How to unlock your car with a Tennis Ball

[helicopterjim R.I.P.]

How to unlock your car with a Tennis Ball

[Guest ratchethack]

[DeBenGuzzi]

don't think that would work on newer cars, mine is a slide lock type on the side of the door and the wifes car has a pivot style one that is also on the side of the door. its possible but I think they are seperated from the keyhole and done with actuators and little metal bits not air pressure

[WitchCityBallabio]

As a working locksmith, I can assure you that this wouldn't work. It would be funny watching someone pressing a tennis ball against their car doors for a while though.

[helicopterjim R.I.P.]

As a working locksmith, I can assure you that this wouldn't work. It would be funny watching someone pressing a tennis ball against their car doors for a while though.

 

I am thinking that the whole point of this video is to see how many people will try the technique.

[JoeV11]

It only works with lock buttons that go up and down. If you have to turn them it won't work. The air pressure forces the lock button up.

Joe

 

 

[DeBenGuzzi]

It only works with lock buttons that go up and down. If you have to turn them it won't work. The air pressure forces the lock button up.

Joe

Maybe if you had a 25,000 PSI tennis ball.

 

better yet, fill the tennis ball with lead and use it to open the window.

[pasotibbs]

Maybe if you had a 25,000 PSI tennis ball.

 

better yet, fill the tennis ball with lead and use it to open the window.

This is really old here in the UK (maybe 20 yr's), I remember it from when I was training as a mechanic, the son of a police officer told me he'd seen his father actually do this when someone locked themselves out of their car (he claimed the police kept finding half a tennis ball at car theft sites and finally worked out why!).I seem to remember it only worked on the central locking Fords of the time (which could explain why Cosworths were never where the owner left them ) but a workmate (the bouncing Czech ) says he heard it worked on some Skodas, I figured it must have been a weakness in the electrical contacts that fire the central locking motors rather than the lock itself (you don't have to unlock the car with the air pressure but just get the central locking to switch) but never tried it out because it could dent the door panel.

 

The other one I heard is that with Porches you kick the boot floor hard and the doors unlock because its designed to unlock the if it thinks its been rear ended

 

But it just could be a myth ?

[luhbo]

No myth, just pneumatic central lock systems, at least twenty years ago or so.

[Martin Barrett]

The half tennis ball is true, I always had a piece of packing binder strap coiled in my helmet, smooth knobs were the end of that.

[quazi-moto]

If one didn't have a tennis ball handy could one just fart into the keyhole?

[luhbo]

Well, I think the trick was not only the tennis ball, also the smile looked important.

 

This could make for a good youtube entry, indeed

 

Hubert

[TX REDNECK (R.I.P.)]

This is for people who are gullible.

 

[pasotibbs]

This is for people who are gullible.

 

I think that the video is a fake but I still think that to truly bust the myth they needed to try a selection of cars and older models . As I said before this story has been around in the UK for 20yrs and if I remember correctly was only linked to the central locking Fords of that time.

If the myth is true then as I've said before its probably due to the electrical contacts being closed by the air being forced through the central locking switch (usually mounted on the back of the lock barrel) rather than the lock itself being breached ?

 

If only we knew a UK Police officer, then he could ask the Traffic Division if its true

[grossohc]

 

If only we knew a UK Police officer, then he could ask the Traffic Division if its true

 

 

See post 10