Broken Car Key Repair

The nature of their constant use means that car keys are susceptible to wear and tear.  This can be car key blades as well as remote cases and buttons.  The good news is that in many cases these can be repaired or replaced, which might save the need for new keys supplied and programmed.

Car key blades have a very accurate formation of cuts which means they are unique to a particular vehicle.  Typically many keys will have around 8 different cuts along the key each with a depth between 1 and 4.  This enables manufacturers to provide unique combinations for every vehicle produced.  However this also means that the car key has to be very accurate to allow the car locks to function properly.  When a vehicle key blade wears it can mean that it starts to mis-align in the lock, stopping it from operating or becoming very stiff.

Many people believe their locks are damaged but often the keys are just too worn. We cut keys to ‘code’ which means they are cut to the exact spacing and depths required to operate the locks properly.  If you have your worn key copied or ‘traced’, then all the wear on the key will only be replicated to the new key, and you will still have the same problem.

Worn car keys will inevitably become weaker and will probably snap.  This will leave you without a key to drive your car and could mean the key will snap off in the lock or ignition.  Even if you have a spare key, you might not be able to use it if a piece of broken key has snapped off in a door lock or ignition lock.

We can supply and cut to code new key blanks to your car.  We can generally transfer the electronic components from the broken key to a new high quality key blank.  This means that you will save money by avoiding the need for new keys to be supplied and programmed.

NB. If you speak to a main dealer they will generally not give you any option for repairing keys.  In many cases they don’t actually recognise the individual components in a key and can only supply you with a brand new one!