Ignition repair and replacement in Rockville, MD

The ignition is the hardest-working lock on the vehicle — turned several times a day, every day, for as long as you own the car. Wafers wear, springs tire, and one day the key that worked yesterday will not turn. The useful thing to know is that the cylinder is a part, not the car: it comes out, and a healthy one goes in.

What ignition work covers

Keys that will not turn, or turn only after a wiggle that gets longer every month. Cylinders that grab the key and refuse to give it back. Keys that can be pulled out while the engine is running — a worn cylinder's signature. Barrels jammed by a snapped-off key.

Two honest boundaries. A key that turns freely while nothing happens usually points at the switch, the battery or the starter — electrical work, not lock work — and if your description sounds like that on the phone, we say so instead of sending a van. Push-button start systems are the same story: there is no cylinder to replace, and the fault belongs to the dealer or an auto electrician.

Where the hardware allows it, a replacement cylinder is keyed to your existing key, so the doors and the ignition still share one key afterwards.

How the visit goes

1. You call and describe exactly what the key does: will not go in, will not turn, turns with no result, or stuck in the barrel.
2. If it sounds electrical rather than mechanical, you hear that on the phone. If it is a lock job, you get the cost before the van leaves.
3. On site the cylinder is diagnosed against the key, because some "worn ignitions" turn out to be worn keys — a much smaller fix.
4. The cylinder is repaired where possible — cleaned, re-sprung, new wafers — or replaced, with the column trim stripped and refitted without broken clips.
5. The finished ignition is run through repeated full starts and, wherever the hardware allows, keyed to match the key already in your pocket.

What we bring

• Replacement cylinders for the common makes, and wafers to rebuild the ones worth saving
• Column tools that strip and refit the trim around the ignition cleanly
• Extraction gear, since plenty of ignition jobs begin with a key snapped inside the barrel
• Cutting equipment, so a worn key can be remade by code on the same visit

When to call straight away

Call while the ignition still turns. The wiggle that works today needs a little more force every week, and a seizing cylinder picks its moment badly — cold mornings, far ends of parking lots. Call immediately if the key has snapped off inside, and stop trying to start the car: every attempt pushes the fragment where tools cannot follow. That first step is a broken key extraction, handled on the same visit.

After the ignition is sorted

If the diagnosis showed the key was the worn half of the pair, have it recut or rebuilt — that is car key repair — before it teaches the new cylinder its old shape. And with the car starting cleanly again, a duplicate key splits the next years of turning between two keys instead of one.