Locking your keys inside your car is one of the most annoying things you can do. You know you made a huge mistake almost immediately after doing such things. You have limited options when you need to open a car door.
You can call a tow service or roadside assistance to unlock it, get your car lock open using a coat hanger, or take a ride home to retrieve the other keys. If none of those sound interesting to you, there is another option you may wish to try to unlock your car. Many videos online show how you can supposedly try using a tennis ball to unlock car door.
In our guide, you can find out how to use a tennis ball, unlock car simply by causing a pressure wave in the key hole. By the end, you’ll have enough information, and ultimately, it can give you another option to pull a tennis ball from your pocket and open your locked car door before you need to smash the window to get your keys. (Learn What Does A Burnt Clutch Smell Like)
Unlock a Car Door With a Tennis Ball?
Using a tennis ball to unlock a car door has been online for years. It is uncertain where it came from, although in 2007, a video allegedly proving the claim helped the alleged “car hack” claim spread across the internet.
Thanks to many individuals publishing videos and descriptions on blogs and social media platforms throughout 2016, this unlock your car with tennis ball hack attracted more attention.
So, is this claim true, and is using a tennis ball to unlock your car door feasible?
Here’s how the “tennis ball car door hack” works.
The aggravation of locking one’s car keys inside is a topic of conversation.
They then detail the few options limited to you. The options are to be towed home to retrieve the spare set of keys, to call a tow agency to unlock the car, or to try the typically fruitless coat hanger method.
The narrative provides another technique, using tennis balls as an option. The alleged steps one must take to open a car door with a tennis ball are as follows.
- Burn or simply cut a small hole into a tennis ball
- Place your tennis ball on your car door with the cut or burnt hole covering the keyhole.
- Press the tennis ball using full force against your door handle.
- The air inside the ball compresses and will force the locking mechanism in your door to unlock.
What really happens?
For most individuals, you’ll find it impossible to unlock a car door with a tennis ball. You have every right to think that the tennis ball car door unlocking method is too good to be true. The claim is untrue. A tennis ball isn’t highly effective for opening car doors.
The myth was debunked in a web video by the “MythBusters,” who were alerted to the tennis ball car door unlocking story. The MythBusters team first attempted to duplicate the outcomes of the “air pressure” tennis ball hack on doors with different-sized holes in the tennis balls.
The team also attempted to open a car door using even more air pressure. By vacuum-sealing the car lock and then adding much higher air pressure than normal atmospheric pressure, they attempted to accomplish this. But this method likewise fell short. The fact that this clip was being shared as early as 2007, when its claims were made rendered the idea of locking one’s vehicle superfluous.
If creating the equivalent of a universal master key in a tennis ball by burning a hole in it were as simple as unlocking any car, dishonest burglars would only need to invest in a can of tennis balls to break into any cars at their leisure. (Learn How To Clean Car Battery Terminals With Vinegar)
However, in the years following 2007, there has not been a discernible spike in car break-ins. Subsequent iterations of this hack video placed minimal emphasis on the “crime warning” component.
Many came with phrases like “valuable life hack” and “breathless safety warning” in a post that recommended and warned against the locked car door hack that involved the purportedly proper tennis ball:
No situation is more inconvenient than locking oneself out of their car. You probably remember the feeling of absolute horror that overcame you in that split second when you realized what you had done.
Now we get to the enjoyable part. You have a few options: you can try to open the locking mechanism by jimmying it open with a coat hanger, walk miles to your house to look for additional keys, or try your luck with a coat hanger.
It is possible that the number of users who send along the information “just in case” or to be “better safe than sorry” without trying it has been the driving force behind the rumor’s enduring popularity, much like a similar car door lock hack of equally dubious merit.
Alternative Tennis Ball Method
Rather than try to unlock your car door with a tennis ball, there is more than one method to use a tennis ball for your car, even though the claim that it can unlock doors is bogus.
This includes marking the spot where you need to park in your garage with a tennis ball.
To do this, suspend a tennis ball from the garage ceiling, so it hangs down to the level of the windshield. Then, stop your car where the windscreen hits the tennis ball when you pull into your garage; you’ll find this method will help save hitting the wall.
Long car trips are another occasion where a tennis ball comes in good. You can use a tennis ball to massage your tense muscles if your body becomes stiff from spending a lot of time in a vehicle.
A tennis ball can also be used as an antenna, especially on older cars with long antennas prone to swaying.
An antenna can be kept from swaying and crashing into a vehicle by placing a tennis ball on it. However, it’s possible that doing this will lessen the antenna’s performance. (Learn How To Dispose Of Diesel Fuel)
Pick The Lock With a Bobby Pin
If you can’t try the tennis ball method to open your car’s locking mechanism, or you think opening a door with a tennis ball trick is just a myth.
You could stand more chances using this method if you are desperate and have locked your phone and key fob in your car.
- A bobby pin should be spread open and bent 90 degrees like an L shape. The pick you’ll use to unlock the door will be this bobby pin.
- The rubber tip on the bobby pin’s straight end should be removed. Then, on the rounded rubber tip off the bobby pin’s straight side with a knife or razor blade. You will insert this end into the lock to pick it.
- Use your fingernail or teeth to pry off the rubber tip if you don’t have any tools.
- Insert the pin’s flat end into the top of the lock, then bend it. Next, stick the pin in about half an inch, then fold the remaining bobby pin to flush with the doorknob’s face. The result will be an angled tip.
- The pin’s bent end will disengage the lock’s pins.
- For better control, shape the bobby pin’s waved end into a handle. Although unnecessary, this step will make it simpler and more comfortable for your hands to pick the lock.
- To create the tension lever, bend the tip of another bobby pin. Using a different bobby pin, bend the top third of the pin to create a hook.
- Do not spread the bobby pin’s two sides apart as you did with the pick. Instead, bend the bobby pin in the same direction on both sides.
- Once you’ve picked the lock, could you turn it on using the tension lever?
Alternatively, of trying methods that don’t work, there is always the option to purchase a key safe that you put in a small hole somewhere under your car. It can remind you to think you may do this, and it is no fun being locked out of your car.
