So your car is acting up and your mechanic has just told you that the problem is a common one for that vehicle’s year and model. Now there is a quick simple way to check to see if your vehicle is involved in a recall.
The website is called safercar.gov and is sponsored by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration or NHTSA. The new website lets you search for recalls just by typing in your vehicle identification number or VIN. This number is found on your title or vehicle registration or is visible through the windshield of your vehicle on the drivers side dash.
We get several calls a week asking us to drill or open someone’s safe. Because keys can get lost and combinations forgotten, we have compiled this list of customer service numbers for some of the most common safes used in residential and commercial applications today.
Winchester Safes
4801 Esco Drive
Fort Worth, TX 76140
We have received 2 calls in the past two days from people here in Citrus county who have been broken into and robbed. First, a business in Hernando and then a residence in Floral City. Both happened at night and both times gates or the door were forced open. Might be a great time to think about installing an extra deadbolt on your doors to keep forced entry from becoming a quick way into your home or office.
BMW is in the process of notifying owners of the new 2014 X5 SUV’s built between December 2013 and March 2014 of a recall due to faulty child safety locks. According to BMW, the child safety locks can deactivate without warning on vehicles with the automatic soft closing option. The recall affects 6400 vehicles.
According to a bulletin issued by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the lock mechanism on the rear doors “may not have been manufactured to correct tolerances,” meaning the safety locks could disengage with a simple pull of the door handle. Basically, with a pair of tugs, the rear doors could be opened from the inside, regardless of child safety locks.
Here is the actual press release issued by the national Highway Traffic Safety Administration:
Manufacturer: BMW of North America, LLC
SUMMARY:
BMW of North America, LLC (BMW) is recalling certain model year 2014 X5 SAV vehicles manufactured December 12, 2013, through March 10, 2014, and equipped with the Soft Close Automatic (SCA) option. The rear side door lock mechanisms may not have been manufactured to correct tolerances and when the inside door handle is pulled, the previously engaged child safety lock can disengage.
CONSEQUENCE:
A disengaged child safety lock would allow the rear seat occupant to pull the door handle twice and open the door while the vehicle is parked or in motion, increasing the risk of injury.
REMEDY:
BMW will notify owners, and dealers will inspect the rear side door locks and any affected door locks will be replaced, free of charge. The recall is expected to begin in May 2014. Owners may contact BMW customer service at 1-800-525-7417.
NOTES:
Owners may also contact the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Vehicle Safety Hotline at 1-888-327-4236 (TTY 1-800-424-9153), or go to www.safercar.gov.
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.
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!
Did you know that the Citrus County Sheriffs Office has designed a program to help residents stop auto theft here in Citrus County? They call this program C.A.T (Combat Auto Theft). We here at 1 Able Locksmith go to great lengths to insure that the person who calls us out to make a car key is the rightful owner of the vehicle before we replace a lost or stolen key, so we applaud the sheriffs office for their efforts to keep your vehicle safe.
This anti-theft program was designed to recover stolen vehicles in
timely manner. For people who leave their vehicles parked outside at night, for those who travel frequently, or vehicles left in parking lots during late evening hours, this program is beneficial for you. If the vehicle is stolen or taken without your knowledge, the bright yellow decal allows law enforcement throughout the state of Florida, and some other states, to stop your vehicle if seen out between the hours of 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. This allows the law enforcement officer to determine if the driver is authorized to have the vehicle.
The Sheriffs Office website has a form you can fill out to request a sticker that you place in the lower left corner of the rear window of your vehicle. This sticker tells Sheriffs Deputies that your vehicle is not normally driven between the hours of 1:00 am and 5:00 am.
It is important to note here that if a law enforcement officer observes a person operating or occupying a vehicle with this sticker during these hours, they will reasonably suspect that such person is in possession of said vehicle without proper authorization. This knowledge permits the officer to stop the vehicle and conduct an investigation. In these instances, police action will include the necessary precautions generally taken to protect officers when approaching a potentially stolen vehicle. If you work the night shift or normally drive between the hours of 1:00-5:00 am, this program may not work well for you.
Fastec Industrial Corporation (FIC) has recalled 2,864,670 RV door locks manufactured between January 2006 and April 2013 with keyed paddle style handles and deadbolt for use in recreational vehicles. It may be possible to remove the key from the lock in a way that can potentially jam the deadbolt in a lock with certain key codes. Models 43610, 40610 and 44610 door locks are included in this recall.
If the deadbolt jams, the interior side of the door lock can jam also. A person inside the RV at the time will then be locked in and will be unable to exit the RV without using the emergency exit, increasing the risk of injury. In the event of a fire, this situation could quickly become a life threatening emergency.
FIC will notify the original equipment door and recreational vehicle manufacturers and the consumers on record and instruct them on how to determine whether they have a defective lock. Consumers of record will be sent replacement cylinders with instructions, free of charge. The vehicle manufacturers will notify consumers. The recall is expected to begin September 10, 2013. Owners may contact FIC at 1-800-837-2505 Monday-Friday from 8:00-5:00 Eastern Standard Time.
Fastec Industrial Corporation is located at 2219 Eddie Williams Rd. in Johnson City, TN 37601. Their website address is http://www.fastecindustrial.com
We here at 1 Able Locksmith will be looking into this situation and acquiring the replacement locks needed to replace faulty locks as many visitors and citizens in our community have RV’s that could be affected. If you have purchased your RV second hand and dont receive a recall notice please feel free to contact us to replace these faulty door locks.
This recall includes compact and large handgun security vaults. The lock can fail allowing unintended access to weapons.
Contact Battenfeld Technologies Inc., toll free at (877) 509-9160 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. CT Monday through Friday, or online at www.lockdownvaults.com and click on “Product Recall.”
Ford Motor Co. is recalling certain Focus, C-Max and Escape models from the 2013 model year because of problems with their child locks.
In a document filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the car maker said the child locks on the left rear door of some vehicles were improperly made. The locks may not engage when drivers or other adults try to activate them. As a result the driver may think the child lock is engaged when it is not.
If this happens an unrestrained child could still open the door from the inside, increasing the risk of injury. Ford said the problem affects Focus and C-Max cars built from Nov. 16 through Nov. 21, 2012; and Escape SUVs built from Nov. 14 through Nov. 21, 2012.
The recall includes 5,675 vehicles.
Under the recall, Ford dealers will inspect the affected rear door latches, and replace them if necessary The recall is expected to begin later this month. Customers may contact Ford at 866-436-7332.
