Today was weird. I went to sit in the car, I closed the drivers door to get going on my drive. The screen was all black, my steering wheel wasn’t moving, couldn’t even push the pedals. Tried hard reset, nothing happened. The windows wouldn’t open, the doors wouldn’t open. The drivers door wouldn’t open. I was locked IN my car. I panicked, didn’t know what to do. I snuck over the back door passenger door and somehow miraculously it opened. After I got out I tried and None of the windows would open, none of the other doors would open. I luckily got out, tried opening the doors from the outside and nothing would open. Called road side service and they said it was my 12V. They towed it to service center. No problems at all or warnings until this. What would happen if that passenger door didn’t open ? What would I do? Break a window?
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Locked IN my Tesla
- Thread starter TexanEV
- Start date
You should buy one of those window breaking tools and keep it in your car. There's no other way out and it might save your life.
C141medic
Active Member
That’s funny because of any doors that wouldn’t open would be the rear doors and not the front. The front have emergency latches that’ll open without power. The rear do not.
Sounds like the time for a perfect random afternoon nap.
I didn’t know about the emergency latches - but tried opening with just the button. I think I squeezed the last bit of 12V to do this. Anyway, thanks guys, so helpful. If I was in my car you all would have probably saved me to get out of the car faster than tesla service.
Aikidoka
To increase range put the bike in the car
When I first decided to buy a MY and started reading these forums I decided to print the manual and keep it in the car for a situation just like this.
I couldn’t get another scenario out of my head. We have a baby, what if she was in the backseat of the car.
scenario: I find out the car is blacked out, I get out of the car using the emergency latch and close my driver side door (accidentally) OR like my situation, there’s just enough battery to open the driver door again once so I come out (don’t realize I only have one open left before the battery completely dies), but then none of the doors open again. Then I try to open the backdoor to get the baby out but it won’t open. None of the doors open. None of the windows open. Any suggestions for something like this?
I couldn’t get in.
scenario: I find out the car is blacked out, I get out of the car using the emergency latch and close my driver side door (accidentally) OR like my situation, there’s just enough battery to open the driver door again once so I come out (don’t realize I only have one open left before the battery completely dies), but then none of the doors open again. Then I try to open the backdoor to get the baby out but it won’t open. None of the doors open. None of the windows open. Any suggestions for something like this?
I couldn’t get in.
C141medic
Active Member
Aren’t the outside door handles mechanical? So, if the doors are not locked you should be able to pull the handles and open the doors.
Then take a second to not panic and evaluate the situation and if its needed, bite the bullet and break the glass farthest away from the baby. Car parts are replaceable. Remember to use something solid and sharp at the bottom corners of the glass, never the middle.
no I tried. The doors wouldn’t open the keycard nor the app would work to unlock the doors/open the doors. I’m not sure why.
Out of curiosity, had you just done a software update? My 12V failed just last week in the same way as you described (black screens, couldn’t get out except using the manual lever). Mine was in the middle of a software update when it happened.
As far as your child scenario, if it’s super hot outside, breaking a window would be your best bet I think, although I would try the trunk and all the doors first to make sure you can’t squeeze one last open first. Edit: when this happened on my car, the door I had opened didn’t roll up the window all the way once closed, so you could feasibly fish a coat hangar in to grab the manual release as well.
You can also have another ICE vehicle “jump” your Model 3 if you have jumper cables. It takes a few minutes for the system to come up, but it will eventually power on and you can open the doors. This also works with one of those portable jumper units, which is what I did when my 12V died. The manual tells you how to access the battery and pop the frunk from the tow eye port.
They are not.
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C141medic
Active Member
Interesting. I always thought that they were mechanical and independent of power to access from the outside.
@C141medic
They arent, they are levers that press on an internal switch to send the signal, no linkage. I took some apart.
They arent, they are levers that press on an internal switch to send the signal, no linkage. I took some apart.
C141medic
Active Member
That’s crazy. So much for safety. Good to know.
Remember if the battery is dead and you use the manual release to open the front doors that the windows do not do the little open dance.
do not slam the door shut if they were manually opened with a dead battery. It may either scratch the trim, break the glass, or both.
do not slam the door shut if they were manually opened with a dead battery. It may either scratch the trim, break the glass, or both.
