I have a 2016 Honda CR-V that uses an electronic door unlock system. It has a mechanical key that can be used to unlock the door if the battery in the key-fob goes bad. I was thinking that with sheltering in place possibly resulting with the vehicle sitting for many days, would I be able to open the door to unlatch the hood to access the battery to charge the battery if the normal discharge from sitting discharged the battery enough so the electronic door unlock did not work?
I removed the key from the key fob and left the key fob in the house so it would be far enough away from the vehicle to not activate the automatic unlock, and used the key to unlock the door and listened to hear if it activated the solenoid that unlocks the door, or if it seams to be a mechanical linkage from the key to the unlocking mechanism of the door, as I turned the key.
My 2016 Honda CR-V seams to be mechanical in nature for the unlocking of the door. So if the vehicle sat long enough to discharge the battery I should be able to unlock the door even with a dead battery, and then be able to unlatch the hood and access the battery to charge it back up.
If the key had activated the unlock solenoid I was going to unlatch the hood from inside the vehicle and then not open the hood the rest of the way. I also had a sheet of paper with the words "close hood" that I was going to put face down on the drivers seat as a reminder to completely close the hood before use.
Also when I went to lock the door with the key I did hear the lock solenoid click, so the lock with key does use the battery. No big deal, but that is the way it is.
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Just thought I would pass this on to everyone so you know to check if your vehicle has an electric unlock with a key backup, to see if the key unlock is mechanical, or activates a switch that activates the unlock solenoid and relies on the battery. If it is the later, you might want to unlatch the hood from inside the vehicle while the battery is still charged, before letting the vehicle sit for an undetermined amount of time. And if you do that place a sheet of paper face down (so others can not read it to see that your hood is unlatched) on the drivers seat as a reminder to close the hood before use.
I removed the key from the key fob and left the key fob in the house so it would be far enough away from the vehicle to not activate the automatic unlock, and used the key to unlock the door and listened to hear if it activated the solenoid that unlocks the door, or if it seams to be a mechanical linkage from the key to the unlocking mechanism of the door, as I turned the key.
My 2016 Honda CR-V seams to be mechanical in nature for the unlocking of the door. So if the vehicle sat long enough to discharge the battery I should be able to unlock the door even with a dead battery, and then be able to unlatch the hood and access the battery to charge it back up.
If the key had activated the unlock solenoid I was going to unlatch the hood from inside the vehicle and then not open the hood the rest of the way. I also had a sheet of paper with the words "close hood" that I was going to put face down on the drivers seat as a reminder to completely close the hood before use.
Also when I went to lock the door with the key I did hear the lock solenoid click, so the lock with key does use the battery. No big deal, but that is the way it is.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Just thought I would pass this on to everyone so you know to check if your vehicle has an electric unlock with a key backup, to see if the key unlock is mechanical, or activates a switch that activates the unlock solenoid and relies on the battery. If it is the later, you might want to unlatch the hood from inside the vehicle while the battery is still charged, before letting the vehicle sit for an undetermined amount of time. And if you do that place a sheet of paper face down (so others can not read it to see that your hood is unlatched) on the drivers seat as a reminder to close the hood before use.
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