I have an 05 Pontiac grand prix. I’ve searched multiple forums and can’t find the answer to this…car sat in driveway thru a recent five day snow storm after I knew battery was weak (I know…shame on me for not starting it every day). Battery is completely dead now so power locks don’t work from key fob. Key will not go into driver door to unlock (this is the only key hole in the car). Lock is not frozen…I waited until we had two 50 degree days, key will still not physically go into hole all the way to even try to unlock. Is the lock now seized up because of lack of use or will the key not go in because battery is dead? Will I be able to re charge this battery temporarily or do I have to replace to get this car running at all? Will anything else be damaged due to the battery completely discharging? And most importantly…what is the best way to get into my vehicle at this point? Thanks for your help and suggestions!
You’re at a point where you have to get the door key to work.
Go get a can of Seafoam Deep Creep and soak the key hole for the door and let it sit. Then try using the key. If that don’t work, break the rear passenger window to get into the car to open the hood.
Tester
What about jacking the car up where the starter motor can be accessed from underneath?
Connect another battery or battery charger with the negative cable or wire lead going to the chassis and the positive lead (careful to not ground it) to the large cable nut on the starter solenoid.
That should power up the locks and get it open.
The battery might be on shaky ground due to being fully discharged; especially if it’s the original or has some years on it.
@ok4450 Very good idea!
Just hope they have the ramps/stands/cables/ battery/ booster pack/expierience/ etc… to do all this.
Tester
Just call the local auto club and have them use the slim jim.
I carry a Slim-Jim. And it doen’t work on this vehicle, or on a lot of other vehicles.
I’m beginning to wonder why I even have it?
Tester
Use this, if the slim jim doesn’t work. Some of the auto club guys carry these.
http://www.steckmfg.com/Lockout.htm
@Tester you have the slim jim because it does workon certain vehicles. Beats using a rock.
Ah? The Slim-Jim I have is part of the kit you showed.
Tester
I was going to say slim jim too or at least let the auto club have a try at it. I think though before breaking a window, I’d get a good spare key, squirt the crud out of that lock, and try to forse the key in. There are about 5 little tumblers that are just little pins that go up and down. When you put the key in you are forcing the pins to move to accept the key. By not using the lock for so long they are just stuck and might move if forced a little.
If you can’t free up the lock with some penetrating oil, can’t externally get the hood open, and don’t feel comfortable trying to jack up the car and access the electrical system or don’t have the equipment, instead of smashing your window I’d just bite the bullet and call a locksmith. Why break your own window? The cost to have a locksmith open the car will likely be cheaper than replacing the window anyway.
I’m with tester on the slimjim. Bought it years ago at a fleamarket and it worked great on myold Saab 900. It hasn’t worked on any of my other modern cars.
Car clubs use a rubber wedge to get a space between the window and us a stick to push a button.
I always wondered why they made it hard to use a slim-jim. I know they wanted to make it more difficult for car thieves, but after seeing a AAA guy use a wedge and a forked stick to get a car unlocked in less that a minute, it seems like a wasted effort.
Thank you all for advice…I only have one key for the car, no spare. My neighbor tried squirting a ton of wd40 in but did not work. I read about jacking up the car to charge the battery but was concerned since it’s completely discharged would that be ok to do and would it even work?
The reason to jack up the car is to access some electrical so that you can put some jumpers there just for the sake of energizing the system.
NOW you can open it .
Then you can let the car down , open the hood and charge the battery normally.
The whole point is to gain access to ANY available electrical contacts, most of which can’t be accessed from outside,and the starter is one the easiest to get to without cutting or stripping wires.
Can you get the rear seat to fold down entering through the trunk or is the seat locked?
Nevada…I can’t get in the car to fold down the seat. There is no key hole on the trunk.
How strange, these newfangled vehicles.
The designers had NO concept of them of them ever being used NORMALY !
I, too , can not stand that .
My 08 Expedition gave me hell a few months ago too.
With the battery dead, the rear hatch can NOT be opened…it’s all electric.
To get to my tools and jumper cables stored back there, I had to climb over the rear two rows of seats !..how stupid to not be able to operate the rear gate !
Does your Pontiac look like this?
From the owners manual;
“To unlock the trunk from the outside, insert the key
into the lock on the trunk and turn it clockwise.”
Could you get a couple of wooden shims and carefully work them between the window and the door frame’s rubber? Just start with one, then two, and add until you have enough of an opening so you can get a coathanger in to pull the door latch.
Nevada…I do not have a key hole in the trunk. If I did I would have already tried that. The picture you have there is similar to my vehicle except for the key hole. I will try to contact a tow company or locksmith to Jimmy the door first. We have another big snow storm coming tonight so the car will be buried again yay!