Ignition Repair in Daly City
$185 to $459. A cylinder that will not turn, or turns and leaves the dash dead, rebuilt or swapped at the curb and pinned to the door key you already carry wherever the make allows it.
$185–$459
Typical price
18 min
Avg. arrival
24/7
Availability
Three complaints arrive under this heading and from the driver's seat they feel identical. The key goes in and will not turn. The key turns and nothing wakes up. The key will not come back out. Between them they have a dozen causes and the cylinder is the last suspect rather than the first.
The cheap causes get ruled out in order. A key worn round at the shoulders no longer lifts the wafers far enough, and a fresh key cut to code settles that for a fraction of a rebuild. A car left on one of the grades here with the front tires pressed into the curb loads the column lock, and the key is pinched by the weight of the wheel rather than by anything inside the lock. Rock the wheel with one hand while drawing the key with the other, and leave the pliers alone, because pliers are how most stubs end up inside a cylinder. On a push-button car with a flat fob cell, holding the fob against the start button gets it going.
Only when those are cleared does the cylinder come out of the column. It is rebuilt with new wafers and springs where there is life in it and replaced where there is not. Either way it is keyed to the key that already opens your doors, so nobody ends up carrying one key for the doors and another for the ignition. Most people do not know that is possible and are pleased to hear it. On an immobilizer vehicle the transponder ring on the new cylinder is matched to the car.
One extra thing gets checked on a car that lives at the curb rather than in the garage, which on these narrow lots is a great many second cars. Salt air reaches an ignition more slowly than it reaches a door lock, because the cabin is drier, but it does reach it. A driver's door that has been stiff for a year alongside an ignition that has started to drag is one problem in two places, and dealing with both in a single visit costs less than dealing with them a month apart.
The line worth knowing runs between the lock and the electrics. A cylinder that will not turn is ours. A cylinder that turns cleanly while the dash stays dark is usually the ignition switch behind it, and that is auto electrics and belongs to a garage. Both are diagnosed at the car and you are told which one you have before any work is agreed, because paying a locksmith to discover it is a garage job helps nobody.
Ignition work is $185 to $459 with the $89 call-out inside it. Rebuilding a worn cylinder on a common model is $185. Replacing the cylinder together with the switch behind it, or freeing a column lock that has seized, reaches $459. Evening adds $50, so a $185 rebuild after eight is $235. The job finishes with a run of starts and the column lock released each time.
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 which door you mean and what the salt has done to it: a cylinder still turning cleanly takes the low end, a plug pitted by years of fog takes the high one. Say which door and how the key feels, and the range closes to a single number on the call.
- Daytime (7am–8pm)standard rates
- Evening (8pm–12am)+$50
- Overnight (12am–7am)+$90
FAQ
Ignition Repair: quick answers
The key turns and the dash stays dark. Whose job is that?+
A garage, most likely. A cylinder that turns freely while nothing wakes up points at the ignition switch behind it, which is auto electrics. It gets checked at the car, you are told plainly, and you are not charged for a lock repair that would not have fixed it.
The key is stuck and will not come out.+
Leave the pliers where they are. Nine times in ten the wheel is the cause, because the car was parked on a grade with the tires against the curb and the column lock is under load. Rock the wheel gently with one hand and draw the key with the other. The tenth time the cylinder has worn, and that is released from inside the column where the car stands.
If the cylinder is replaced, do I end up with two keys?+
Not usually. Whatever goes into the column is keyed to the key that already opens your doors, so the ring stays as it was. If the door locks turn out to be as tired as the ignition, doing them in the same visit is offered as its own figure and turning it down is fine.
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Open 24 hours, 7 days
Say which door you are standing at and the call gets short
Daly City and the north Peninsula, every hour of the day. The door decides the work and the work decides the number, so the figure comes back on the call with the $89 call-out and the hour already inside it, and it is the figure on the receipt. Ninety days on the labor, in writing.