Car Lockout Service, Day or Night

How the door actually gets opened

Forget the coat hanger and forget the slim jim. A slim jim slides down inside the door skin, and on any car built in the last twenty five years that cavity is full of wiring looms, side airbag connectors, the window regulator and the lock actuator. People who use them tend to leave with a working door and a non working window, or an airbag light that costs more to clear than the lockout did.

The method we use is an inflatable wedge and a long reach tool. A soft wedge goes into the top corner of the door frame and is pumped up until there is about a centimetre of gap, enough to pass a coated rod through. From there it is a matter of pulling the interior handle, pushing the lock button or pressing the unlock switch on the armrest, depending on the car. Nothing goes inside the door skin at all. The wedge spreads its load along the frame instead of levering on one point, so the door springs back the moment it comes out.

On a handful of vehicles there is an easier route. Many cars with a manual key cylinder in the driver’s door can simply be opened with the emergency blade hidden inside the fob, if the fob is not the thing locked in the car. We check that first, because it takes thirty seconds.

Keys locked in a running car

This one is more common than you would think, especially with push button start. The car is idling, the doors auto locked, and the fob is sitting inside on the console. Tell us this when you call because it changes the priority. A running car is burning fuel, and if it is in a closed parkade the exhaust is a real problem, so these jump the queue.

Children or pets inside

Call 911 first, then call us. Emergency services will get there faster than any roadside operator and they will not hesitate. A car in direct sun heats up far quicker than people expect, and on a warm afternoon the inside of a car passes dangerous within minutes. This is the one situation where we would rather you did not wait for us.

What a lockout is not

There is an important line here and it saves people money to understand it before they call.

A lockout is when you can see your key, or you know exactly where it is, and the only problem is the locked door. That is what we do.

A lost key is a different job. Opening the door does not solve it, because a modern car will not start without a transponder it recognises. Cutting a new blade and programming it to the immobiliser takes an automotive locksmith with diagnostic equipment and usually proof of ownership. We can get you into the car so you can reach a spare or your documents. We cannot make you a key, and you should have a locksmith on the way at the same time.

A broken or snapped key sits somewhere between the two. If the blade has broken off in the lock, that is extraction work and it is also a locksmith job.

Vehicles that need a different approach

A few are genuinely awkward. Some European models have deadlocking that disables the interior handles entirely once the car is locked from outside, so pulling the handle through the gap does nothing. On those we work the lock switch instead where one exists, and where it does not, the honest answer is a locksmith.

Teslas and several other EVs have no exposed mechanical lock and flush handles. Tesla’s own app unlocks the car from a phone, and that is almost always the fastest fix, so we will ask whether you are logged in before we drive out. Work vans with aftermarket deadlocks and cargo barriers are also a maybe rather than a yes, and we would rather tell you that on the phone.

Trunk and tailgate lockouts

If the key is in the trunk and the rear seats fold, the cabin is usually the way in. We open a door first, drop the seat backs and reach through. Hatchbacks and SUVs are straightforward for this. Sedans with a fixed bulkhead and no ski hatch are harder, and occasionally the only route is the emergency trunk release, which most vehicles have as a glow in the dark handle inside the trunk itself and therefore cannot be reached from outside.

Where these calls come from

Gas station forecourts, grocery store lots and park and ride stalls near SkyTrain, in roughly that order. People get out to fill up or grab something, the door swings shut, and the fob is on the seat. The other big one is the end of a shift in an underground staff parkade, late, when the building is already locked up. We work in parkades all over Burnaby and East Vancouver, so the level and stall number is all we need.