Getting locked out of your Javelin!

[David Morris]

Hi there,

A couple of words of caution!

The other day, we were at a car rally at Kemble Airfield. As we had left the car on the field for an hour or so, we had locked up. When we came to depart, I naturally went to the driver's door and rotated the key. I was then surprised that the door remained closed tight, as were all the other doors, as we had secured the car.

We then noticed thast ALL the door interior handles were in the 'UP' or locked position, including the drivers one!! Not entirely sure how this had happened, but we did have our grandchildren with us, and they do know how to lock the passenger doors....

Anyway, however it happened, the car was now well and truely sealed!! All windows were tight closed. Urgh!!

Our 'solution' was to open the boot. Empty everything out ( why do we take all those spares with us?? ) and then unscrew the seven set screws that hold the rear seat squab in place. Push the squab forward and wriggle into the rear of the car, open one of the rear doors...presto! Like the Haynes manual, re-assembly was the reverse of this paragraph!

Is our driver's lock unique,' as other Javelins I have tried since do not allow you to raise the driver's door handle to the closed position?

Anyway, if yours will allow this to happen, be warned!! You might get yourself locked out! Do take care, as you might not have a spanner with you!

All the best,

David

[Tony Fearn]

Hello David.

What a fantastic bit of lateral thinking!

I've also had trouble not too dissimilar. It wasn't a Javelin from which we were locked out, but an Austin Maestro, some years ago when I took my daughter to have a look at Swansea Uni. many many miles from home (near Accrington).

The ignition key broke off in the steering column as I tried to start the car on the 6th floor of a multi-storey car park as we were ready to go home.

I was left with a little bit of plastic in my hand. Ooops!

Being in a previous life a 'Boy Scout' I had of course a spare key, in a well-greased bit of plastic sheet, wrapped in insulation tape and wired to a convenient projection under the rear of the car.

No problem. We came home without hassle.

Now all of you reading this may be laughing by now, but if it was you, what a lot of bother you would have been put through to get your car started, especially as you would have been many miles from home. You can't just run a wire from the battery to the SW side of the coil any longer in a modern vehicle, so 'BE PREPARED' and buy a spare key (doesn't need to be battery powered) and hide it away just in case.

Tony.

[Leo Bolter]

Hi David.
I can say "been there, done that" and exactly as you describe!
Immediately on returning home the driver's side door mechanism was modified to prevent re-occurance . . . . I can't remember what I actually did but it didn't take long so must have been simple
Best regards.
Leo

[paul wilks]

I don't know whether this helps but............. I remember years ago attending a South West Section meeting when I was on holiday in Cornwall. I was impressed (okay, I was young and I thought it looked 'cool'!) by the fact that one member had repositioned their interior driver's handle. I realise this might be difficult to imagine without pictures but instead of the driver's handle pointing 'down' from the front of the door at an angle of about 30 degrees (as is usual) it was pointing 'upwards' from the front of the door at an angle of about 60 degrees. So when I returned home I did the same simply by removing the handle and rotating it so that the holes through the spindle and the handle coincide and the handle was at the required angle. So instead of pushing down on the handle to open the door you pull the handle towards you. I hope this makes sense! My driver's handle has been like that ever since.
I could be wrong but I guess by doing this the driver's handle can't become locked from the inside. I realise, however, that someone might prove me wrong!

Paul