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PC
Obi Wan
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Dropped my truck off with the mechanic this morning. He always has stories to tell about whatever he's been working on lately.
Recently, he's had a rash of customers with keyless entry/ignition problems.
The recurring theme, he's seen five in the last two weeks, is that the owner pushes the button on the fob for their several year old car and nothing happens. Dead key fob battery.
The cars aren't completely wireless, they have one keyhole in the driver's door so the owner goes to manually unlock the door. But they find their key doesn't work.
Turns out the factory installed a lock core in the the door that didn't match the ignition. And since everybody has been using their fob to unlock their doors since the cars were new, they never even tried the key in the door before.
Next, they call AAA to get them into their cars. But even after they get slim jim'ed into the car the ignitions still won't work because there's an electronic code chip in the key that won't read out with a dead battery. So they have to get towed anyway.
Once the fob battery gets changed they can drive the car and of course they want the door key fixed to match their ignition. But the car is old enough for the battery to die, which is also old enough to be out of warranty. The dealer says they have to pay for a new lock.
Then they tell the dealer to stuff it and they bring the car to my guy. Turns out a local locksmith was able to reset the tumblers in the core for cheap. With his labor to pull the door apart and the locksmith's charge it all ended up being about half the cost the dealer was going to charge.
Recently, he's had a rash of customers with keyless entry/ignition problems.
The recurring theme, he's seen five in the last two weeks, is that the owner pushes the button on the fob for their several year old car and nothing happens. Dead key fob battery.
The cars aren't completely wireless, they have one keyhole in the driver's door so the owner goes to manually unlock the door. But they find their key doesn't work.
Turns out the factory installed a lock core in the the door that didn't match the ignition. And since everybody has been using their fob to unlock their doors since the cars were new, they never even tried the key in the door before.
Next, they call AAA to get them into their cars. But even after they get slim jim'ed into the car the ignitions still won't work because there's an electronic code chip in the key that won't read out with a dead battery. So they have to get towed anyway.
Once the fob battery gets changed they can drive the car and of course they want the door key fixed to match their ignition. But the car is old enough for the battery to die, which is also old enough to be out of warranty. The dealer says they have to pay for a new lock.
Then they tell the dealer to stuff it and they bring the car to my guy. Turns out a local locksmith was able to reset the tumblers in the core for cheap. With his labor to pull the door apart and the locksmith's charge it all ended up being about half the cost the dealer was going to charge.
