How to open trunk when 12V battery is dead?

 

Stick a bent coat hanger through the rear seats and pull on the emergency release.

 

The Key fob has a manual key on the side that can be removed and inserted in a key slot on the trunk. No battery required. The instructions are in the owners manual, but I believe the trunk key slot is on the left side of the rear backup camera lens.

 

If you have your key fob, there is a mechanical key built into the key fob. Remove the trunk key from the fob and you should be able to open the trunk:

 

Correct, but only if the current owner received the original key fobs (there should be two key fobs) in which the mechanical key matches his car's trunk lock.

There are numerous GS 350 owners that bought their car used from a dealer or individual that did not pass along the OE mechanical key; some having a new but uncut key.

 

The first time my battery died on the 4GS I was a few hundred miles away from home, had a JNC charger in the trunk but I completely forgot about the physical key in the keyfob that could let me into the trunk. It would've saved a call/time but nonetheless, AAA gave me a boost.

Agreed with what you're saying though...hopefully OP has the original key fob and properly cut mechanical key.

 

@julo972 ,

Why do you want to get into the trunk? Tell me the reason, please.

It's hard to imagine that the 12 volt battery is so completely dead that it can't muster up enough power to energize the trunk release solenoid.

I'm assuming you can get inside the cabin of the car, right? Have you opened the glove box to see if the trunk opener button is pushed in (locked) or sticking out (unlocked)?

Is the key fob battery dead too? Or is the glove box trunk switch locked which prevents you from being able to use the trunk release on the key fob to open the trunk?

Answer those questions for me and if you still can't open the trunk yet you have access to the cabin of the car and are able to open the glove box, I'll explain what you can do to open the trunk.

 

Worst case if you don’t have a physical key, you can get one cut at the dealer with vin/title.

Otherwise you have to remove the rear seat, lift up the sound deadner, working around the hybrid battery remove the trunk cover, and use something to pull the manual release inside the trunk.

 

@julo972 - Look in the upper left-hand side of your glove box. You'll see a Trunk Opener Cancel switch button just like the image below. This feature is so a valet cannot access the trunk even though the valet has your key fob.

Is this button in your glove box pushed in, or is it out?

The switch must to be in the out position for the trunk to be opened using any of the trunk opening features.

If you find that your Trunk Opener Cancel switch button is in the out position and you still cannot open your trunk then I'll explain how to open the trunk electrically another way without the car's alleged dead battery

Please answer my question.

 

@julo972 - You posted and then promptly ran away, so I guess you no longer need your question answered.

Do you care to tell us what the problem was and how you were able to open your trunk? Most people feel obliged to provide some context with such a thread topic.