My car was broken in to in the drive way of my house. Very sad night. The guy made off with a lot of stuff to say the least. To rub salt on the wound the guy made off with my Valet key I had in my car at the time. So now I need to replace the lock cylinder to the driver side door. I've called a few dealerships to find out what it costs for parts and labor. The Lock Cylinder for my car is going to run me a little under 70 dollars with the keys. Labor to replace it is about an hr and a half worth's (124 bucks). If anyone has any suggestions or lives around Columbus that might be able to help me with the situation I would greatly appreciate it. Car Insurance/home owners insurance isn’t covering anything.

 

They sell you the cylinder and the keys for 70 bucks! Dude that is a steal. The keys them selves cost 50 each. Sorry about your key getting stolen. I know that must suck.

 

One of your insurance policies should cover it. My car insurance covered my break in and replaced my radio and fixed my door. Good luck.

 

What year is your car? 99+ had transponder keys. If the dealership is replacing the door locks, does that mean that you'll have one key for the door and for everything else?

 

The key's I would be getting would be like house keys, they wouldnt have the chip used for the ignition, I would actually have another set of keys I'd use for my trunk and my ignition still. So I'd have to carry 2 keys on me.

I had another idea a friend just told me I wanted to run by you guys (BTW I have a Nissan Maxima 2000 GLE).

He said call a lock smith, have him put something in my locks, like a replica of my key, but broken off (But that the locksmith could remove, or that I could remove using a tool). This way the person cant get in to my driver side door. He already cant get in to my trunk with the valet key. And then when I sell my car or who knows what,I'll just remove the fragment and the other 2 keys I have will still work. I always use my remote to unlock the door and lock it, as well as the trunk release. Only problem would be if my remote died, then I'd have to crawl in through my trunk (and take out my woofer). But I have a spare remote at the house as well. Could probably even carry a spare watch battery in my walet or something. Anyway this would save me the 300+ dollars of replacing the key cylinder and having to deal with another key. I only have one lock on my doors, thats the driver side, no other doors have locks (Except for trunk, but valet key isnt suppose to work on my trunk).

Anyone see a problem with this senario?

 

I never use my key to get in. My alarm remote locks/unlocks, but I understand the dilemma you have if the remote battery dies. The thing with the remote is that if the battery gets weak, you don't get the same distance to lock/unlock. You have to get closer and closer. So, when that happens, you have some indicator that the battery is weak and to change it. Just my $.02.

 

get new license plates. Maybe that will be cheaper than getting new locks.

 

So yea, new plates would work except my car was broken in to in my own drive way. so the guy knows where I live and has the key to my car. Kind of cant change license places (Besides I just got new rockin custom ones).

Only problem I think think of now is my actual car battery dieing for whatever reason. I have the original, fluid levels look fine, and I hooked it up to my car charger and it registered fully charged. Do batteries eventually die? This one is still kicking 5 years. Reason I ask is because if my car batteries die, I cant really get in to my car without a locksmith (Which is apain). I was thinking I could get in to the trunk, but I couldnt get past the seats because you need to pull them down from the inside (Trying to pop my hood, is they're another way to pop my hood other then under the stering wheel?)

Thanks guys.