Josh-the-Locksmith
25 Years Experience
Austin, TX
Male, 46
I've been a locksmith since 1998. I did automotive residential & commercial work from 1998 to 2008. From 2008 to 2018, I did some residential, but mostly commercial work. I have been project managing & estimating since 2018. I used to locksmith in the Chicago area, now the Austin area.
Not sure what you mean by “needing a certain amount of cuts”. I haven’t done any automotive in 12 years. In fact, it got to be such a pain, the company I work for even quit doing mobile automotive work. Seems like locksmiths either go full in automotive, or none at all. It takes a lot of resources and money due to expensive machines and services. Also, more and more car manufacturers are doing proprietary keys and fobs leaving locksmiths with no options. This is a big disservice to customers, because it means keys will cost a fortune.
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You didn’t mention the brand, but it sounds like a common Kwikset problem. Usually just replacing the latch will fix it. Kwikset also has a common problem where the screws back out on the inside of the handleset. Take it apart very slowly. Buy a replacement latch, and put it all back together. Should be good to go.
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Learning to project manage 2 new construction jobs at the same time where we provided the doors, frames, & hardware (and installation on 1 of them) with no guidance because my mgr quit at the beginning of the job. Hardly knew anything about doors & frames, OR project managing a construction job, had to learn it all on my own. It was the most stressful few months of my life.
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No, you can’t program any key for any car using the vin. There is nothing in a vin that tells you anything about the key.
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Model-specific automotive questions because I haven’t done automotive work in 12 years. My answer will usually be the same. Call a local locksmith or go to the dealer. There’s not much people can do on their own when it comes to car locks. It’s complicated and requires a lot of specialty tools and information.
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Yes, companies make special extended latch kits. You can usually get any knob you want as long as that company makes a compatible latch. Take a measuring tape and hook it to the edge of your door (where the latch comes out of the edge of the door). Measure over to the center of your door knob. That is what size latch you need.
You might be able to reuse the current latch and just replace the knob itself. If you read the latch face, there should be a brand written on it.
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Not sure what you mean, but when a lock is rekeyed, the internal pins are removed and replaced with different pins to match the new set of keys. No other hardware or parts of the lock are usually replaced.
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