Dead battery - can't open door with mechanical key!
 

My battery has died - I installed a Lukas-LK290 (to prevent battery from dropping past 12.4 V) and a dash camera with motion detect feature, and I guess I didn't do it right.

I had left a light on before and the battery couldn't start the car, but this time the battery is so dead that the doors won't open.

What's strange is that the mechanical key doesn't unlock the driver's door!

I can open the trunk, so at least I can get into the car to open the hood and jump it, but I'm wondering if there's any reason why the mechanical key isn't opening the driver's door.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Also, I'm going to try to get a new (better - automatic version) battery - I have the battery that came with the manual version of the car (small capacity). I heard some success with this, what helps to get it?

from my single time experimenting with the physical key, it was difficult to open likely because you cant quite get enough leverage to rotate the darn thing.

I can rotate it - end to end - or at least it feels like it.

did you try the passenger door?

Put more elbow grease into it. The first time can be a little stiff and you'll notice a thump/click when it unlocks.

Sport Tech is the same as the Limited: only the driver's door has the lock.

Well, you were right. It really required a lot of force!

You need an aftermarket battery. The Subaru batteries are crap.

Not this crap again... The stock battery is a Panasonic, it's fine. It's a high compression motor so it needs more power than most, so it's going to show a weak or low charge battery more easily.

The real issue is that these cars draw a lot of current even when sitting off.
I calculated that if the car is left for ~10 days without starting it, the battery will run down.
Add the camera and thats probably more like 5 days. (Just a WAG)

I must have a miracle battery. I went 2 months without a start. Then on 20 degree Fahrenheit day it fired right up. The cranking was slow. But it fired and the battery still lives today.

The BRZ is worse than the FRS because of the keyless entry.

It really is a weak ass battery. Like Stu said, mine sat for two weeks last month and it couldn't start. And the best part is I parked it front first into my garage....

It's totaled.

...................

I leave my car untouched for weeks and never have trouble starting it. BRZ Limited. 7,000 miles in nearly 3 years, so you can tell how many times it sits for weeks without being started. Original battery. No issues.

Aftermarket stereo or camera or lighting etc can have a phantom draw.

............................

i live in wisconsin and have never had any problems leaving my car untouched in the 0 degree weather.:iono::iono:

Yep, and people want to run smaller batteries and think the stocker is too big :lol:


Also, even though ntron1 is editing his posts, I'll educate him.


1) Cold doesn't hurt batteries, it just makes their output weaker. A higher CCA battery is a) more fragile internally and b) more prone to heat damage. Add in the effects of cold on trying to crank the engine and you'll think the battery is crap. The battery is designed for the best percentage of the world (as it's the same damn battery in every one of them as they're shipped with the battery installed) so if you're in a crazy cold environment, you should be adjusting accordingly (block heaters, etc).


2) Heat kills batteries and people assume that the cold kills them because batteries tend to put out more power when hot (to a limit) and the engine is far easier to turn over, so the damaged battery isn't discovered until the winter when it's output is lower.


I'd love to deal with weather that wasn't so damn hot that it kills batteries in a couple years. People think CCA is the be-all-end-all stat for a car battery when it's not...

I have a miracle Panasonic battery too! I left my 10 Series in three snow storms for more than a month without starting it. When it finally thawed the keyless entry & badges worked normally and the car started on the first try.

My BRZ also sat for about 10 days a month ago, and would not crank when I got back to it. Battery charged back up and has been fine though.

Hey Poodles - I saw you comment on one of my posts in another battery thread.

Have you measured your parasitic current?

What's the longest you let your BRZ sit for without driving it?

I had a fresh battery replaced under warranty (last month) die after sitting for a month in my driveway.

I just pulled my car out of storage with the battery hooked and it started after sitting 4 MONTHS! No problem.

What I did: it was stored in a 10 degree Celsius underground garage, I disabled the alarm, manually turned off my HVAC, and turned the lights to off from Auto, and I also turned the radio off to minimize any drain on the battery. Hope this sheds some light on this.

My car has sat undriven for that long before and ran just fine.

My car with the stock battery is two years old and done only 9000 kms. I was overseas for 5 weeks and when i came back it started okay.
The stock battery is good with the warm weather in Sydney.
It only snowed here once in the last 56 years.

Put a new battery in my BRZ on March 26th, was out of town for 3 weeks, and came back to find it at 2V. I also had a Noco Genius G3500 charger on it during this time. Not sure what happened.

Measured parasitic drain was 130mA at the dealership.

My BRZ bought in Nov. 2012, has 4500 miles on it now and is parked in non heated garage once the snow falls and never had it not start and nothing on the battery. I usually start it and let run several times a month during the winter. Not sure it helps or not. Maybe just another lucky one.

Are you turning it the right way? LOL

My battery too ... left in my garage for about 10 - 11 days with low temps. - car would not crank on 11th. day. Got a battery tender and no more problems.

My battery just died and I have this issue. I had the car for 6 years so far and the mechanical key doesn't work. I turned so hard that the key started to twist. It's jammed. I had to enter from the trunk to get in the car.

The old style key hole in the door turns the opposite direction than you'd expect to unlock. I found this out the hard way when my doors were frozen shut last winter and almost bent the key before I thought to turn it the other way.

It's only time before you get touched with the dreaded dead battery.. I was in the same boat as you.. my car's battery died about 2years in, changed under warranty. The new battery so far doing okay but it too has died as I don't use my car much..

That is because there is no mechanical activator. Even the "key" just throws a switch and activates a solenoid.

Wow, interesting. I did not know that. Might as well not have a key slot at all. What's the point if it's not fully mechanical? lol

I forgot about that very important detail. Wow.

That's kinda f'd up, turning a key should move mechanical bits not activate a solenoid. I had to go in through the trunk once when I couldn't open the doors enough to get in because a couple of brodozer guys thought it would be funny to park 2" away. It SUCKED :( I made myself feel better though when I pulled 2 of the valve cores out of the stems on their 38" mudders after realizing they had no spare tires.

I think Toyota is generally backwards compare to other brands. My gf's RX300 is the same.

BTW when I first got the car I tried the BRZ mechanical key on the door and trunk and it took some finesse but I eventually got it to work. The key will no longer bend after the initial try.

It feels mechanical to me. Are you guys sure it's just a solenoid? The inside door lock pulls 2 cables as I've taken the door cards off before to see that.

Yeah, I just checked. It's mechanical.

Guess I didn't forget anything.




https://i.imgflip.com/2ppnbj.jpg

UMMMMM the reason I thought it was electronic was because YOU said it was a while back.

That was the Camry. It is.

Well you shouldn't talk about other cars here. It confuses us!