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Help! Broken valet lock cable, dead battery...and a fat guy!

station31

Member
Joined
Oct 21, 2018
Messages
5
Location
Polson, Montana
My XLR/V(s)
2006 red jewel
So I have a trifecta of problems here and I believe I am up the creek at this point.

Living in NW Montana and was negligent in keeping the float charger connected. This resulted in a dead battery. I went to use the valet key to enter the trunk and the lock mechanism was a little stiff. I sprayed WD 40 into the key slot and I warmed up the garage. Then, as I turned the key, if finally gave way but I believe the cable broke away from the lock mechanism as the key freely turned a full 380 degrees. I've read the trunk lid is heavy and you sometimes need two people to lift it. To no avail, it won't open.

So the XLR is tucked away in the garage, and since I'm a big guy, I can't get to the front end to get a charger on the access points under the front bumper.

My only idea is to soap up garage floor and pull it back out of the garage a few feet, jack it up so I can access said points. Or go to Harbor freight and buy some car dollies and do the same. I don't want to do any damage to the drivetrain by pulling it backwards.

Any other suggestions?
Thanks
Dude
 
Found it and fixed it!
Went to Harbor Freight and bought 4 dollies. Jacked the beast up on the drivers side and it gave me enough room to crawl under the front. I located the wire harness on the fan PCM. There are four wires. The second one is a larger gauge RED wire. Disconnected the wire harness from the PCM and put a small screw driver in the slot for the red wire. If you look at the wire harness. Two wires go to the fan. The other two go up past the radiator. It is the red wire going past the radiator.
Anyway. I hooked up the battery charger to the shaft of the screw driver and the negative to the frame. Within 30 seconds of plugging in the battery charger, I was able to use the key fob to unlock the doors and gain entry.

I had purchased a battery tender at Harbor Freight which came with an accessory cable. It connected directly to to the small lugs at the battery. I fished the rest of the wire towards the windshield under the rubber flap. Now I can connect the tender up while the beast is in cold storage.

Many thanks to Tim " Hawk58" for his post in 2013...If it were not for this forum and Tim's post I would still be locked out!
 
S-31,,,, Glad you were successful, and reported back how it all went :thumbsup

This may help another in the future. Keep the tender attached when the car is parked for many days > everyone should do this.

p z
 
Congrats on getting it out of its coma...one thing I have learned over time is to ALWAYS pop the hood on any car that will sit for any length of time. It has just become a habit now but has saved me a couple of times in the past.

Gary
 
wish you had found my recent post on how to charge the battery the way you did. Its really simple. So simple a caveman could do it. I actually wired a plug into mine so If I ever forget I can plug a jumper wire there.
 
Thanks for the great advise! Looking to move to Scottsdale Az from MT...Hope to meet you if we do!
Bill
 
I ended up using the auxiliary plug that came with my tender directly to my battery and fished it up by the windshield. I like your idea as well. Now to get the valet lock fixed.. dreading that repair. Thinking a body shop might be less expensive.
 
anything t od owith the body you will get a much better price by going to the body shop. Their labor rate is usually less than 1/2 of the service dept. They can give you a quote and if its something small they want to impress you in case of an accident you will come back.
 
Found it and fixed it!
Went to Harbor Freight and bought 4 dollies. Jacked the beast up on the drivers side and it gave me enough room to crawl under the front. I located the wire harness on the fan PCM. There are four wires. The second one is a larger gauge RED wire. Disconnected the wire harness from the PCM and put a small screw driver in the slot for the red wire. If you look at the wire harness. Two wires go to the fan. The other two go up past the radiator. It is the red wire going past the radiator.
Anyway. I hooked up the battery charger to the shaft of the screw driver and the negative to the frame. Within 30 seconds of plugging in the battery charger, I was able to use the key fob to unlock the doors and gain entry.

I had purchased a battery tender at Harbor Freight which came with an accessory cable. It connected directly to to the small lugs at the battery. I fished the rest of the wire towards the windshield under the rubber flap. Now I can connect the tender up while the beast is in cold storage.

Many thanks to Tim " Hawk58" for his post in 2013...If it were not for this forum and Tim's post I would still be locked out!
Re trunk key problem you need to remove the plastic cover inside the trunk latch area there is a cable connect that comes out of it's connector (mine does it all the time)
 
You have a problem ifbyour cable comes off. It has a ball on it that holds to the latch on one end and the cable housing snaps and locks into the latch. There is no way for the cable to come off unless someting is bent or broken or missing
 
You have a problem ifbyour cable comes off. It has a ball on it that holds to the latch on one end and the cable housing snaps and locks into the latch. There is no way for the cable to come off unless someting is bent or broken or missing
I put it back on but I think it,s out again. (no snap) will investigate at a later date and will probally just use a heat gun to tighten up that connection
 
One more suggestion I do ..... when parking the car in the garage for either short or long time sitting,,,pull the hood latch to just pop-open the hood to the first notch. When the car is to be driving next, open the hood and close fully tight. If this car is a ladies main driver, this suggestion may not work. I'm not saying your lady can't do this but may make a step that they are not committed to remember, or find it a pain in the butt.

Keep on the battery tender if car isn't used for a week at a time....
 
It only takes once to learn that, my old Goldwing required a new battery every 13 months and that is where I learn to keep a tender on any parked toy.
 

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