A key snapping in the ignition feels like a disaster and is usually a routine job — provided the next ten minutes are spent doing nothing rather than something. Here is why, and what actually happens next. If a key that has snapped in an ignition is what brought you here but the problem is happening right now, the locksmith near me page is the one to read instead.
It sounds catastrophic. It usually isn't.
Extraction
A proper key extractor pulls the broken piece without damaging the ignition.
Getting you moving
Once the broken piece is out, we get you back into the vehicle and check the ignition and lock for damage.
A new key
Making and coding a replacement key — especially a transponder or remote — is specialist auto-electrical work we refer to a trusted specialist.
Why it broke, and why that matters
Keys do not snap because of one bad moment. They snap because a blade has been flexing slightly, thousands of times, for years — usually because the ignition has become stiff and the driver has been compensating with a little extra force without ever noticing. Metal fatigues, a hairline develops where the blade is thinnest, and one ordinary morning it goes. The related reading is what to do when you are locked out of the car, which goes further into the detail.
That matters because it tells you two things. First, the ignition itself is very likely part of the problem and simply fitting a new key may not be the end of it. Second, if you have another key for the vehicle, it has been living the same life and is probably not far behind. Both of those are worth mentioning when you ring rather than discovering in three weeks.
It also means this is rarely bad luck. A key that snapped is the end of a process that was visible for months in the form of an ignition that had started needing a particular technique. That is the same warning a house door gives before it fails, and it gets ignored for exactly the same reason.
What not to do in the next ten minutes
Do not try to extract the broken piece with tweezers, pliers, a paperclip, superglue or a magnet. Every one of those is a real thing people try and every one of them tends to make the job larger. The usual outcome is the fragment pushed further in, jammed at an angle, or the wafers inside the ignition damaged — at which point a routine extraction becomes a replacement. A key that has snapped in an ignition is part of the ordinary week for a locksmith in Randburg working the same streets repeatedly.
Superglue deserves a specific mention because it is the most common and by far the worst. Gluing the broken half to the piece in your hand does not work, and it does bond the fragment to the internals of the ignition. That converts a job measured in minutes into one measured in hours and turns a modest bill into a large one.
Do not force the remaining stub if part of the key is still protruding, either. If it turns, fine; if it does not, stopping is the right decision. The single most useful thing you can do in this situation is nothing at all, which is unsatisfying advice and remains correct.
What actually happens on the visit
The first part is extraction, using tools designed to grip the broken blade without spreading it or damaging the wafers around it. On a clean break where nothing has been attempted, this is often the shortest part of the visit. Where somebody has already been at it with pliers or adhesive, it takes considerably longer and the outcome is less certain.
The second part is establishing whether the ignition is serviceable. If it has been stiffening for months — which the snapped key strongly suggests — then fitting a new key to the same mechanism is likely to produce the same result again in due course. An honest assessment says so at the time rather than after the second failure. The same crew handles lock repair work across the round, and that page sets out what it involves.
The third part is producing a working key, which is a separate piece of work from the extraction. If you have another key, that shortens things considerably. If the broken one was your only key, then this is a lost-key job as well as an extraction, and that is worth knowing before it becomes a surprise on the invoice.
Where the car is standing changes things
A verge, a private driveway, an underground bay and a gated development each present a different arrival problem. Two of the four require somebody to grant access, and the underground one frequently involves a ticket or an out-of-hours arrangement that is far simpler to resolve while a van is still in motion than once it is stopped at a barrier.
Say which it is when you ring, along with the level and the bay if it is underground. Across Randburg the drive is about twenty minutes at any hour; the part that varies is the last hundred metres, and on vehicle work that is where nearly all of the lost time goes. It costs nothing to describe and it regularly saves a quarter of an hour.
If the car is somewhere exposed — a corner, a busy road, a place where stopping is awkward — say that too, because it changes how the arrival is handled. And if you would rather wait somewhere safer than beside the vehicle at night, that is a completely normal request and worth making when you book. Where a job turns out to be residential locksmith work instead, it is the same number and the same vehicles.
Have these three things ready
Make, model and year, all of which are on the licence disc on the windscreen so you can read them out with nothing else to hand. On vehicle work those three facts decide almost everything about what equipment needs to come off the van, and having them is regularly the difference between one visit and two.
Whether another key exists, and whether it is with you, at home, or genuinely lost. This changes the size of the job substantially and it is the question most often answered vaguely. If the answer is that there is a spare at home twenty minutes away, that is frequently worth saying immediately, because it may change the whole approach.
And what actually happened, in ordinary words — it snapped while turning, it snapped going in, part of it is still visible, nothing is visible. You do not need to diagnose anything. Describing the sequence plainly is more useful than a technical guess, and it tells whoever is coming what to expect before they arrive.
Stopping it happening again
Deal with a stiff ignition when it becomes stiff rather than when it breaks something. An ignition that has started needing a particular technique is deteriorating, and the technique is the household compensating for it. That is the moment to have it looked at, and it is a small job compared with an extraction plus a replacement plus a lost morning. That side of things is covered under emergency locksmith, which runs on the same terms as the rest.
Take a hard look at what else is on the keyring. A heavy bunch of keys hanging from an ignition applies constant leverage to the blade every time the vehicle moves, and it is a genuine contributor to the fatigue that eventually snaps it. Carrying the car key separately, or on a light ring, is free and it makes a real difference.
And if you are down to one key, sort that out at a time of your choosing. Arranged on a weekday with the car available it is routine car locksmith work; arranged after the only key has snapped it is the same job in the worst possible circumstances. That is the whole argument, and it is the one most people act on only after the fact.
What it costs, roughly speaking
A clean extraction where nothing has been attempted is at the small end and can often be estimated on the phone. What moves the number is everything that follows: whether the ignition needs attention, whether a working key has to be produced from scratch, and how much damage the previous half hour of DIY did to the internals.
That last item is why the advice at the top of this page is the practical money-saver. The difference between a snapped key extracted cleanly and one that has been glued, twisted and pushed further in is frequently several times the cost, and it is entirely within the owner's control during the ten minutes before anybody arrives.
Whatever the situation, you should have the figure in writing before any work starts. Roadside is exactly the moment somebody has the least ability to argue about a number, which is precisely why the number belongs at the beginning of the visit rather than at the end of it. We keep a full account of safe locksmith work separately, since it raises its own questions.
What happens after the extraction
Getting the fragment out is the first half. The second is establishing whether the ignition itself is serviceable, because a mechanism that has been stiffening for months will do exactly the same thing to the next key. An honest assessment says so at the time rather than after the second failure, and it should be quoted as its own decision with the facts in front of you.
Then there is the question of whether a working key exists. If you have another, that shortens everything considerably. If the broken one was your only key, this is a lost-key job as well as an extraction — two pieces of work rather than one, and it is far better known when you ring than discovered on the invoice. That is car locksmith work rather than a simple opening.
Whatever the situation, the figure is agreed in writing before anything starts. The roadside is precisely the moment somebody has the least ability to argue about a number, and the difference between a clean extraction and one that has already been attempted with pliers and adhesive is frequently several times the cost — which is entirely within the owner's control during the ten minutes beforehand.