Kia optima keys locked in trunk

first off this should be a sticky, anyone locked outta their car is a horrible experience especially when the keys are in the trunk with no hope of retrieving them without paying a locksmith over a hundred dollars to cut you a key or taking the car to the dreaded "dealer" and maybe get hit for more...and without further ado, this method will work when the model of your KIA Optima has upper trunk latches for the rear seat to fold down, if the locking mechanisms are located on the backing of the seat itself please do not refer to this thread.

Take a metal hanger, straighten everything except the hook, stick the hook on the lock mechanism and pull hard and fast. If you go too slow the hanger will bend**to be more specific the locking mechanism is inside the child seat anchor, located behind the headrests in the back dash area on either side of the vehicle, pull the grey casing out of the backdash and if you look inside there's the latch, make a nice bend at the tip of the coat hanger and pull the metal latch pull,not the cable(i almost snapped mine :0 )ive done this with 100% accuracy on an 06' and 12' models but any model with upper trunk rear folding seat latches should be fine.

this is a solution for if the front of the car is unlocked. which is to say that if you are locked out of your car the first thing you must do is get access to the front of the vehicle, not hard....insurance usually covers "lockouts" unless you are a coat hanger fiend like me. In any case have someone unlock the front of the vehicle, insurance company, pop-a-lock etc ; and unfortunately the alarm will be tripped, and electrical system is disengaged for anti theft purposes, but have no fear, simply open the hood release and disconnect the + battery cable(some small spark may occur) very harmless and the loud horn honking goes away.... anyway.....refer to paragraph 2 and you should be fumbling around in your trunk looking for your keys....stop and look for the inside emergency trunk release it is glow in the dark and yellow in normal lighting,pull emergency release and crawl outta the car(its easier to look from standing on your feet) locate keys and for some reason once the battery is reconnected and ready for ignition... i experienced sputtering and i would venture to say that the cars electrical system went through some shock ,so it may need to be started and reved up to return to normal idle state.

However, this worked for me and i hope it helps someone that is, what seemeth to be S.O.L.

Hello,
We rent Optima 2018 and you know rental car shops give us two keys and they can’t be separated.
I stupidly locked keys in the trunk.
Locksmith was able to get in the car but trunk button on the driver seat doesn’t work as we didn’t use the key to open.

I read some threads and looked for Emergency Trunk Release wire behind the back seat of the driver side. NONE!

Did they change the feature for the emergency trunk release?
If you know something please help!
Merry Christmas!

Behind driver's side REAR seat headrest, there is a small plastic cover and if you look closely it has a picture of the trunk embedded into the top. Remove that cover and there is a looped wire that you fish out, give a pull and trunk will open.
Hope it still is in the '18.
Merry Christmas

If it's not on the '18, try disconnecting the battery for 20 seconds and see if that changes anything.

Thank you! We looked for the first thing! But nothing there. They might have discontinued that feature for 2018???

Thank you! We looked for the first thing! But nothing there. They might have discontinued that feature for 2018???

Just got finished looking at the '18 owner's manual, you're correct, not there.
Being a holiday, might try disconnecting the battery if at all possible.
What a way to spend Christmas!

Thank you for looking in! Rental company said it’s ‘18 but it turned out the owners manual we have says ‘19! But still not there. Can’t believe they removed it!
It’s been an adventurous Christmas not to mention the reason we had to rent this was that our car broke down on Interstate!

A Christmas you'll never forget!

Some random "Locked-out" notes from Hyundai Forum days that likely apply here .....

One locksmith opened the

Door and

Armed the Security System making the Trunk Release button Fail ....

IF a Locksmith could have fished a wire thru the Driver Window and Pressed the Trunk Release Button ... THAT should have worked. If wire didn't activate door-open button, too, Pull trunk rear seat handle to access cabin.

I don't See the Rear Headrest "Pull-Trunk Release-wire" cover on my '16 SXL / Only car seat strap bar;

There is a tab cut-out on under-side of my driver door handle; In a Sonata there was a handle-level cap that removed showed a screw that removed allowed lock removal & access to a square plate that when turned counter-clockwise Unlocked the door and makes Security THINK a key unlocked it = OK. Maybe my under-side Tab is similar & I'll ask dealer next time in.

After locksmith door opening (not sure what side) the following worked:
1. Unhook positive cable from battery,
2. Held the trunk release button,
3. Plugged positive cable back in,
4. Trunk opened.
And keys were inside. lol

I'd email myself these notes for phone access in the future OR (better) get dealer to advise Real Way and email yourself same .

Hello,
We rent Optima 2018 and you know rental car shops give us two keys and they can’t be separated.

That is such an annoying practice that offers no benefit whatsoever to the customer; rental car companies do this because there are times where a rental car does not get returned to its original rental location--by having both keys with the vehicle it minimizes the possibility of one of the keys/fobs getting lost or misplaced due to them being in separate locations. The side effect of this of course is that now the responsibility of not losing both keys/fobs lies solely on the shoulders of whoever is in possession of them.

I'm confused, is it only a special feature that doesn't allow the trunk to lock with the keys in it? If I close my trunk with the keys, it won't engage the lock and will do the beeping sound similar to when the car is running and the fob is removed from the cabin.

In addition, you can separate the keys by cutting the wire. Nothing in the entire contract states you can't do that at both National and Enterprise, I've looked through it. I cut them and return them separate every time and let them deal with looping them back together.

I tested the trunk lockout safety feature (not sure exactly what it's called so I'll just call it that); I locked the doors and trunk using the remote, opened the trunk by pressing the trunk release button on the trunk lid (with the remote still in my hand--otherwise I would need to use the key instead), placed the remote in the trunk, then closed the trunk lid securely, after which the car emitted the long beep for about 3 seconds or so before silencing on its own. After all that I was still able to open the trunk using the trunk release button on the trunk lid--meaning, the trunk lock did not engage after I closed the trunk lid with the remote still in the trunk.

In OP's case I can speculate that, a) the battery in one or both remotes was weak and thus neither remote was able to communicate with the immobilizer system inside the vehicle; b) (untested--I wasn't about to try this myself) perhaps the trunk lockout feature doesn't work if both remotes are in the trunk (yes this sounds too farfetched to be possible but you never know); c) probably not the case but it is possible, but perhaps the anti-theft system itself may have been deactivated (the owner's manual actually mentions that this can be done by the dealer); d) an issue with the anti-theft/immobilizer system in general.

Without reading, what if the car were an LX w/o the smart key?

Without reading, what if the car were an LX w/o the smart key?

That makes sense then if it is the case. I wasn't aware any models came with standard keys. You'd think smart keys are standard by now on any cars above $20k.

In the 2018 Optima Owner's Manual (which I presume covers the 2018 rental car OP drove) it makes reference to two types of keys--the regular keyfob with the switchblade flip-out key and the Smart Remote keyfob. I should have alluded to the fact that my keyfob is a Smart Remote, and as such, I wouldn't know what the trunk lockout behavior would be like if using the regular keyfob remote.

Hi, our 2018 optima has the trunk lockout on the trunk door inside. But the back seats can fold down via a pull on each side of the rear drivers and passenger seats.

Shawn

Hi, our 2018 optima has the trunk lockout on the trunk door inside. But the back seats can fold down via a pull on each side of the rear drivers and passenger seats.

Shawn

Think you need to pull the release in the trunk to fold the seats down.

My 2016 also has the seat pull-downs inside the trunk, like most sedans. Remember reading about an emergency seat release somewhere, but could be the wrong car. Will search the manual one of these days.

As far as locking yourself out with the fob in the trunk, I never tried that, but just did now, and wherever you put the fob inside the trunk, the car beeps and you can't lock it. Maybe with the fob battery very low, but I just changed it, and no way.