# Are electric door locks a death trap? **URL:** \ **Category:** General Discussion\ **Created:** [July 22, 2010, 7:48pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/are-electric-door-locks-a-death-trap/52298 "2010-07-22T19:48:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Car-2010](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Car-2010](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Car-2010)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 7:48pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/are-electric-door-locks-a-death-trap/52298/1 "2010-07-22T19:48:37Z")
With a dead battery the door locks on a 2007 Honda Civic do not work. How would one get exit if an accident disabled the electric power? Are all new cars like this? If yes - WHY? If no - What make and models allow no power exits for some or all doors? ---
**Author:** ![mark9207](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71c47a/32.png) [@mark9207](https://community.cartalk.com/u/mark9207)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 8:05pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/are-electric-door-locks-a-death-trap/52298/2 "2010-07-22T20:05:33Z")
With most cars, you can still manually unlock them by pulling up on the lock rod or sliding the switch up. The only exception is some of the vehicles that put a really stubby, smooth lock rod cap on their doors, then make them flush with the top of the door panel when in the lock position. Some VWs and older Fords are like this. Some cars (Ford comes to mind) will unlock the front doors by opening them from the outside. Either way, power locks have been around for 60 years, so if there was a serious safety issue, they probably would have died off a long time ago. Your Civic is one of the vast majority with a very easy manual override feature. ---
**Author:** ![lion9car](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/59ef9b/32.png) [@lion9car](https://community.cartalk.com/u/lion9car)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 8:13pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/are-electric-door-locks-a-death-trap/52298/3 "2010-07-22T20:13:59Z")
Can’t you lift the lock up manually? ---
**Author:** ![texases](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/texases/32/862_2.png) [@texases](https://community.cartalk.com/u/texases)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 8:36pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/are-electric-door-locks-a-death-trap/52298/4 "2010-07-22T20:36:54Z")
Adjacent to the door release handle inside your Civic is what looks like a mechanical door lock/unlock switch. Don’t you have that? ---
**Author:** ![Whitey](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/whitey/32/24680_2.png) [@Whitey](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Whitey)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 9:02pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/are-electric-door-locks-a-death-trap/52298/5 "2010-07-22T21:02:07Z")
Every vehicle I have ever seen has a manual lever to pull or lift to manually unlock the car. When you push the “lock” or “unlock” buttons, watch the door. Does anything move? If it does, that is what you use to manually unlock or lock the door. On my Civic, I can hear the difference between a good battery and one that is on its last leg when I start the car. When the battery is on its last leg, the car turns over a little slower. Noticing this telltale sign (and not ignoring it) should prevent you from ever having a dead battery. ---
**Author:** ![Car-2010](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Car-2010](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Car-2010)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 10:04pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/are-electric-door-locks-a-death-trap/52298/6 "2010-07-22T22:04:11Z")
You were first. There is only a ‘pull rod’ by the latch handle on the driver door. ALL other doors look to be electric unlock only. The other doors are the point of the question; What if the crash jams the driver door and disables the battery or it connection. There are no pull rods due to side door air bags. No kidding. Go look at one. Same answer can be applied to all other of the kind people that responded. ---
**Author:** ![oldschool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e19adc/32.png) [@oldschool](https://community.cartalk.com/u/oldschool)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 10:20pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/are-electric-door-locks-a-death-trap/52298/7 "2010-07-22T22:20:08Z")
If you feel you need air, bust a window out. ---
**Author:** ![texases](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/texases/32/862_2.png) [@texases](https://community.cartalk.com/u/texases)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 10:44pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/are-electric-door-locks-a-death-trap/52298/8 "2010-07-22T22:44:00Z")
OK, so you have locked all the doors and attempted to open the other doors by pulling the latch handle? ---
**Author:** ![dagosa](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/dagosa/32/9837_2.png) [@dagosa](https://community.cartalk.com/u/dagosa)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2010, 11:20pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/are-electric-door-locks-a-death-trap/52298/9 "2010-07-22T23:20:08Z")
In “Independence Day” Will Smith’s skinny little stripper girl friend kicked a steel tunnel exit door open. We all should be able to do the same in a Civic in a pinch. ---
**Author:** ![Car-2010](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Car-2010](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Car-2010)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2010, 3:28am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/are-electric-door-locks-a-death-trap/52298/10 "2010-07-23T03:28:11Z")
Looking again, the car is now home, there is a ‘push rod’ device built into the door handle trim and is not obvious. Thus if one fiddles with the door handle the trim part will flip out to expose a red unlocked indicator and the door will open. Thus everyone ridding in the car will need to be taught how to get out. Thank you all for your help. ---
**Author:** ![Whitey](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/whitey/32/24680_2.png) [@Whitey](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Whitey)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2010, 2:24pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/are-electric-door-locks-a-death-trap/52298/11 "2010-07-23T14:24:14Z")
…because nothing in the movies is ever fake. ---
**Author:** ![realbinky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a87d85/32.png) [@realbinky](https://community.cartalk.com/u/realbinky)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2010, 2:47pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/are-electric-door-locks-a-death-trap/52298/12 "2010-07-23T14:47:12Z")
I thought there was always a mechanical connection to unlock doors when opened from inside (except when the “child lock” switch is enabled, if it has one) ---
**Author:** ![keith](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/keith/32/5518_2.png) [@keith](https://community.cartalk.com/u/keith)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2020, 7:37pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/are-electric-door-locks-a-death-trap/52298/14 "2020-06-18T19:37:49Z")
I don’t have access to a 2007 Honda Civic, but based on other Honda’s and other vehicles, I’m pretty sure there is a manual door lock on every door. The door handle probably does not unlock the door when you pull it for safety reasons. If you operate the electric door lock, I’m pretty sure you will see either a rocker or a slide switch that will move and when it is unlocked, it should have some orange exposed to let you know it is unlocked. Even if you have the child lock engaged on the rear doors, you still have the manual door lock and you can use it to unlock the rear doors, but they still have to be opened from the outside handle. The child lock on rear doors only disables the inside door handle, it does not affect the door locks.