congratulations!

Glad to hear you got in there Nobby. Sorry I didn't see this thread until today, I had the same problem a couple of months ago. In my case the small pin in the lock mechanism snapped when I tried to open the car manually (known fault, corrodes easily). In my case, I managed to find the manual release cable under the rear passenger side light cluster. Same as the front release cables, but much easier to find/get to, no need to disassemble the wheel arch liner. That let me into the boot so I could put a power pack on the earth and live terminal and jump start the car. Just thought I'd add for reference in case anybody is looking up this thread in the future.

Igurisu, cheers for the info' - will store that!

There is a far easier way to get in from the back. Under the back light, left side from the back, there is a wire that when pulled releases the engine bay catch. Lift up the cover and then apply 12v to the jump start pegs. The key fob should then work as normal with the system energised. A bent wire is needed to fish around under the light and the end of a wire coat hanger does the job. H