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Design flaw?? Trunk won't open when the battery's dead.

G

genki

New member
My car (2005 GP, 3.8 NA) up and died at Walmart. No crank, all the light went out and nothing worked. The battery was already past it's prime (8 years old factory original) and when i went to get the tools from my trunk, I realized I have a major problem.

Key FOB won't open trunk because there's no power for trunk release.
Button in my car won't open trunk because there's no power for trunk release.
No key hole anywhere on the trunk for manual unlock and release. I've seen key hole on some 04+ GP but not all has it.

:th_scratchhead:

What brilliant engineer thought it was a good idea to not leave an easy to find emergency manual release???

Fortunately I was able to open the trunk in a convoluted manner. I had to flip down the back seat to gain access to the trunk, then fumble in the dark for emergency release (intended for people accidentally trapped in trunk or kidnap victims). Imagine the surprise from Walmart shopper when they saw my head pop up after the trunk opened. :th_king-normal:
 


Only the 04 year had a key hole on the trunk.

I like the look of not having one, but it screws you over if something like that happens.

I never use the trunk anyway, though.
 
you couldn't open the trunk when your battery failed via electronics,

So then you went into the trunk and used the manual emergency release.


I fail to see the flaw.......:th_jester:
 
Hes saying that if you kidnap someone and put them in the trunk they can escape what da hell was gm thinking ;)
 
Well you could always just pull the rear seat down and climb in the trunk and grab the latch. Seriously how often does your battery die hell you got 8 years out of it be happy.. It's not a normal occurrence so why would that be a flaw.
 


Seachicken said:
you couldn't open the trunk when your battery failed via electronics,

So then you went into the trunk and used the manual emergency release.


I fail to see the flaw.......:th_jester:
Click to expand...

:th_tongue2: I shouldn't have to crawl through the back seat just to open the damn trunk. I'm not exactly a flexible person. Trying to reach for manual release inside the trunk was like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. I don't know if they ever hired people to test car but they should include people who are somewhat large but not obese, and people who is so old he can't bend over and kiss his own ass anymore.

ericspecullaas said:
personally i would have slammed it shut after screeming help me lol jk jk. they should have made it glow in the dark
Click to expand...

It is glow in the dark. :rolleyes: It only works if the trunk was opened recently, which doesn't help me.
 
Quit yer bellyachin..

You have a fold down seat. In 97-03 if you didn't have the key (often with used cars) you needed a 10mm and super long extension to go through the silly pass through in the seat.

This weekend I started tearing down an 08 Impala, noticed there was no keyhole and popped it then disconnected the battery. Put a pair of vice grips on the wire to hold the trunk release. Cause on this Gimpy Impy, there's no fold down seat or pass through. It's buy tools and get a battery situation.
 


So... Just to make sure I read this right, rather than grabbing your tools via the back seat to put your new battery in, you decided to crawl into the trunk and pull the release to get your tools and put your new battery in?
 
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