My Hurricane Story

[jazz-Z]

I don't normally post here because of a disagreement with the management about their avatar policies, and there are other issues. Nevertheless, I thought this would be a useful post that should be shared. Just before Hurricane Sandy struck the United States East Coast, people in the affected area were all encouraged to make provisions for loss of power, and the potential contamination of the drinking water supply. I spent the days leading up to the arrival of Sandy as others did, laying in my provisions. Just a couple of hours before the rain was to start I ran one last errand. I returned home from that errand, and parked my Z in the garage. I pressed the little button below the car door handle to lock the car, and walked away content that I was as prepared as I could be. As I was walking to my apartment I reached for my key and realized it was no longer in my pocket. I walked back across the parking lot and back to my Z. I wasn't worried, because the key had to be in the car, and the car is not supposed to lock with the key inside the passenger compartment. Unfortunately, this time it did. My keys were locked in the car. Needless to say I was somewhat distraught because the apartment management office was not open since it was after hours. I was locked out with the hurricane coming. I did get back into my apartment, with my neighbors help.

After Sandy departed I called my local Nissan dealership (Darcars Nissan) to tell them what happened. I told them I was really upset because the keyless entry, and start system should not allow the key to be locked in the car from the outside, and although things had worked out for me, things could have turned out a lot worse. The manager at Darcars service agreed with me and they sent someone out with a new key within half an hour to get me back into my car. The person from the dealership stood and watched me open the car, and witnessed that the car had been locked with the key inside. I tried to duplicate what had happend to see if the car would again lock with the key inside. It would not. However, on one of these trials I saw the key symbol in the multifunction gauge with the words "key not present"(sic). This worried me that I would become a victim of the dreaded steering wheel lock problem.

A couple of days later I talked with the manager at Darcars Nissan about what happend, and my fear with regard to the steering wheel lock issue. I told them that I have a 2009, and with a little over 40K miles on my car it looked like I could end up being a victim of steering wheel lock. I also showed them printouts of the threads from this forum. Fortunately, the manager was familiar with the issue. She had one of the mechanics look over the car and check the cars computer for codes. They could not find a clear cut reason for why this happened to me. She said she would give the issue some thought and get back to me. To make a long story shorter, I just returned from the dealership with my car. They replaced my steering column lock unit for free. They also provided me with an additional key fob at cost (They did not charge me for programming the fob). I am very happy with their service. I just want to put a plug in for the service I received and regularly recieve at Darcars Nissan. One hears so many bad things about car dealerships, and much of it is probably deserved, but in my case I can't imagine how they could have been more responsive and responsible. A really good experience. I should also mention that I do have the platinum warranty, otherwise I would have been out of warranty, and out of pocket for this issue.

[4r3s]

tl:dr the "Enter" key is your friend, makes things more easily readable...

[HKYStormFront]

that's good to hear that they took care of it. i guess it had momentarily lost communication with the key fob causing the car to let you lock the doors. perhaps the battery in the original remote is going dead? to me, and this is nothing against you at all, this is why i use my key fob to lock my vehicle. it ensures that i have my keys before the vehicle gets locked. just good practice i suppose. i've done it before tho, plenty of times, especially talking on my cell phone...

[SS_Firehawk]

Glad to see a Dealer step up to the plate and provide good service. Glad to see yu and your Z made it out ok

[Cmike2780]

I've tried locking the key inside on purpose to see if it could happen and there is only one scenario when it does occur. Basically, you'd have to manually lock the doors (where the door opener handle is) from the inside and shut the door. There is no override for that since it's essentially analog. The doors will not lock if the keyfob is inside the car and you press the button on the door handle. You will get short, consecutive beeps or nothing will happen. You can try this (with the windows down or the spare handy of course). Glad to see there's at least one good dealership out there.

[nmjaxx9]

when I read the title I really thought it was a story about how your Z was swept away in the storm or something like that.

Glad to know your Z is safe, and you found a good dealership.

[atx370z]

Originally Posted by 4r3s

tl:dr the "Enter" key is your friend, makes things more easily readable...

[Naenyn]

Originally Posted by nmjaxx9

when I read the title I really thought it was a story about how your Z was swept away in the storm or something like that.

Glad to know your Z is safe, and you found a good dealership.

Exactly what I was thinking.. Sandy claimed a Z. Glad it didn't and that all ended up well!

[Cmike2780]

Nissan lost a lot of cars at the NJ port, so it's likely the Z did take some casualties.