I have real quandary here and I need help asap! So the story is that my drivers door handle mechanism has been screwed up for a while on my 2006 roadster. I have the inside door panel off but the cables etc are just sitting there. So I've started it but haven't finished and been meaning to forever but just haven't. So like a dork I have to go around to the other door, lean in and open driver door from the inside. Not a huge deal really just an annoyance.

Well... so I haven't driven it in a while and the battery has run down. Car is locked. No big deal, I just go to driver's side and use key, right? Well I can't because that doesn't work since I have it all tore down in there. I then panic and walk around anxiously to the passenger door praying it has a keyhole as well since I've never really paid much attention, but it doesn't. Thanks a lot Nissan. So I don't know what to do. I can't get in because only way I can get in is to use the fob to open the passenger door but the battery is dead. I can't get the hood open to charge the battery because I can't get in car in first place to pop it open. Any ideas??? Is there any way to pop the hood without using the latch on the inside of the car? Any way to do it from the bottom maybe, if I could get the car jacked up?

It won't even do me any good to call a locksmith because that's not the issue. The door isn't really locked, it just won't open because I have the mechanism unhooked...

Any ideas are appreciated!!!

Thanks very much everyone

 

I think your best bet would be to use a car door wedge kit or a "pump wedge" on the passenger side to gently pry the passenger window open and then unlock the door and open the door handle with a long reach stick/tool. Something like this:



Oh, and car locksmiths have these things, so it may do you some good to call a locksmith.

 

Thanks so much for the quick response. Yeah I've thought about maybe something like this but there's no way it would work on the drivers side because I just have cables etc dangling and you'd have to be able to grasp them from the front and it just doesn't seem like a slim jim or something similar would work for that. Now I could possibly try a slim jim or something on the passenger door, but only issue I see there is since it's a convertible I don't see a way to just bend the window out of place without possibly damaging the window or the canvas top. I dunno...I might have a locksmith look at it but I was hoping one of the whiz kids on here might know of a another way. It's a brand new top so I'm just very leery of sharp tools being around it.

 

Yeah, I get that, but the roadster top is reinforced with a metal frame behind the rubber gaskets so I think the top should be fine. Those metal slim jim rods are pretty thin so the window just needs to be pried open a little bit for it to fit. The rods are usually coated in soft rubber in order to avoid scratching (especially on framed doors, which our are not).

I think worst case scenario, you may need to get a replacement window gasket if it gets damaged, but I don't see any other way around it since your battery is dead and the keyhole mechanism on the driver door is disengaged.

Maybe if the car battery has just a little bit of power left, you can hold the unlock button on the fob and it might crack the windows just a little bit? Probably not since it doesn't have the juice to simply unlock the door, but worth a shot

 

Thanks, Good news! I went ahead and got a locksmith to come take a look and took him about 10 mins but he was able to get the tool through there to pop the lock open using the bladder to pry the window back a little. To your point, he didn't need much space at all to get his tool through there.

Thanks again for the quick responses folks! Cost me $55 bucks but problem solved and lesson learned.

 

This is exactly what I was thinking. Granted the battery is mostly dead (never seen one so dead the lock actuators wouldn't work!), I was thinking you could use the keyfob or key in the door lock trick to roll the windows down. Sounds like it's time to get a battery maintainer or simply replace the battery.
Cheers!
-Icer