An older Civic was towed in to the dealership because the ignition wouldn’t work and they wanted a new key cut. I was handed two keys for the car, one was an aftermarket key, and the other was a Honda key, but it looked like someone had cut into for some reason, possibly to try to access the immobilizer chip inside. Why someone would do that, I don’t know. I assumed that the damage to the key was why they needed a new key, until I got out to the car with the new key.

Once I had the newly cut key, I went out to the car to program it. Unfortunately, I then found that the ignition cylinder wouldn’t even turn. After messing around with all the keys I had for it, I managed to get it to turn once, but that’s it. Clearly there’s something wrong with the tumblers in the cylinder, but the customer thought that all they needed was a new key. Due to the cost of a new ignition cylinder, the customer declined to have it replaced and got the car towed away again.

New blog posts every Monday and Thursday, plus pictures throughout the week on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram!

Watch Mechanical Malarkey on YouTube!

Mechanical Malarkey T-shirts, hats, and stickers are available to order!

-Dan