[Castle]

So, I frequently go to this mall where they must have an antenna of sorts that somehow inteferes with the FOB frequency. The FOB just doesn't work there and I have to use the actual key to manually lock/unlock the door. The time before last, I felt the lock mechanism was not working smoothly, and I actually had to use some wrist force to get the door to unlock. I forgot about it, but yesterday I went to the place again and when I was going to use the key to unlock the car the lock just felt loose to the key, no resistance at all and of course it didn't unlock. It took me like 20 minutes and quite a bit of creativity to get the FOB to unlock the door.

Obviously the key mechanism is broken, as the FOB and dash button work fine everywhere else. Now that I have no manual way to unlock the car, I do fear I might find myself in another situation where the FOB gets intererence and I either walk away thinking the car is locked, or even worse get locked out of the car.

My questions are, do any of you guys know of any alternative way to unlock the car should this happen again before I get the lock replaced?. And is it a DIY fix? I mean, I've changed the actuators myself before, so it's not like I'm a stranger to the internal door/window layout.

Thanks.

[335NJ]

Spray Tri-Flo, or WD40 into the lock. The cylinder's fine i'm sure, but the springs and tumblers are likely seized since it goes down the road for years before it ever gets used.

Lubricate it, run the key in and out, test.

[///Mposter]

You could use the key to go through the trunk, and then the backseats can fold down. Or just get the trunk open and use the key fob in the car. The signal may work better in the car in that area.

[Castle]

Thank you guys, I'll try both suggestions.