Oh, Camry Woes...

[iovaykind]

Just had the worst morning of my life (definitely not the way to start off the lunar new year) Stayed up last night till around 1am doing organic chemistry work.. btw, I sleep around 10pm every night on school nights (don't judge).

Woke up terribly tired this morning (no.. no coffee, never had it never will..again, don't judge) Turned on the car to warm it up and went back inside, coming back out.. I locked myself out of my car.

My car's been idling for about two hours now, almost coming on three. Luckily a roomate drove me to school (which btw if I missed the first lab class, I would've been deregistered which only added to the mayhem and my pain)

Some questions.. is it bad for the car to leave it on idle for so long?
And how much gas does the car eat up on idle per hour?
Is there a way to shut off the car externally?
Some cars have this function where the drivers door stays unlocked with the keys in the ignition.. are our cars too old to have that function?

[Mister_Perkins]

Dude, what you need to do is Get a triangle shaped piece of wood, wrap a cloth around it and using a mallet tap it at the top corner of the door to flex the top open a bit. Once you do that, Grab something long and hard to slide past the gap you created and push the Unlock button.

You wont use much gas. I was jumping a huge diesel truck with my camry the other day (lol .. long story) but it took 3 hours of jumping to start it. I didnt use much gas at all.

As long as your cooling fans are turning on and off, its not a huge deal


Edit:

Instead of a mallet, you can also just use the palm of your hand

[iovaykind]

My set of keys was in the car to open the garage, so I was tool-less and had like 5 minutes to do something before being late and getting deregistered..

[Mister_Perkins]

You dont have any door stops in your house? Thats all you really need besides something like a metal coat hanger

[iovaykind]

No, no door stops. I managed to pry the door open to fit in a stick, but nothing was long enough to unlock the car. And a wire hanger would just flex instead of actually pushign the unlock button.

[Mister_Perkins]

yeah, hangers do flex but I've managed to unlock cars with them before. Second best thing would be a piece of brake line if you have any extra

[Iduzitbettr]

Hey iovaykind, were you able to get into the car yet? Here's a tip for future references, this is what I used to do before I installed remote start:

-When you start the car in the morning to warm it up, pull the key out of the ignition after start up and the vehicle remains on.
-Then you can lock the doors from the outside using the key and can then go back inside and wait. (The doors can not be locked from inside the cabin without the key in ignition).
This way you always have the keys on you.

Good luck man

[iovaykind]

You can pull the key out with the key in the on position?

Car has been on for four hours.. parents are coming to unlock it still.

[Mister_Perkins]

Originally Posted by iovaykind

You can pull the key out with the key in the on position?

Car has been on for four hours.. parents are coming to unlock it still.

on my 1993 5-speed yes. Normal camry ignition switches.. no

[Iduzitbettr]

Originally Posted by iovaykind

You can pull the key out with the key in the on position?

Car has been on for four hours.. parents are coming to unlock it still.

Yup, comes right out in the ON position. Just pull the key straight out after starting it. This works in my 92.

[fenixus]

it sounds like it's not one of the best days of your life LOL

you can call a local LockSmith (check YellowPages), they will come and open it up with a SlimJim thingy in no time, they have their tricks. it will cost you around $100 though.

otherwise you can keep prying and using coat hangers or bent antenna (worked for me on '92 Buick when I locked only pair of keys inside).

don't worry about car idling, it can do that as long as cooling fans are working.

[iovaykind]

for one I sorta wish my car stalled while idling.. the car just got turned off.. did some research and car idling doesn eat up a lot of gas but its not good for the engine to idle for too long either. Blah. So does this key thing work for a 96 camry? I've never heard of such a feature..

[Chris Crash]

It's not a "feature". Usually this happens when the lock cylinder gets worn down. It's happened recently on my parents' minivan...you can turn the car on and pull the key out. Shit sometimes you can even turn the car on with no key in the ignition, just turn the ignition!

[iovaykind]

Sounds like something I need to do. Any way to accelerate the wearing down of the lock? Any downsides to doing it?

[Chris Crash]

Downsides = it's that much closer to legitimately breaking. And I have a few times turned the car off, and since the keys werent in the ignition and were in the center console, I locked them in the car. Woops.