Wednesday, June 09, 2010

An Overfull Key-Ring

We have had to replace a couple of ignition cylinders on our cars. It's not cheap. Worse yet, it becomes darned inconvenient in figuring out which key opens the car door, which key opens the car trunk, and which key turns on the engine.

The mechanic recently pointed out something to me. He said our key-rings are often so full of keys that the weight wears out our ignition cylinders too fast. The key is not sitting in the ignition completely straight because all those other keys are pulling down on one end of the car key. And then there's the exaggerated bounciness that results from the clump of weight's motion as we are going around corners or over not-quite-smooth roads. The mechanic said that keeping your key-ring small and light (or keeping your car keys on a separate key ring) should prevent your need for new ignition cylinders.

Wow! A small life-style change to gain a big savings later!

3 comments:

  1. I do that! I keep my keys on separate rings, one for each car, and all the rings go on a carabiner. It's really klunky and heavy in the bottom of my purse, but the keyring for each car is light. I need to get another house key for one of the car rings, though, so I don't have to fish to the bottom of my purse for the one ring with a house key when I need it!

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  2. I never knew that! Thanks! And I completely agree about the annoyance of different keys for ignition, door, and trunk. I was hoping the conclusion of your story was going to say, "...and so it's worth the money to get all parts of the car keyed to the same key."
    Oh well.

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  3. Well, Sandy when you think of how much it costs to replace a lock-cylinder, I doubt it's worth it to replace the trunk and door when the ignition goes. We considered that the first time we needed a cylinder, but the expense was prohibitive. For those who have an overfull key-ring, I think it would be better to do it Melody's way.

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