We had snow this week, first of the year! Another one of my good neighbor’s took this photo. I am lucky to have so many creative and well-prepared folks around.
It is good to have good neighbors.
How would I make it through my days without them?
This evening, it was my neighbor up the street (who is clearly more prepared for life than I am) who came to our aid.
Meaning, she had WD-40 I could borrow when I accidentally engaged the valet lock on the trunk of my trusty old Corolla, and then suddenly was unable to open it. My daughter, who is home from college for winter break, was just getting back from a three day mini-Tahoe vacation with friends from school, and we had stowed her gear in the trunk.
“Can you open it, please?” she asked, very politely.
Usually? I pop the trunk with the button by the driver’s seat. But since I was standing back there with her and had the key in hand, I thought I would unlock it that way. I’ve done that before. Except somehow, accidentally, I turned the lock from the upright vertical position to the horizontal. This? This I had never done before. And with the lock in the horizontal position? The trunk was locked tight. And the lock was not moving, apparently ever again. I wiggled the key, and wiggled it. The lock stayed firmly in horizontal mode.
“Try the latch inside?” I asked her.
It clicked. But no cigar.
I am grateful for the Google. A quick search and I learned that I had inadvertently engaged the valet lock. You know, a good thing to have, just in case you are dining at a fancy restaurant and you do not want the valet to rifle through the trunk of your 2005 Corolla, because certainly, those things are full of valuables and need to be protected.
Also, according to the Google? It is not uncommon for Corollas (also Camrys) of a certain year to have sticky valet locks.
Wonderful.
After a second Google search (“I can’t get my Corolla trunk out of valet mode”), I found a link to a quick video that basically showed a fellow spraying WD-40 into his trunk’s lock. And spraying it again. And one more time! Scintillating entertainment. But at the end, before he gives up, the lock turns back to the vertical and the trunk pops open. (This thing had 52,000 views, so apparently, this is a problem for many of us).
My daughter came out of the warm house, where the fire was roaring, to provide moral support (also because I kind of made her) after I got back from my neighbor’s, WD-40 in hand, and began to spray the lock. Spray, wiggle the key. Spray, wiggle the key. It didn’t seem like it was doing much, but the lock in the YouTube video was also stubborn.
“Is there a way to open the trunk from inside the car?” she asked, possibly feeling a little panicked that she might never see her warm clothes again.
Indeed! There is a latch to pull, in the unfortunate event that you get locked in the trunk. A safety feature, I guess, that hopefully is not used very often.
Somehow, she wedged her arm into the trunk from the back seat enough to pull the latch.
It opened!
Her warm clothes were saved.
But still, we had the problem of the trunk being safely valet locked. Which wouldn’t be an issue if I never needed to use the trunk again. But I kind of need it, since I have a massage table that doesn’t fit anywhere else.
Spray. Turn the key. Spray. Turn the key.
Until somehow, when we were least expecting it, the key went vertical again, and the trunk opened.
I think both of us were surprised.
Hallelujah, friends. We did it.
Well. It was us and the YouTube, but most of all, the WD-40.
So much gratitude for a seemingly insignificant thing.
There is a new rule for the Corolla trunk now: keep the key far away from it. Only open that thing via the button by the driver’s seat.
Also, I added WD-40 to my shopping list.
1 Comment
Someone could probably write a humorous book on old car stories. I imagine there are many ones out there. I have a few! Plus the ingenuity it takes to get out of sticky situations.