Ignition Repair in Danville
$199 to $495. A cylinder that refuses to turn, or turns and leaves the dash dead, rebuilt or exchanged at the curb and matched to the door key already on your ring wherever the make permits it.
$199–$495
Typical price
19 min
Avg. arrival
24/7
Availability
Three separate complaints land on this page and from the driver's seat they all feel the same. The key goes in and refuses to turn. The key turns and the car stays silent. The key will not come back out. Behind those three sit a dozen causes, and the cylinder is the last of them to be suspected rather than the first.
Cheap causes get eliminated in order. A key worn round at the shoulders stops lifting the wafers high enough, and a fresh key cut to code settles that for a fraction of a rebuild. A wheel left turned hard into a curb, which happens easily on the sloped streets south of town, loads the column lock and traps the key. Rocking the wheel with one hand while easing the key with the other releases it. Keep pliers out of it, since that is how most broken stubs end up inside a cylinder. On a push-button car with a flat cell in the fob, holding the fob against the start button gets the car going.
Only once those are cleared does the cylinder come out of the column. Where there is life left in it, it is rebuilt with fresh wafers and springs. Where there is not, it is replaced. Either way it is keyed to the key that already opens your doors, so nobody ends up carrying one key for the doors and a different one for the ignition. Most owners do not know that is an option and are glad to hear it. On an immobilizer car the transponder ring on the new cylinder is matched to the vehicle.
The boundary to know runs between the lock and the electrics. A cylinder that will not turn belongs here. A cylinder that turns cleanly while the dash stays dark points at the ignition switch behind it, and that is auto electrics and a garage job. Both get diagnosed at the car, and you are told which one you have before any work is agreed, because paying a locksmith to discover a garage job helps nobody.
Ignition work runs $199 to $495 and the $89 call-out sits inside it. A worn cylinder rebuilt on a common model is the bottom of the range. Replacing the cylinder together with the switch behind it, or freeing a column lock that has seized solid, reaches the top. Evening puts $55 inside the number, so the low end reads $254. Where the key is what has been chewing the cylinder, the key gets renewed at the same time, because a new cylinder turned by an old key wears out early. The visit ends with a run of starts and the column lock released on each one.
Sixteen jobs, fourteen of them with a range and two quoted once the openings have been counted on site. What moves a figure inside its range here is how far the door has walked away from its frame: a leaf and a strike still in line take the low end, a leaf that has moved with the season and a strike that has to be cut back into the jamb take the high one. Say how the door behaves when you pull it to, and the range closes to a single number on the call.
- Daytime (7am–8pm)standard rates
- Evening (8pm–12am)+$55
- Overnight (12am–7am)+$95
FAQ
Ignition Repair: quick answers
The key turns all the way and nothing lights up. Is that a lock job at all?+
A garage, in all likelihood. A cylinder turning freely while nothing wakes up points past the lock to the ignition switch, which is auto electrics. It gets checked at the car, you are told straight, and you do not pay for a lock repair that would not have solved it.
The key is stuck and will not come out.+
Put the pliers down. Nine times in ten the wheel is responsible: parked with the front wheels into a curb, the column lock sits under load and grips the key. Rock the wheel gently one way and the other while easing the key out. The tenth time the cylinder has worn, and it gets released from inside the column where the car stands.
If the cylinder comes out, am I left with one key for the door and another for the car?+
Usually not. Whatever ends up in the column is cut to the key that already opens your doors, so your ring stays as it is. If the door locks turn out to be as tired as the ignition, doing them in the same visit is offered as a separate figure, and turning it down is fine.
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Open 24 hours, 7 days
Tell us whether the door has to be pushed before it locks, and the call is short
Danville and the San Ramon Valley, at any hour. The condition of the door sets the work and the work sets the price, so you get one number on the phone with the $89 service call and the hour already inside it, and that number is what the receipt shows. Ninety days on the labor, in writing, covering the frame as well as the lock.