February 02, 2009

Car door kluge

Back here I mentioned that my driver's-side door lock had broken, and I was worried about the price of repairing it.

Well, it wasn't as awful as the $500 I thought it might be. $226.84 for a new key cylinder and labor.

But. Because it's a new lock, it means I have to carry an extra key for it on my key ring (which I've ruthlessly kept at three keys for approximately forever). Worse, the new key works only on the driver's side but not the passenger's side, so I have to think which door I'm trying to open when I reach for the key ring.

The elegant solution would have been to replace both key cylinders, I suppose.

Posted by Linkmeister at February 2, 2009 10:41 AM | TrackBack
Comments

You might be able to have the new lock rekeyed to fit the car key of your choice. Like you, I prefer to have just a few keys on my keyring and I had to have that done to stay within my keyring happy place.

Posted by: Karan at February 3, 2009 12:36 PM

Maybe you could get one of those cheap rubber key covers that come in different colors-thereby differentiating which key is which.
Just put one on the new key, so it will stand out...

Posted by: toxiclabrat at February 4, 2009 02:27 AM

The new one actually has the make of the car embossed, and the ignition key is rough; it's easy enough to tell them apart. It's just one more key!

Posted by: Linkmeister at February 5, 2009 09:22 PM