Your Montgomery Locksmith

Ask for a license number, and verify it. Mine is California BSIS license LCO#6792, searchable on the Bureau of Security and Investigative Services website before I show up. Scam operators quote $35 on the phone and hit you with $300 at the car, and they will not give a license number because they do not have one. I have been back to Montgomery Palisades three times this year, different units, same building.

Depends on how long it soaked and whether the battery was inside. A quick splash usually is not fatal: pull the battery, open the case, and let the board air dry. Skip the rice trick, the starch dust gunks up the contacts. A tenant at Montgomery Palisades dropped her Kia fob in a sink, and two contact points had green corrosion by the time she called, so she needed a new fob programmed on site.

Absolutely, back to the mid-nineties. A 2006 Corolla has no proximity system: it runs a 4C transponder chip and a TOY43 keyway that I decode with a Lishi pick and cut on a manual machine. Last week I made a replacement key for a 2003 Honda Accord parked off Beyer Blvd that had been sitting dead for two months. If it has a lock cylinder and an ignition, I can key it.

It can be. A stiff ignition is annoying, but one that lets the key slip out of the RUN position while you are driving is dangerous: you lose power steering, power brakes, and on some vehicles the steering column can lock mid-turn. It happens on older Hondas and Nissans with 150K-plus miles when the wafers wear flat enough to let the key float. Do not wait until the key snaps off inside the column.

It unlocks the driver's door and nothing else. Press the release on the back of the fob, the blade slides out, and it fits a keyhole hidden behind the door handle cover. It will not start the car, because push-to-start still needs the fob's proximity signal. With a dead fob battery, hold the fob flat against the start button: a passive RFID reader behind that button picks up the chip with no battery power.

More often than people think. Plenty of dealers do not keep a full-time key tech on staff, so when a customer needs a key cut and programmed, the dealership calls a mobile locksmith and marks up the labor. You pay dealer rates for the same work with a middleman collecting a cut. I hold the same credential that subcontractor does, California BSIS license LCO#6792, and I come straight to your location off Palm Ave.