Have you ever had locksmith success??

[drivefast]

Hi everyone,
So a little bit of an embarrassing story... the battery in my G8 went bad this week for the first time since I have owned it. There was still enough power for door locks and things like that, but couldn't get the engine to turn over. So yesterday I went out into the garage, popped the trunk with my keyfob and pulled the battery to take up to the autoparts store to swap out.

And then without really thinking about it I closed the trunk... and now I'm screwed.

I have no idea how to get back into the car. There is only the one external key access on the driver door, but it won't work. I did some research online and others have had this issue that the lock is electronic. I guess on GTO's you can turn the key until you think it will break... well I tried with my spare key and ended up breaking the key. So that's a no go for a G8. And everything I have read said the car cannot be unlocked with a slim jim... ONSTAR cannot unlock it without power... so not sure what to do.

I am calling a locksmith today, but I'm not confident they can get in and I'm not even sure if the lock can be picked if there is no power to the vehicle. That would leave ultimately breaking a window which I want to avoid at all costs.

So my question is has anyone ever had success with a locksmith in this situation?

Thanks.

[Chewy]

So the car is locked up tight? Hood closed too?

[drivefast]

So the car is locked up tight? Hood closed too?

Hi Chewy,
Yes, doors are locked. Trunk is closed. Car has no battery in it.
I cannot unlock the driver door with the key. It is unclear online if the lock is electrical or mechanical. Other folks have reported issue that they are also unable to unlock the driver door if their battery is dead.

[Markmsf3]

We use a Big Easy, long stiff wire with a hook on the end, and slip it through the door seal and reach up and unlock the door at the handle of you could go old school and hook up some jumper cables and crawl up under it and ground it and hook the other to the hot side on the starter. Don't know how safe it would be since these cars are so picky when it comes to electronics.

[Chewy]

If you could get the hood open, you could put a battery or jumper cables from another car on the positive lug under the hood behind the stock air filter and then you'd have power to the car I believe.

See these threads!
http://g8nation.com/showthread.php?t=35730&highlight=hood+release+cable

http://g8nation.com/showthread.php?t=27911&highlight=hood+release+cable

http://g8nation.com/showthread.php?t=18135&highlight=hood+release+cable

[drivefast]

Chewy thanks!!! I am going to try to pull the grill insert to try and open the hood manually. If I can get the hood open I can hook the battery up to the jump posts and hopefully that gives me the juice to unlock the door with my keyfob. Then I'll be back in business.

Assuming I can open the hood manually... but the threads you attached are great thank you!

[Markmsf3]

You should be able to pop the latch open with a screwdriver. I pulled out the passenger side grill when I replaced the latch when the switch went out.

[BuildItYourSelf]

Pull your driver kidney grill and open the hood. Hook up a battery to the jump posts and unlock your car.
Edit.
I just read the last two posts! Sorry

[smwalker]

most roadside services just use a long rod to catch the manual lock knob nestled within the interior door handle assembly. They will use an air bladder to lift out the top of your door frame enough to get the rod into the interior. If you want to put a few layers of masking or painters tape on the leading edge of the rear door (or have some there for them to do it when they come) to protect it from scratches from the rod. They are usually pretty careful but more protection always better.

Vid of how it's done. Although most guys can do it on about 40 seconds:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I36M4jaPXpg


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I36M4jaPXpg

[drivefast]

I would like to thank everyone who took the time to reply, I really appreciate it. This board is awesome!

And because of the help you provided I was able to successfully get in!

I pulled the grills as suggested. Not sure if other models do, but the GXP has a trans cooler bolted right in front of the latch, so I had to disconnect that from the brackets and move that out of the way a few inches as best possible. Note that this will required pulling the passenger grill as well. There are two 13mm bolts on each side of the cooler and also a 10mm bolt holding the driver side bracket that need to be removed. A few bolts are hard to get to so you will need wrenches as sockets won't fit, namely the lower 13mm bolt on the passenger side and that 10mm bracket bolt on the driver side. Then there is a plastic cover as indicated in previous posts over the latch mechanism. There is a plastic pin fastener holding this on located right in the middle of the cover facing the front of the car so if anyone else has this issue you need to use a thin screwdriver or something similar to pop the center of the pin out and then pull the entire fastener out. Then take a screwdriver and pop the entire cover off (there are a few tabs holding it, but it is easy to pop off). This will expose the actual cable and switch under the latch and you can simply grab the cable or plastic connector and pull towards the passenger side and the hood pops. I was able to pull it by hand with no issue.

Then as described above, simply hook a battery up to the jump terminals in the engine compartment with jumper cables and the car comes alive and you can use your keyfob to unlock the doors!

Also… now that I have power I tried the door lock on the driver door with the key and it unlocked no problem. So the door lock is definitely electronic. Again, some other threads and things I read said that if you turn the key as hard as possible when there is no power it will mechanically unlock the door. This did not happen for me and I turned it enough to break my fixed blade key.

Thanks again everyone!