Keys locked in a running Esprit...what do you????

[karmavore]

After driving my car for 15/20 minutes this afternoon I stopped off at McDonalds to grab lunch (a salad!) and left her running; I was only going to be a minute. Trouble was, I when I hit the alarm and locked the doors I didn’t realize it wouldn’t let me open them again, presumably because it was running So, salad in hand, keys in car, car chugging along I saw only two options:

1) Call cab (30 minutes to show up) and have it drive me home (a 12 minute round trip) to get my spare and leave the car running.

2) Try to stall car by shoving something in the tail pipe and hoping the alarm relinquished its control. If not, go home for keys.

What would you have done?? 1? 2? None of the above??

I chose 1 which ended up leaving the car idling for 45-60 minutes. She was a little warm (oil and water) but not in the red and cooled down quickly once I got moving.

Luke.

[K4trn]

urm.... not have left the engine running....
There's too many people, too willing to smash car windows and get in and that's without being given the keys on a plate! Bet the taxi driver thought you were barking!

[kylie]

Arrrh no Luke, thats a real bugger!!. If a locksmith was close-by and willing to arrive within 15mins I would go for that option. As said leaving a car running with keys is open for smash and drive off. Tow truck people are also quite good at getting into cars too.

[GreenV8S]

karmavore said:

I stopped off at McDonalds to grab lunch (a salad!) and left her running; I was only going to be a minute.

To be blunt, leaving it running when you were away from the car was spectacularly stupid (I guess you probably don't need me to tell you that). I very much doubt that your insurance would have covered you if the car had been stolen.

If you did find yourself locked out with the keys in the car, I would suggest arranging for somebody you know to fetch the keys for you, or watch over the car for you while you fetched them. But best not get yourself into this situation in the first place, when you get out of the car take the keys with you.

[quiksilver]

I don't think stalling it would have helped, I believe the car deadlocks in this situation and only opens with the keys, the car also cannot be opened from the inside !

Not too sure why you left it running tbh, I've only ever done it when my battery was no-existant and I had to get it into my works garage which is on a really dodgy estate, certainly the most harrowing 2-3 minutes of my ownership (suprising how slow roller shutters can be, even for a 43" car).

[country]

i would of called aaa or a tow truck company.

[MikeyRide]

GreenV8S said:

To be blunt, leaving it running when you were away from the car was spectacularly stupid (I guess you probably don't need me to tell you that).

Rather depends on where you live, don't you think?

[karmavore]

Thanks for the criticism, but theft wasn't much of a concern. Here in the US, it would seem, and in this neighborhood in particular, the parking brake is enough to stump 99% of would be drivers.

What I was concerned with is the health of the engine. Stalling versus idling.

Luke

[cdp]

Shoving something (BigMac?) up the exhaust would probably have done damage to your engine/exhaust/turbo. I really wouldn't recommend it to anybody as a way of stopping a car.

As it's a Lotus why didn't you just wait for the central locking to short it'self and open the doors at random?

[Autocross7]

Ummmmm....

Hmmmm....

How did the doors get locked? did the system get changed after 88'? My doors can only be locked with the key (ie: i can not lock the door and then close it)?

Window up: coat hanger bent into a short "L" (of course this does assume one is available) slid past the obviously up window. The rod that locks the door can be grabbed after some cussing and determination. Pull slightly up and forward. (It works - I did the MacGiver test on it)

However, this also asumes a working knowledge of the mechanism. Again, I'm not sure about yours if it can be locked without a key?

Drive topless!!!
Cameron

[karmavore]

My car has an aftermarket alarm and, I assume, power locks. I'm not sure what is OEM and what isn't.

Luke.