My son decided to try to charge the battery on his 2010 318D (my old company car bought from the leasing company).
Unfortunately, after he had removed the battery to charge it, he shut the boot.
He now cannot get back into the boot and is struggling to find a way without damaging the car.
Any ideas please.
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Has he tried the various options suggested by Google?
Possible a keyway above reg plate?
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On my G31 you prise out a panel in the (passenger?) door handle to reveal a key hole and use the key blade in the remote.
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Yeah, but I guess you'd need the keys for that, and they're in the boot...
Last edited by: Runfer D'Hills on Wed 16 Dec 20 at 17:08
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He has more than one key?
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Is he a member of the AA or RAC or similar? They'll get in to it in a jiffy. I could even tell you how, but probably best not to on a public forum...;-)
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Hi, thanks for the replies folks, he has been googling all day, he has the spare keys, I will be ringing him in an hour or so to check progress , he is not in aa or similar any more, let it lapse as he was going to sell the car, their other one gets aa cover or similar from the leasing co. I have forwarded the suggestions so we will have another look in daylight tomorrow.
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Thanks again for the replies fols, problem now resolved by a fitter from his independent garage who removed the backseat so he could get in and release the boot lid.
His problem, which meant that all the electronic solutions online would not work, was to have removed the battery altogether which stopped a circuit being formed even if he applied power from elsewhere.
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My last couple of estate cars have had electrically operated tailgates and load covers. Who thought that was a useful or desirable feature is beyond me, but that's how they are.
Anyway, one day, while hundreds of miles from home, with only the one key, and in pouring rain, I had to return to the car to retreive a large, heavy cardboard box from the boot.
Plipped the boot open with the button on the key fob and leaned in to get the box. It was further in than was useful, and very heavy. So of course I put the keys on the boot floor to free up both hands to wrestle the box out of the boot. Having successfully achieved that, I got one finger on to the boot closing button on the tailgate which started to make its way down.
At that point, I realised that I'd left the keys on the boot floor, and that if it got fully shut, the car would lock itself again.
So, without having the gumption to drop the box, I dived under the now nearly closed tailgate, coming to rest face down on the boot floor with the heavy box having made its way onto the back of my head and across my shoulders. The tailgate meanwhile, had trapped my legs at about knee height and was repeatedly trying to chop them off.
The load cover decided to join in by trapping the box across my shoulders.
All of this while parked on a meter bay in central London.
I was by now a bit fed up with the whole scenario but more or less unable to move. It was pretty dark in there and all I could think to do was to find the keys to release the tailgate.
It is not easy to find keys in such circumstances.
Time passed, and I'm sure it at least puzzled some passers by, but being in London, no one offered to help. Eventually, I got the giggles which attracted the attention of a gentleman who also started laughing, but in time I managed, albeit muffled by the box, the load cover and my now crazed state of mind, to explain to him where the tailgate release button was.
My lower legs were by now soaking, my meter was running out and I had no more change.
It all mentally scarred me for a while.
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>> Time passed, and I'm sure it at least puzzled some passers by, but being in
>> London, no one offered to help.
My Gran warned me never to offer help to men who claimed they are trapped in the boot of their car.
"It's a ploy", she used to say. What could she have meant?
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See Theodore (Ted) Bundy.
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>>. Eventually, I got the giggles which attracted the attention
>> of a gentleman who also started laughing ...
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Well thank you for that. I've just choked on my coffee and spat it over the cat. This little tale has brightened up my morning no end to the extent that Mrs H had to ask what was going on.
PS our builder's Jaguar XF 'knows' to open the boot if it detects the car keys inside but I suppose only properly posh cars do that.
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I have this picture..made my day.
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I did the power tailgate / put the key down in the boot thing a week after inheriting my late father's 2012 C-class estate. Thirty miles from home, with a small child, on a Saturday an hour before bedtime. I called the AA who came out and drew a blank. The only solution was for the AA driver to take us home to pick up the spare key, then back to the car. It was complicated by the fact that the AA van's computer system won't let them do return journeys, so he had to fib about exactly what he was doing to achieve the desired result for us.
I've also just remembered the AA driver spent so long trying to get into the Merc that his van battery went flat and we had to push-start it. Also, that they have to declare all cash tips.
I haven't made the same mistake since.
Last edited by: Dave_ on Mon 24 May 21 at 23:28
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BMW 3-Series E90 - 10 1.8 Battery removed keys locked in boot - Bromptonaut
