If battery was so dead the locks wouldn’t activate, how did they lock?
The deductible on a service contract repair is usually $50 or $100.
I would just pay it and move on.
It was probably frozen, and in order to get into the car he had to pull hard on the lock button inside the car, and that broke it.
In my book, he’s not responsible, because it was going to break if he did that, and the alternative was to leave the car dead and stranded where it would get towed and all of the impound fees would have been on you. So, he performed a necessary service, and performing it inevitably broke the actuator (I’m actually suspicious that the actuator itself is fine, but the little plastic clip that connects it to the lock rod broke).
I would look at the situation and consider all the alternatives/costs. If the roadside repair man had been able foresee that the result of him successfully doing something that he had done successfully dozens of times before would instead result in damaging something in the door he would have charged his basic service call and referred the owner to a locksmith who would have sent a wrecker and brought the vehicle to his shop where it would sit and wait its turn to be repaired. Then once the latch was released the car would have been towed to a shop to charge the battery and check for the cause of the stall. My best shoot from the hip guestimate is that as things stand now @Tonyb27 has had the use of his car since the incident and the price of repairing the latch added to the roadside service will likely be considerably less than the total of the tow bills, locksmith and mechanic bill not to mention the cab fare or car rental fees while the car was being carried from shop to shop.
Count your blessings @Tonyb27. Things turned out quite well all things considered.
The door latch and lock actuator are one piece, there is no link between them and no clip to break.
Oh those Dastardly Mechanics ( play silent film music here ).
Yeah I think given all the unusual circumstances, I’d just pay it and move on. You have to be able to give them access when they get there and the bag is a pretty standard device to use.
Having now seen a more comprehensive description of what happened, I’m going to change my recommendation.
Pay the bill and move on. Drive first to the hardware store, get a spray can of silicone lubricant, and lubricate all your door locks with it. Then go home and get on with life.
If I am understanding the OP’s description correctly, the car door was either locked (with no key available) or it was frozen/jammed shut when the roadside assistance guy arrived. Is that correct?
If so, and if–as I suspect–the hood release is inside the car, then how in the world did the OP expect the guy to render assistance if he didn’t force the door open?
If my understanding of the door problem is correct, please explain to us how you think that the roadside assistance guy should have proceeded.
This OP has started another thread about poor fuel mileage . My opinion is that due to stalling problems and other things this is a classic case of buyers remorse.
My wife and I have had something like this and we took a loss and bailed to get a different vehicle and did not regret it.
I hate to say it but I agree with this guy. It’s part of breaking into a car. You can’t get upset they did their job and got you back on the road. It’s almost impossible to break into some cars without bending the door frame or breaking a lock
Quite the contrary, I really like all the car features, and I enjoy driving it. I just want the car to work as advertised. Is that too much to ask? Since owning the car I have had to replace the door locks, battery and now I am learning I might need a tune up or maybe something else to improve the gas mileage. I don’t think it is too much to ask to have the car working well. I paid for a working car. Dealer sweared up and down that the car passed all inspections. I even had it inspected twice at two state inspection stations both as a state check and a comprehensive check and everything came up clean. I just had the car for a month not two years, it is too many problems to have right off the bat. I understand things come up when owning a car but this is too much.
I found a photo gallery of the MKZ door latch and I must say it is a STATE OF THE ART monstrosity. Like so much of automotive technological advancement Ford has developed an entire latch, remote lock mechanism and interlink to the inside and outside release handles and all those pieces are packaged in a non serviceable unit. But hopefully the slim jim unplugged the unit without breaking anything. If the linkage rod were broken the door handles would not open the door and that rod is the weakest link.
https://www.ebay.com/i/173045978549?chn=ps
On further searches I find that Ford does all the individual pieces to repair the latch.
Door latches have been that way for 25 years. A new latch doesn’t come with the exterior door handle or bracket like the used one in the ebay link.
The OP stated that the road service person didn’t use a slim jim, they used an air bag in between the top of the door and the roof to create a gap to reach the inside controls (door handle, lock switch).
I con’t imagine stretching the window slot open wide enough to reach in and release the latch @Nevada545. And like Kleenex/tissue anything that is used to slide into the top of a car door to get it open is now considered a Slim Jim.
BTW, I much prefer using skeleton keys to open car doors. Fords were the easiest to open with a $10 set of keys.
He manually locked before he closed the door.
WOW. With that bag it’s not necessary to get at the door latch at all. Just get a tool to operate the interior door handle. But using that bag would possibly twist the window frame out of alignment with the door. I had guessed that an air bag was being used in place of the wooden wedges that have made using Slim JIms easier to operate.
I have a set similar to this
http://www.lockpickersmall.com/lock-pick-sets/
and have never been unable to open a car door and most home front doors as well. I’m not as good as Rockford though.
Isn’t there a key within the Fob that would open the door manually? My MKS and every car I have ever seen has such a key. It is to be used for just this happenstance-when there is no electric power.
There is. But he stated the lock wouldn’t turn.