Category Archives: Keys

Articles and informative information pertaining to keys.

Lost car keys? What to know before they go!

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We get a lot of calls from people who have lost their car keys and need to have a new key made. Some of our customers save money by using our service but many times we direct them to the local dealerships. Here’s why. If your vehicle uses a standard key, meaning there is no computer chip in it, then your vehicles VIN, when entered into the dealerships computer, will tell the dealer the cuts of the key. This information is free to the vehicle owner and the dealership can cut a key from the VIN much cheaper. You will need your vehicle registration and your ID to prove you own the vehicle when you go to the dealership, but this is a good way to save a lot of money. This works for older model cars that don’t use a transponder key and don’t require programming. If you are unsure what type of key your vehicle uses, you can check your vehicle’s year, make and model on our blog. Just click the page that pertains to your vehicle.

If your vehicle uses a transponder or high security key it will probably be cheaper to go with an automotive locksmith, as anyone making the key will need to be at the vehicle to program this type of key. This means an extra towing bill to get it to a dealership, but a good automotive locksmith can come to your vehicle and that saves you money. The dealership can still help save you money by providing the “Pin Code” and the “Key Code” from the VIN. We encourage you to obtain these codes and write them in your vehicles owners manual. This information is free from the dealership to the owner of the vehicle, but costs a locksmith a lot of money to obtain. Knowing your Codes will save you both time and money in the event you need to call a locksmith to make and program a new key.

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GM ignition switch nightmare

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General Motors insiders call this ignition switch the “switch from hell”. The ignition switch on the steering column of the Chevrolet Cobalt along with several other compact Chevrolet cars was so poorly designed that they easily slip out of the run position causing the engine to stall leaving the driver to muscle the car off the road. Once the engine stalls the airbags wont deploy, so in the event of an accident while getting the vehicle off the road the passengers are not protected. Vehicles involved include Chevy Cobalt from 2005-2007, 2007 Pontiac G5, 2003-2007 Saturn Ion. 2006-2007 HHR, 2006-2007 Pontiac Pursuit, 2007 Pontiac Solstice and 2007 Saturn Sky. The faulty ignition switches were to blame for 50 crashes and at least 13 deaths according to GM. Engineers at GM knew of the problem as early as 2004 when a test vehicle stalled on the test track as the drivers knee grazed the key FOB hanging in the ignition. Insiders at GM did not see the problem as a safety issue and ignored it for 11 years.

From 2004-2006, GM considered the fix too costly and sent out letters to dealerships explaining the problem and advising them to warn customers not to dangle too many objects from their key chains. GM elected not to use the word “stall” in the letter saying that was a “hot” word that could indicate there was a more serious safety issue.

In 2007, a GM engineer working with GM’s liability defense team began keeping track of Cobalt air bag problems and quickly noticed a pattern between the ignition switch and the air bags. He also noticed that the problem stopped after model year 2007 and wondered if the switch had been changed. He discovered that in 2006 one of GM’s top engineers had not only secretly signed off on a change in the switch that would increase the force it took to turn the key in the switch, but also used the same part number on the secretly changed switch as the faulty switch. Keeping the part number the same kept GM investigators from learning about what happened for years.

Then in 2011, a law firm hired to sue GM decided to X-ray two switches from 2 different model years and found they were different. This was the first time GM had learned about the secret changes to the switch by their top engineer. Even in light of all this new information, the GM recall committee was not immediately told about the fatal accidents that had occurred and so they waited for several more months to start recalling the cars in February of 2012.

On Thursday June 5th, 2014, a sweeping internal investigation of General Motors was released condemning the company for its decade-long failure to fix a deadly safety defect that led to “devastating consequences.”

The report, written by the former United States attorney Anton R. Valukas, set off the dismissal of 15 G.M. employees, including a vice president for regulatory affairs and a senior lawyer responsible for product liability cases, and forced broad changes in how the company handles vehicle safety.

There are still many of these vehicles on the road today. A lot of them handed down to teenagers and inexperienced young drivers to travel back and forth to school or college. If you own or are considering buying one of these vehicles, we highly recommend that you have the ignition switch checked out before driving the vehicle.

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What is the deal with Bump Keys?

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If you do a Google search on bump keys you will find a lot of information on a technique that was once regarded as a top secret tool known only to locksmiths. For centuries this technique was guarded by reputable locksmiths and not shared with the general public.

Today thanks to the internet, many people have become aware of this once closely guarded secret and now that the cat is out of the bag, not only do the criminals have easy access to instructional how to videos but locksmiths themselves are using these videos and information on their websites to scare customers into purchasing additional security measures, thus making the cost of their locksmith service even more. The fact that scare tactics are being used on the consumer in an effort to increase the bottom line of the locksmiths business is bad enough, but add to that fact that locksmiths using these scare tactics are advancing the criminals efforts to learn and to use this technique to gain access to homes and businesses of the customers they claim to be so concerned for. Seems to me that if your customers safety and security is a concern, you would not be posting a how to video on your website, thus educating would be criminals about this technique

Yes the problem is real and the threat is there, but you have to wonder about a locksmith who claims to have your safety and security in mind and then posts videos educating criminals on how to do it. Don’t fall victim to these scare tactics, always hire a locksmith who truly takes your safety and security seriously. Here in Citrus county, 1 Able Locksmith is well aware of this technique and offers our customers the option of bump proofing their locks if that is what the customer feels they need.

The Citrus county Sheriffs Office will tell you that entry into houses and businesses are usually achieved through sliding glass doors or by throwing a brick through a window. I have not seen any reports where the majority of burglaries were carried out using bump keys. First of all the process of using a bump key makes a lot of noise. Noise is something a burglar tries to keep to a minimum in an effort to not attract attention. Add to that the fact that noise is not a quick one time thing but is often repetitive. Also a bump key is not as easy to use as the internet makes them out to be. They like anything else require practice to be an effective method of gaining entrance to a building. So when you are being told that you need protection against bump keys, keep in mind that although the use of a bump key is a possibility, it is not a preferred method of entry as many are trying to say it is.

You will not find on our website a video or any other form of scare tactic advising customers that they must have this service in order to keep their homes or businesses secure. We do take your security seriously, but we will not use scare tactics or contribute to the education of the criminals who would use the information given out on our website as a weapon to be used against our customers. Now that’s security!

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Rekey VS. Replace locks

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Did you know that your door knob locks and your deadbolt locks can be rekeyed cheaper than they can be replaced? We here at 1 Able locksmith are on a mission to save our neighbors here in Citrus county Florida money. That is why we tell our customers about our rekey services.

1 Able Locksmith gets several calls a week asking us to replace locks because the keys have been given to someone who shouldn’t have a key. We tell our customers that if the locks are functioning properly, we can rekey the existing locks so that the lock will no longer work using the old key. This saves our customers money over having to purchase and install new door locks while providing the security of having new keys for your old locks.

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We thought you’d like to know…

Stay Safe Citrus county!

http://www.1ablelocksmith.com