Kizashi Club

Need some help if anyone has suggestions.

I have a 2010 kizashi. I drove it earlier today without issue.

I went to go pick up some dinner but the key fob wouldn’t unlock the doors. No beeps were made. Pulled out the key to try unlocking the door manually, it didn’t unlock the door (no sounds were made by the door).

I went back into apartment and grabbed the other key fob. Car made the beeping noise when trying to unlock it, but it wouldn’t unlock. Tried the key from that fob and same results—does nothing.

I have used the manual key before and it worked with both key fobs.

Any ideas why my car won’t unlock? Even if the batteries in the key fobs are dead, I should still be able to use the physical key—and as mentioned earlier, that didn’t work.

I’t did rain today while I was driving. Let’s assume I left my car lights on and drained my car battery—would that be the problem? If the answer is yes, then how can I get into the car to pop the hood?

The mechanical key should unlock the door mechanically, no battery power necessary and no sounds from the door other than the subtle clunk of the mechanism.

It's possible that the mechanical lock cylinder on your door is frozen from disuse, I've run into that before. Good idea to take out that key and manually unlock the door about once a year, just to keep it working.

Can you open the trunk lid with either FOB? Might be a way to gain access to the passenger compartment from there. You might have to break something in order to force the seat down, but if ya can't get into the car, well then....

Like Woodie stated, the keys are mechanical in operation and should physically unlock a door. Are you sure you are properly engaging the lock cylinder to unlock? Maybe spray some lubricant in the lock cylinder.

Thanks for the replies.

It was a dead car battery. I had a mobile locksmith come out and he used a slim Jim to get the door unlocked.

After that I got a jump to get the car started. After charging up the car battery, I tested the physical key and it unlocked the door.

So it seems the physical key doesn’t actually move something completely mechanical but rather it moves something mechanical that triggers the electric door locks. No car battery juice, no open car doors with physical key.

Expensive lesson to learn

Reiryc wrote: So it seems the physical key doesn’t actually move something completely mechanical but rather it moves something mechanical that triggers the electric door locks. No car battery juice, no open car doors with physical key.

I'm going to test this tomorrow by disconnecting the car battery and attempt to unlock the door with the key. I just have a hard time believing the lock would be designed the way you describe given one can even manually open the gas cap door from the trunk to bypass the electronic lock.

Yeah, I'm with KuroNekko. Don't believe that's the way it works, there would be no purpose for the physical key.

I just tried this and there were definitely two parts to unlocking with the key. You first get a mechanical resistance and then the driver's door unlocks. There was no indication of a relay or anything else electrical unlocking the drivers door. It appeared to be strictly mechanical. You turn the key a bit further and you engage a switch that unlocks the rest of the doors. The only thing that makes sense is that the mechanical part of the door is broken but then that doesn't explain why charging the battery would allow the driver's door to be unlocked. Oh, and in my twiddling, I managed to set off the alarm which then wouldn't turn off. And it was before 7:00 AM.