[bejoy]

Ok, here is my turn, in fact my wife did it. The worst part was that my 1.5 year old kid was in the car. Had to break the quarter glass to open the door.

Car is 2009 i10 ERA, that came with the Hyundai remote keys and here's what happened. My wife unlocked the car, opened the left side rear and front doors, took the child seat from rear seat and placed in the front. Buckled my kid in the child seat and kept the car keys/mobile phone/house keys in the driver seat. Closed both the doors and came back to driver's seat. Car locks itself just before she opens the driver's door.

Now, I knew that the car gets locked after a few mins if no doors are opened after unlocking using remote. But if some doors are opened in the meantime, this auto lock does not apply. This was my understanding, but proved wrong. Can anyone confirm if this is normal operation?

Also is there a way to disable the auto lock? Is there a manual for the remote keys for i10. I remember for the old Santro remotes, there were some key combinations to change the settings.

[girishglg]

Yeah very much but it was by my better half of course

The very first time she started taking the car after getting her driving license, parked it sprightly near her parent's apartment and both got out.

I had something to take out from the car but all doors were locked, so asked her to open the door. Pat came the reply 'I dont have the keys'

Figured out the keys were inside the car! Reason, the driving school instructor always asked his student to just leave the key and walk off after every class

[SunnyBoi]

Happened to me this weekend!

Cleaned teh car, got all ready to head back to Bangalore. I saw teh keys were inside the car, next to hatch glass and rear speakers. Doors were locked courtesy of central locking :(

We had to get a keymaker, he made a key looking at the key visible from hatch glass. Doors opened then!

[gopikb]

Need an urgent help fellow bhpians. My 7 year old son has locked my car key inside the boot of my fiat punto MJD. I am 600kms away from Bangalore and am currently in tuticorin for diwali holidays. Just found out that he had locked it inside. There seem to be no fiat service center in tuticorin. Spare key is in Bangalore while house key is inside car. Consulted a mechanic here and he said he can try opening the car door by removing the glass window beading and using a scale. But was warning me that some cars have steering locking system when door is opened that way and can make the car immobile. So I asked him not to touch it and am thinking of contacting service center tomorrow morning for possible options.

In the meantime if any of you have any suggestions, do let me know. Thanks for your help.

[sansvk]

Originally Posted by SunnyBoi

We had to get a keymaker, he made a key looking at the key visible from hatch glass. Doors opened then!

Wow, haven't heard that before. How much time did it take?

[SunnyBoi]

Originally Posted by sansvk

Wow, haven't heard that before. How much time did it take?

He took about 20 minutes. Wasted one of his keys and started from scratch. Second attempt was a success.

[Rahul Bhalgat]

Originally Posted by gopikb

Need an urgent help fellow bhpians. My 7 year old son has locked my car key inside the boot of my fiat punto MJD. I am 600kms away from Bangalore and am currently in tuticorin for diwali holidays.

Hello gopikb,
Sorry to hear about the inconvenience to you.

The boot lid release lever in my car (SX4) is on the floor, between the driver seat and the door. If same is the case with your car, you can do the following:

• Raise the car on jack below the front RH side and put it on the supports
• Get some fabricator / electrician having a portable drill machine and drill a hole of 1/4" size through the floor, just beneath the lever. Before drilling, make sure of the hole position by observing some other Punto.
• Push a screw driver through the hole to operate the boot release lever.
• Later plug the hole with a sheet metal round piece and paint. You can do this at a good body shop when you return to Bangalore.

Originally Posted by gopikb

Consulted a mechanic here and he said he can try opening the car door by removing the glass window beading and using a scale. But was warning me that some cars have steering locking system when door is opened that way and can make the car immobile.

I think if you open the door using a scale, then immediately open the boot and operate the boot keys, the car shall not get immobilised. However better to consult a mechanic. If this works, it is no doubt better than drilling a hole.

There is also a video on the internet showing the following:
Stretch open the door gap using a wedge
Through the enlarged gap, put a rod to open the lock from inside.
This too may work if done properly.

There is also a trick shown on YouTube where they apply air pressure using a tennis ball. Before advising you, I tried this but it did not work.

Wish you the best. Do not worry. My sympathy and love to the small kid, who did this by mistake. I hope no one is harsh to him.

[PatchyBoy]

Originally Posted by gopikb

Need an urgent help fellow bhpians. My 7 year old son has locked my car key inside the boot of my fiat punto MJD. Consulted a mechanic here and he said he can try opening the car door by removing the glass window beading and using a scale. But was warning me that some cars have steering locking system when door is opened that way and can make the car immobile.

Nothing of that sort will happen. Remove the beading and open. Only catch is, the lever has to be pulled up. So cannot be done with a scale. Better to call RSA. They should know exactly what to do.

Also, is your seat foldable? Asking, because you say that the key is in the boot.

[dass]

Originally Posted by gopikb

In the meantime if any of you have any suggestions, do let me know. Thanks for your help.

Have you tried contacting some local key makers? Its the boot lid, so they can make a duplicate key and I assume the boot lid can be opened and the car alarm would go off, which can then be shut down once you have access to the original key. I assume you may not go back to the same place again, so no need to worry about safety as well I guess. Give this a shot first thing before you try anything else.

[gopikb]

Originally Posted by Rahul Bhalgat

Hello gopikb,
[*]Raise the car on jack below the front RH side and put it on the supports[*]Get some fabricator / electrician having a portable drill machine and drill a hole of 1/4" size through the floor, just beneath the lever. Before drilling, make sure of the hole position by observing some other Punto.[*]Push a screw driver through the hole to operate the boot release lever.[*]Later plug the hole with a sheet metal round piece and paint. You can do this at a good body shop when you return to Bangalore.[/list]
Wish you the best. Do not worry. My sympathy and love to the small kid, who did this by mistake. I hope no one is harsh to him.

Thank you Rahul for the suggestion. I will keep this option in mind. I will call up vecto motors also for their advice tomorrow morning. I did show my anger on my son who was immediately in tears. But I realized we should have been more careful rather than scolding him. All he wanted to do was to take the painting from the car boot which he did for his grand parents.

Originally Posted by PatchyBoy

Nothing of that sort will happen. Remove the beading and open. Only catch is, the lever has to be pulled up. So cannot be done with a scale. Better to call RSA. They should know exactly what to do.

Also, is your seat foldable? Asking, because you say that the key is in the boot.

Thank you Patchyboy. That gives more confidence. If I open the front door, I can open the boot using the boot release lever. Also the back seats are collapsible.

Originally Posted by dass

Have you tried contacting some local key makers? Its the boot lid, so they can make a duplicate key and I assume the boot lid can be opened and the car alarm would go off, which can then be shut down once you have access to the original key. I assume you may not go back to the same place again, so no need to worry about safety as well I guess. Give this a shot first thing before you try anything else.

Thank you Dass. I did not think about this suggestion. I will contact the local key maker also tomorrow to check out that option

[Grand Drive]

Originally Posted by gopikb

There seem to be no fiat service center in tuticorin

You can contact Rehoboth Fiat, Tirunelveli. I think they do have a service station in Tuticorin.


Edit : Yes, they do have. Here is the address:

Rehoboth Cars Pvt Ltd
2/218 - A, Madurai By-Pass Road, Mdathoor, Tuticorin - 628008

Source: Fiat India

[girimajiananth]

I have heard that you can unlock the car door by holding a cell phone near the door's key hole and pressing the unlock button from your duplicate key (transmitting the remote's signal through a call ? ). Apparently this will work even if you are very far away. I am guessing this is just and urban myth like one of those ATM security features (key in the PIN reverse and an alert goes to the police sort of thing).Has any one tried it ?

[gopikb]

Originally Posted by Grand Drive

You can contact Rehoboth Fiat, Tirunelveli. I think they do have a service station in Tuticorin.


Source: Fiat India

Hi Grand Drive, Thank you for your input. It was infact Rehobooth Fiat who had come to my rescue on Wednesday. I also saw from the Fiat India website that they do do have a service center in Tuticorin and called the service manager Mr.Manimaran. It was early in the morning and still Mr.Manimaran answered his mobile and said he will make some arrangement once he reaches office and assured me that he can open the door for me.

Once in office, he found that the main technicians who knew the trick to open door were on diwali holidays. He then took a couple of junior techs, practiced the door lock opening on Punto lying in their yard and sent them to my home. It was just a couple of minutes and they opened the car for me. The total cost for the exercise Rs.350, but what a sigh of relief.

There was quite a few local mechanics who had come to my home with long scale to open the door when my father went around enquiring. I turned down their offer to help as they had never done this on a Punto before. I am glad I did that as the scale will not work on a punto and we need a hook to pull instead of push with scale.

Too many big lessons learnt from the fiasco. But whatever people around India has been bad mouthing about Fiat service, they have never let me known so far in my 6 years of ownership.

Originally Posted by girimajiananth

I have heard that you can unlock the car door by holding a cell phone near the door's key hole and pressing the unlock button from your duplicate key (transmitting the remote's signal through a call ? ). Apparently this will work even if you are very far away. I am guessing this is just and urban myth like one of those ATM security features (key in the PIN reverse and an alert goes to the police sort of thing).Has any one tried it ?

I thought it was a myth and not practical. Has anyone successfully opened it that way? Unfortunately it does not help for Fiat owners as we have only the main key with remote and the spare key comes without a remote

[ecenandu]

Never knew such a thread existed.

Here is my story.

I was driving down to my home town in Kerala, Thrissur to be precise from Chennai, July last year. I was really looking forward for this journey as it will be a solo drive.

So 45 minutes in to the journey, I found the windshield to be dirty and thought it will be a good idea to wash the windshield from outside. So I pulled over and realised that I didn't have water with me. Instead of buying water from nearby shop, I thought it would be a nice idea to use the windshield wiper fluid. All I have to do is, get down, raise the wiper from the windshield and pull the wiper stalk and we will have water sprayed all over the windshield and I could use tissue paper to clean off the dirt.

My car is equipped with after market remote lock, which will lock itself after the ignition is turned on. I got down from the car, raised the windshield wiper and then I heard the car locking itself.

Damn, I said to myself. Reached for my mobile phone, its in the car. Wallet, also inside the car. There was a small tea shop 50 meters down from where I stopped. I went there to enquire whether there is any car workshop nearby.
There was a Police men having his morning tea, I explained my situation to him. He told me there is a workshop nearby and will open after 10 or something.

While I was explaining the situation to the fellow Police officer, another gentleman was overhearing the whole conversation.

Him : There is one good idea.
Me : *Curious* Please, tell me.
Him : Break the side window, It would be tough to break it though. A big brick will do the job.
Both the gentleman and officer nodded their head in agreement.

I knew there was no point staying back there, so I went back to the car after thanking both of them.

Me: Okay Sir, thanks.(Chennai people can relate to this;'Sir').

After getting back to my car, I was thinking what should I do?. Should i break the window, nah. Better wait till the workshop opens.

Then I thought, why not try myself. I have seen some people trying to open the locked door, after removing the window beading. Anyway i have plenty of time to spare, why not try that.

I tried to pry open the window beading with bare hands, not happening. I have parked my car in front of a TVS showroom, IIRC. Normally they open early to take the customer bikes. I went and asked for a screw driver, but the showroom wasn't open at that time. But luckily the security guard had some tools with him.

He removed the window beading for me. Ah, good, what next. I could see the lock actuators through the gap or so I thought. Only if we can find some thick wire, wait, why can't I try use the beading itself.

Few tries and five minutes later, *Thuk* door unlocked. Yey, immediately took my wallet, phone and car key from inside.
Wait, let me take a picture of this, *Click*.
Why not a selfie with guy who saved the day *click*.

Paid that gentleman few hundred bucks, he refused politely but I insisted. He was surprised by my gesture, I was happy that I was able to brighten up some stranger's day . Buckled up and continued my journey with a big grin on my face. .

[sgiitk]

I did it with my Accent and it took the Hyundai chap all of <10 minutes to get in!