mis3

My friend rented a 2013 Dodge Caravan and by mistake, he locked the car with the key inside. The car rental company was closed at the time so he called for a tow truck. The guy came and instead of a slim jim, he used some kind of a wedge to force into the window frame and unlocked the door with a long cord. Apparently, the slim jim would not work because of the side airbag.

Would this work for a w209, our windows have no frame? I did lock myself out one time as I left the key in the trunk. I was lucky that my 2nd key was nearby

Rudeney

Slim jims don't work well on MBZs due to the design. There are a few guys who can do it, but they really have to know their stuff. Now, many locksmiths use the wedge method. They even make inflatable pillows to help do this without marring anything. This probably would not work on the frameless style glass on the CLK. If you have a MY2005 or later, you may be able to get a lifetime subscription to Teleaid/mBrace for $300, and that comes with a smartphone unlock opp. They keep sending me emails and snail mail trying to get me to sign up.

Oh, on other thing you could do that would be less expensive is to have an extra hard key made (you'll need a locksmith to make it) and then hide it on the car. You'd be able to open the door, but not start the engine, of course.

mis3

I wonder where I should go to make this key. Not sure if a regular hardware store can duplicate the key.

Rudeney

No, you'll probably need a professional locksmith. AN alternative is to order just the hard key from your dealer. I think those are around $30 compared to $200+ for the entire SmartKey.

Louie D

Be careful with Teleaid/mBrace, My wife has found me using the locate thing Louie why are you at the casino LOL and it does unlock the doors.

elijah

lol

user 823908234

That's just WRONG!

Rudeney

LOL! Seriously, though, you can't locate the car with eMbrace unless you are within 500ft of it (i.e. a parking lot). This is actually one thing I wish they would offer. I put an aftermarket GPS tracker in the kid's C240. The part cost me $250 and I pay about $175/yr for service and I can track exact location and speed anytime I want. It even texts me when she exceeds 75mph. Yes, I do have an unlimited text plan on my cell phone.

fusionnrg

i accidentally locked myself out by opening the trunk without unlocking the doors. i left my keys in the trunk. called AAA and they unlocked it by placing this airbag between the wedges of our windows. he pumps the airbag to separate the windows and uses a long curved stick to pull on the door handles.

the airbag looked like a whoopie cushion, flat before inflating which made it easy to slide between the wedge of the two windows.

mis3

Good to know.
Surprised that the airbag pump worked for a w209, considering our frameless windows.

ProjectCamaro

I'm a police officer and we do lockouts all the time and we use a mixure of the airbags you described and the wedges the OP described.

Cars are made where Slim Jims won't work as car thieves were breaking into cars way to easily with them. I will say I have yet to find a car that I have not been able to break into with the airbag/wedge kit. Some do take longer than others of course.

mis3

Would the door/window close perfectly after the airbag or wedge kit? How about the trim between the front and rear windows?

It must be nerve-wracking to watch...

ProjectCamaro

I've never had issues but as a car guy I am extremely careful. I tell the person up front it'll take me longer than most to get in because I'll take my time not to do any damage to their car.

But yes, if I rushed in or made the gap to large I can easily see how it could do permanent damage.