Automotive Broken Key Extraction

You climb in your car, put the key in the ignition and hear a snap. Your key just broke. You look at your key and realize you only have part of the key in your hand. The rest is inside the ignition. Now what? You might even have a spare, but what good is that when you can’t use it? A feeling of dread comes over you. Now what?

Having a key break off in the lock is more common than you may think, at 1st Responder LockSmith, we receive calls for broken keys stuck in ignitions regularly. And it can happen anywhere – when you are sitting in your driveway, in the parking lot at work, at the mall. Your first inclination might be to put the half of the key that is in your hands into the ignition and try turning the car on the way. Don’t. You might be able to start the car this time, but chances are you will push the broken key further into the ignition, making extraction that much harder.

Let the experienced, professionals at 1st Responder LockSmith help.

Why a professional locksmith can help

You might be tempted to try other ways to remove the key. You can find plenty of DIY broken key extraction instructions online. These methods require knowledge, experience, and patience:

• Needle-nosed pliers only work if you can see the tip of the key and grab on to it, most will not fit inside the lock.
• You have to line up the jigsaw blade, so the teeth are pointing downward, insert it in the lock and try to catch the key and pull it out, which is more difficult than it sounds.
• The screwdriver only works if the entire key, with all the cuts, is in the lock.

If you don’t have the experience to go with the tools, you might end up damaging the ignition or lock in the process of trying to extract the broken key.

Calling 1st Responder LockSmith to have a professional, experienced locksmith help is a better idea. Our locksmiths are key extraction experts. We can extract broken keys from your car ignition, car door locks, home door locks, office, mailbox, storage facility or any other place you have a broken key in a lock. We can handle residential, commercial and industrial locks.

Does the broken key make it easier for someone to steal your car?