Ignition Switch Replacement in Vancouver

Most ignition calls end in a repair: a cleaned and lubricated cylinder, a fresh key cut to code, or a steering lock reset. That work lives on the ignition repair page. This page is for the other outcome, where the part itself is finished and the only honest fix is to replace it. These are the signs that put a car on this side of the line:

• The key turns with no resistance and nothing happens. The wafers inside the cylinder are worn to the point that the plug no longer engages the key, so a freshly cut key changes nothing; there is nothing left for it to grip.
• Almost anything turns it. A cylinder that a flat screwdriver would rotate is no longer a lock, and it goes.
• The cylinder has been attacked. A theft attempt that punched the lock face, snapped the plug or twisted the housing leaves nothing to rebuild. The blade-key Kia and Hyundai models from the second half of the 2010s and the Subaru WRX are the cars we see most often in this state.
• The key goes in and stops partway, every time. A wafer has jammed sideways or broken, and once the second or third wafer has gone the rest are close behind it.
• The key turns, the dash lights up, and there is no crank at any position. With a good battery and starter, the electrical switch behind the cylinder has failed, and a switch is swapped as a unit rather than repaired.
• The engine dies over bumps, or the accessories cut in and out. A switch losing contact internally. It is replaced, not adjusted.

A key that works the doors but has to be wiggled in the ignition usually still sits on the repair side. A key that no longer turns anything, or a cylinder that turns for everything, is on this side.

The phrase "ignition switch" gets used for two different parts. The lock cylinder is the mechanical barrel the key goes into: a plug, a stack of spring-loaded wafers cut to your key, and a housing that ties into the steering lock. Behind it sits the electrical switch, a rotary contact block that the cylinder turns through off, accessory, run and start. On most cars built with a keyed ignition the two are separate parts that can be replaced independently, which matters for what you pay.

The cylinder is locksmith territory outright. It is a lock, it is keyed, and replacing it means fitting a new set of wafers to a key, which is lock work in a steering column instead of a door. We replace the electrical switch as well on the makes where it mounts to the back of the lock housing: Ford and Lincoln column switches are the frequent electrical failure, and on the GM trucks the lock housing comes apart to reach the switch behind it, which is quoted as the larger job it is.

The European exception matters. BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Volkswagen, Volvo and Land Rover often carry an electronic ignition module in place of a mechanical barrel. That module is ordered against the VIN, and on a Mercedes the key itself is written through the electronic ignition switch, so a module swap is as much a programming job as a mechanical one. A push-to-start car has no cylinder at all; its equivalent faults are the fob, the start button and the steering column lock, and those are covered on the make pages.

A replacement cylinder arrives from the supplier either uncoded, with no wafers fitted, or coded to a random key of its own. Fitted as delivered, you would carry one key for the doors and another for the ignition. We do not leave it that way. The new cylinder is pinned to your existing key before it goes into the column: the wafers are chosen to match the cuts on the key you already carry, the plug is assembled and checked on the bench, and the whole unit is installed and turned through every position with your key in front of you.

Two limits apply. The key has to be in reasonable shape. A key worn down to a nub is cut fresh from the code first, at $180-$280 for a transponder key, and the cylinder is pinned to the new one. And a few cylinders cannot be recoded and arrive locked to their own key; on those we say so before ordering, and you choose between a second key on the ring or a matched lock set for the doors as well.

The transponder is untouched by any of this. The chip lives in the head of the key, not in the cylinder, so a new cylinder pinned to your existing key needs no programming at all and the immobiliser never knows the lock changed. Programming only enters the job when the key is replaced as well, and then the new key is written at the car in the same visit, as described on car key programming.

The make pages on this site record what goes wrong with each brand's ignition, and the pattern is not evenly spread.

• Honda and Acura. Older Civic, TL and TSX cylinders wear at the wafers, bind with the key half turned, and eventually let any key turn. Past about 200,000 km the ignition call and the key call tend to arrive together on the TL and TSX.
• Nissan and Infiniti. Altima and Sentra cylinders bind and then trap the key. The G35 and G37 do the same around the six-figure mileage mark, and the complaint usually arrives as a key problem.
• Hyundai and Kia. Elantra cylinders wear early for their mileage. The blade-key Sportage, Forte, Soul, Sorento and Optima built through the second half of the 2010s were targeted by thieves, and most of the ones we see after an attempt need a new cylinder rather than a repair.
• Ford and Lincoln. Column-mounted electrical switches are the common failure. On the older F-Series the actuator rod between the lock and the switch breaks and gets blamed on the key, and Town Car cylinders wear like the rest of the platform.
• Chevrolet, GMC, Buick and Cadillac. Sierra, Silverado, Yukon and Tahoe cylinders wear, and the CTS is the car where the ignition complaint rides along with the key call. Reaching the switch on these columns means dismantling the lock housing.
• Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram. More often a worn cylinder than a failed switch. The Chrysler 300 wears first on that badge, the older Grand Cherokee turns but will not crank, and Ram cylinders past 150,000 km are the most frequent non-key call on the trucks.
• Toyota, Lexus, Mazda, Mitsubishi and Volvo. Worn wafers and keys that start to stick on the older blade-key cars: the Mazda3, the Lancer, and the Volvo S40, V50 and XC70.
• Subaru. The WRX arrives with theft damage far more often than with wear, and when it does the cylinder is what gets replaced.
• BMW. E90 and E60 ignition switch failures are a known pattern on those chassis, and they are replaced at the car rather than at a dealership.

The key side of each of these is on the make pages: Honda, Ford, Kia and Nissan carry the most ignition notes, and the rest are listed on the automotive locksmith hub.

There is no flat figure for a replacement cylinder or switch on the site's price sheet, and we will not invent one on the phone, because the part differs by make and the labour differs by how far the column has to come apart. What is fixed is everything around it:

The cylinder or the switch is quoted once we have the make, the year and a look at the column, and before any part is ordered. Every figure in the table is the one on the prices page.

A cylinder swap with the part in the van is a single visit at the kerb: the column shroud comes off, the old cylinder comes out with the steering lock released, the new one is pinned to your key and fitted, and the car is started several times before we pack up. A switch on a Ford or Lincoln column is the same shape of job. From the shop at 4105 Macdonald St the drive to most of Vancouver is 20-30 minutes, so a standard-hours call for which the part is in the van is normally finished the same day.

Four things stop that:

• The part is not on the van. Cylinders, wafers and switches for the volume makes travel with us. A less common cylinder, and every European electronic ignition module, is ordered against the VIN and the visit is booked for when it lands.
• The steering lock is seized with the key out. The column lock has to be released before the cylinder can come out, and on some cars that is a job of its own before the replacement starts.
• The key is missing as well. A worn cylinder plus no key is an all keys lost call and an ignition call in one visit. It gets done, but it is a longer visit, and the new key is what the cylinder gets pinned to.
• A theft attempt damaged more than the lock. A punched column shroud or cut wiring behind it is body or auto-electrical work, and we tell you that before we bill for anything.

Call 604-734-7233 or book online. Say whether the key turns at all, whether the dash lights come on, and whether the cylinder has been forced, and we will tell you on the call whether it is a repair, a replacement, or a part that has to be ordered first. If a fresh key has to be cut and programmed alongside the new cylinder, that is covered on car key replacement.