Dead battery-can't unlock

'24 1794 LE, hybrid, 7k miles. Haven't driven it in about a month but started it about a week ago. Went to unlock it and nothing, tried using the spare key in the door lock and nothing, called roadside assistance, will be here in 2 hours.
I guess the key doesn't manually unlock the door, it does it electronically?
Why is it this battery has such crappy reserve power?

 

I had something similar to me happen not too long ago. I think my issue was I left a OBDII dongle plugged in when I was messing around with data collection in Home Assistant trough the Torque app. It must have been reading data while the truck was off and drained the battery. Mine had only sat for a few days and did this. I left it unlocked thank goodness since it's parked in the garage, but still not fun. I would open the door and couldn't get the truck to even turn on and no lights for entry.

Even trying to put a battery charger on it wasn't doing anything which I found odd. I ended up getting a portable jumper I had and just jumped off. It's been fine since then so who knows I did unplug the OBDII dongle from now on... I've been meaning to get the battery checked to see if it's still good but haven't done that yet.

 

When I called roadside assistance they did say they would be sending a battery so hopefully that's the case and I get a new battery. My concern is how are they going to unlock it, don't see a way to get at the lock mechanism through the window, the unlock is smooth with nothing to grab onto. Can you still slim jim these things? If you could I'd think the key would work in the door.

 

OK, my bad, must not have had the key pushed in far enough, it did work so I'm in. Now that they say they'll bring a battery I'm not even going to jump this, I'll let them put a new battery in.

 

I think I missed that part, so your physical key in the fob won't unlock the door?? That's nuts. I tried my key once just to know how it works and scared the sh!t out of me when the alarm kept going off.

 

When you opened the door with the key, I'm guessing you didn't hear an alarm since the battery was dead right? Just curious about this.

 

Ha! Just tried this myself since I was pretty sure the metal key would manualy release the lock. It does, but now my neighbors are all pissed at me because of the alarm. Oops.....

 

Apparently, the emergency key is disabled with a bad battery too......seems like a bunch of people have posted an inability to open the door with the emergency key when the battery dies.

https://www.tundras.com/threads/2021-locked-doors.157629/

 

He did get in according to his most recent post.

 

Yes but with an access rod through the passenger door. The door lock would not work with the fob or the emergency key. Once he got in, he was able to pop the hood and swap out the battery which fixed the issue.


Can't remember where this was found but apparently true:

• Dead battery:
  If the car battery is completely dead, even an emergency key might not be able to unlock the door, as it may rely on the car's electrical system for some locking mechanisms

 

Sorry, I was referring to the OP in this thread. He didn't have the metal key pushed in far enough.

 

OK, AAA just pulled up, amazed it only took 30 minutes for someone to come out. They didn't bring a battery, was just here for the unlock and would have jumped it.

So it worked, the tolerances for it to engage must be very tight, it wasn't pushed in all the way, probably my fat fingers getting in the way, lol. I tried a second time and just held onto it with the key ring instead of the small plastic piece. A millimeter out of the keyhole and it wouldn't engage but it would turn. I'm in now.

 

Correct, no alarm because of dead battery. As soon as you connect a battery jump starter it will go off, so be prepared with fob in hand to turn it off.

 

Ohhhh, i missed that part. He may have cracked the code of people thinking the emergency key won't work - perhaps they didn't have the key pushed in far enough!

 

I had read in the manual before I did it that the alarm would go off but wanted to practice anyways. Still scared me to death lol

I wish we had a manual key option for the tailgate on our trucks in case of dead battery. That was something I was bummed out about after realizing it’s fully electric. I don’t think it would come up too often but I do like to camp a lot and thought if I’m out camping and cant get to my supplies in the truck bed because of a dead battery it would just be frustrating. Maybe an aftermarket solution one day…

 

Issue with the mechanical key clipped inside the fob is that the mechanical key cylinder by the door handle does not get routinely used therefore often corrodes up and sticks from not being used, usually takes some fiddling to get it freed up