Using the emergency key with a dead battery can be a pain, especially since it's plastic, as it can have a tendency to break in the lock.
Some have had success with slowly turning it until it turns 90°or slightly more and unlocks the door. It's purely mechanical. You could put some Lock-Ease in the key hole first to help lubricate things. Have something to wipe up/off any that might drip/run down the door.
Read post #10 in the thread below where a member had success unlocking the vehicle with the plastic E-key.

Link >>>> https://www.clubtouareg.com/threads/help-cant-unlock-car.286627/

 

Or if that doesn't work check out...
https://www.clubtouareg.com/threads/2013-touareg-3-6l-vr6-dead-battery-and-locked-doors.298732/

 

Got a ride to the metro station and took the train in (so much better than driving) brought some WD40 and the spare key to try the emergency key from there. After a few times n and out was able to get it open.

Will get a jump it and take the car in see what drained the battery.. Hopefully won't be too costly

 

Do you have VCDS so you can post an auto-scan?

 

Take all your keys with you to shop so when they replace your totally dead battery they can re-code your key fobs too. Then all should be fine.

 

No need to recode key fobs, unless having immobilizer issues

 

As above, key fobs should not be affected.

 

Guess a 2016 key fob is an improvement over the 2007 ones.

 

I have read in some threads where the FOB on the T1+T2's needed to be re-synced/relearned. There is a procedure in those threads. I have not read of it happening on T3's and on.

 

So the battery was 100% dead. A jump would not do it, had to call in AAA and their jump equipment was able to get the car going. Drove it over to the dealer at night left it at the night box.

The dealer called and said the car started right up. Of course it did....

Its a busy Saturday so not sure when I will hear back. Given the car had no issue with them they asked why I thought there was some electrical drain. It had to be something as the battery does not just go dead like that and the battery is 11-months old. Told him about hearing the fan on two occasions before starting the engine the day the battery went out. They will do some diagnostics and see what it says. Will report back. Service advisor said the fan is a known issue to drain battery.

I assume this is not just some one off thing, don't want to take the risk getting stuck again.

Had no issue with the FOB. Keys worked as normal once I was able to get the car started.

 

So the battery was 100% dead. A jump would not do it, had to call in AAA and their jump equipment was able to get the car going. Drove it over to the dealer at night left it at the night box.

The dealer called and said the car started right up. Of course it did....

Its a busy Saturday so not sure when I will hear back. Given the car had no issue with them they asked why I thought there was some electrical drain. It had to be something as the battery does not just go dead like that and the battery is 11-months old. Told him about hearing the fan on two occasions before starting the engine the day the battery went out. They will do some diagnostics and see what it says. Will report back. Service advisor said the fan is a known issue to drain battery.

I assume this is not just some one off thing, don't want to take the risk getting stuck again.

Had no issue with the FOB. Keys worked as normal once I was able to get the car started.

I’ve had similar issue. Frustrating as it seems fan running after Touareg turned off was happening randomly. Hard to replicate in shop. One possibility is low coolant level which could cause fan to run at high speed to cool engine after turned off. Possibly.

 

Is your new battery OEM? Did you recode the battery coding in Vagcom?

As a generalization you don't want your key fob battery to die because it can cause some issues with reconnecting to the car once it's been replaced

 

A “new” battery could easily sit on a parts shelf for a few years. “New” doesnt mean date of install in vehicle - it means newly manufactured although parts dept will attempt to convince you that the “new” battery really is a new one. Its a game that they play.

 

I will watch for your post with diagnosis. Thanks for sharing.

 

So they monitored the car for two days and found random spikes but could not determine why. Finally, at some point the engine fan turned on with the car being off and not in use. Engine fan is being replaced. Needed some other care, air filters and front brakes. But now they found a leaking gasket leaking oil slow leak (makes sense I had to top if off a month ago) and one of the coils is in bad shape, rusted out. Not saying any correlation looks like the fan was having an electrical issue.

I don't think the fan would be under the powertrain warranty, but I feel like leaking gasket and coils should? Need to find a copy of a 2016 100k/10 year powertrain warranty as I am at 86k miles.

 

Edited: Posted in error on wrong thread

 

What!???