Look at the remarkable difference between this very old, worn key (right) and the new key generated and cut by code.
Through out the life of your vehicle, you may find that your ignition switch or door lock seems to stop working. With each passing day it may become more and more difficult to get your key to turn in the lock. Naturally, most people will want to blame the lock, but that's usually not the problem.
Here at High Desert Lock and Safe we get calls on a fairly regular basis from frustrated car or truck owners whose locks are becoming more and more stubborn to operate. Usually it's a very similar story, "The lock on my door is broken and isn't working properly." However, being locksmiths we tend to look at the problem a little differently.
The first question we usually ask is: How old is your car or truck key? When you think of wear and tear on a vehicle, many different things may come to mind. Most commonly your engine, transmission and other drive train components are the first things considered. However, did you ever think about your car or truck keys?
Your door locks, ignition switch and keys take a lot of abuse. Every day the sliding, twisting and turning take an effect on your keys, along with the wafers inside your locks and ignition. Automotive keys are typically made from brass where as the wafers in your locks are usually made from steel. Brass, being a relatively soft metal will begin to wear. Over time you may notice it getting harder and harder to operate your locks.
So does that mean your locks will never go bad? Well of course not, but there is an easy way to diagnose the problem yourself without incurring costs to have a mobile locksmith sent out to your location to diagnose what is usually a simple problem.
So how do I determine if it's your key or lock? Take your key and try it on the passenger door of the vehicle. Why the passenger door you may ask? It's no surprise that your driver door lock is far more commonly used than the passenger door lock. Every time you walk up to your vehicle to unlock it, which door do you use? The driver side door of course!
Over time, the driver side lock begins to wear, just like your key. The wafers in your lock begin to loosen up and things get a little sloppy. So, to properly troubleshoot whether it's the lock or key malfunctioning, we need to test the key a known, tight lock. This is where your passenger door lock comes into play. Being that this lock is rarely used, this lock has likely remained tight and accurate.
Now, test your key and see what happens. Does it work? Chances are it won't. This tells us it's a problem with they key, not the locks. So now what? Do we need replace all the locks on the vehicle to fix the problem? No. But sadly some more dishonest locksmiths will try to upsell you on unnecessary service like this, when the truth of the matter is you just need a new key!
So how do we generate a new key for your vehicle? Do we simply put your existing key in our machine and make a copy of that? Nope, because, a copy of a worn key will still produce a worn key. We need to cut one by code. It's a fairly simple, straight forward process made easier by the use of a specialized piece of locksmithing equipment called a code machine. One of our locksmiths will take your existing, worn key and read the bitting, or cuts on the key. Once we've done this, we can use this new sequence of numbers to originate a brand new key just the way it would have come from the dealership, but for a fraction of the cost of replacing your locks or ignition.
Here at High Desert Lock and Safe we get calls on a fairly regular basis from frustrated car or truck owners whose locks are becoming more and more stubborn to operate. Usually it's a very similar story, "The lock on my door is broken and isn't working properly." However, being locksmiths we tend to look at the problem a little differently.
The first question we usually ask is: How old is your car or truck key? When you think of wear and tear on a vehicle, many different things may come to mind. Most commonly your engine, transmission and other drive train components are the first things considered. However, did you ever think about your car or truck keys?
Your door locks, ignition switch and keys take a lot of abuse. Every day the sliding, twisting and turning take an effect on your keys, along with the wafers inside your locks and ignition. Automotive keys are typically made from brass where as the wafers in your locks are usually made from steel. Brass, being a relatively soft metal will begin to wear. Over time you may notice it getting harder and harder to operate your locks.
So does that mean your locks will never go bad? Well of course not, but there is an easy way to diagnose the problem yourself without incurring costs to have a mobile locksmith sent out to your location to diagnose what is usually a simple problem.
So how do I determine if it's your key or lock? Take your key and try it on the passenger door of the vehicle. Why the passenger door you may ask? It's no surprise that your driver door lock is far more commonly used than the passenger door lock. Every time you walk up to your vehicle to unlock it, which door do you use? The driver side door of course!
Over time, the driver side lock begins to wear, just like your key. The wafers in your lock begin to loosen up and things get a little sloppy. So, to properly troubleshoot whether it's the lock or key malfunctioning, we need to test the key a known, tight lock. This is where your passenger door lock comes into play. Being that this lock is rarely used, this lock has likely remained tight and accurate.
Now, test your key and see what happens. Does it work? Chances are it won't. This tells us it's a problem with they key, not the locks. So now what? Do we need replace all the locks on the vehicle to fix the problem? No. But sadly some more dishonest locksmiths will try to upsell you on unnecessary service like this, when the truth of the matter is you just need a new key!
So how do we generate a new key for your vehicle? Do we simply put your existing key in our machine and make a copy of that? Nope, because, a copy of a worn key will still produce a worn key. We need to cut one by code. It's a fairly simple, straight forward process made easier by the use of a specialized piece of locksmithing equipment called a code machine. One of our locksmiths will take your existing, worn key and read the bitting, or cuts on the key. Once we've done this, we can use this new sequence of numbers to originate a brand new key just the way it would have come from the dealership, but for a fraction of the cost of replacing your locks or ignition.
Here we see the old worn key (top) and the new key (bottom) we made for the customer.
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