Ignition Repair in San Rafael
Ignitions that will not turn, or turn and do nothing, rebuilt or replaced at the curb, $179 to $449.
$179–$449
Typical price
21 min
Avg. arrival
24/7
Availability
From behind the wheel, every ignition fault feels like the same fault. A key that refuses to go in, on a 2007 Camry parked on a Gerstle Park street. A key that turns and produces silence in a Marinwood driveway. A key that will not come back out in the ferry lot while the boat boards. Worn tumblers, a bent tip, a failed switch behind the cylinder and a steering lock under load all feel alike to the hand. Marin Lock & Key diagnoses and repairs ignitions where the car stands, which is a shorter day than a tow.
The cheap causes are cleared before the cylinder is accused. A key worn round at the shoulders that no longer lifts the tumblers far enough. A steering wheel resting its weight on the column lock because the car was left with the wheels turned into the curb on a Sun Valley hill. A flat fob battery in a push-button car. When the cylinder really is the fault, it comes out of the column and is rebuilt with new tumblers and springs or replaced outright, then keyed to your door key so one key still runs the whole car. On an immobilizer car the transponder ring on the new cylinder is matched to the vehicle. The job ends with a run of starts, a check that the column lock frees each time, and a check that the key comes out in the off position and nowhere else. Push-button hybrids and EVs have no cylinder; there the suspects are the fob, the start button and the brake switch, and the technician names which before any part is ordered.
Ignition work is named between $179 and $449. Rebuilding a worn cylinder on a common Honda, Toyota or Ford is $179. Replacing the cylinder along with the electrical switch behind it, or freeing a column lock that has seized, reaches $449. The $89 service call is inside the figure. Whatever the column shroud reveals when it comes off is explained and named before it is touched. Evening work carries $55 and overnight $90.
You call and describe the fault: does the key go in, does it turn, and does anything happen when it does. Those three answers decide which parts ride on the van. The full figure is named on the call. The van leaves and calls from the gate, after the text with the name and the window. Fit: diagnosis, the rebuild or the replacement, keying to the door key, test starts. The receipt repeats the figure, card or tap once the engine is running.
“The front door of our 1915 house closed behind me while I was watering the porch ferns, keys on the hall table. The call named $148. The text with the technician's name arrived while I was still on the porch, and the van was at the curb in seventeen minutes. He opened the original mortise cylinder without a mark on the brass, checked that the latch still caught, and the card was charged $148. The figure named on the call was the figure on the receipt, to the dollar.”
Every job is priced from the list below. The full figure is named on the call, before the van leaves the yard, and the receipt repeats it.
- Daytime (7am–8pm)standard rates
- Evening (8pm–12am)+$55
- Overnight (12am–7am)+$90
FAQ
Ignition Repair: quick answers
The key will not come out of the ignition. Can it be freed without snapping it?+
Almost always. When the front wheels are turned into a curb, the column lock is loaded and grips the key; easing the wheel back and forth while drawing the key releases most of them. If that does not work, the cylinder is worn and is released from inside the column. Most snapped tips come from pliers, so it is worth waiting the twenty-one minutes.
Will a new cylinder mean carrying two keys?+
No. The rebuilt or replacement cylinder is pinned to the key that already opens the doors. If the door locks prove as worn as the ignition, they can be done in the same visit, at a figure named on its own so you can say no to it.
My push-button hybrid does nothing when I press start.+
There is no cylinder to repair on that car. The likely causes are a flat fob battery, a brake-pedal switch the car is not registering, and the start button itself. The first two are checked in a minute at the curb. A dead button is a parts job, and its figure is named before any trim is removed.
Related
More automotive services
24/7 — nights, weekends & holidays
One call, one full figure, the same figure on the receipt
Calls answered 24/7 across San Rafael and the Marin towns beside it. The $89 service call, the labor, the parts and the drive up the hill are inside the figure named on the call, and the receipt repeats it.