How to Stay Safe While On the Road: Top Tips for Handling Car Lock and Key Emergencies
Tampa, FL, October 27, 2022 – In the unfortunate event that you find yourself in a car lockout situation, it’s important to stay calm and take the necessary steps to get back on the road safely. By following these simple tips, you can handle a car lockout with ease and get back on your way. Happy driving!
Broken Key Tips
If you’re a car owner, there’s a decent chance that you’ve experienced the frustration of a broken key in your ignition. Hitting the gas, turning the wheel, and pushing every button on your dashboard all yield no results—your car is stuck, and there’s no way to get it going until you get some help from an automotive locksmith.
- There are a few things you can try to get your car running again, however, the best thing to use is a plier. If you see any visible key fragments sticking out of the ignition, use needle-nose pliers to squeeze the end of the key and pull it straight out. Although if that doesn’t work, then your best bet is to call an experienced and reliable automotive locksmith to help you out with your problem. Be sure to pull over to the side of the road and that’s where our next tips come in place.
- When you’re stranded on the side of the road with a broken car key and can’t fix it yourself, you need to take precautions to keep yourself safe. You should pull off the road for your own safety and avoid moving traffic. After that, turn your wheels away from the road and apply the emergency brake. Set up triangles behind your vehicle to inform other cars where you’ve stopped. Stay in your vehicle and call an emergency automotive locksmith for assistance.
Locked out of your car Tips
As much as we try to prevent it, sometimes we find ourselves stuck outside of our car with the key safely inside. While it’s an extremely frustrating situation to be in, there are a number of things you can do to avoid it or navigate yourself out of it.
- First is by having a spare key for your car as well as every lock you have. This might seem like overkill, but if you end up locked out of your car on the side of the road, it could save you from paying for a tow truck and money for a locksmith. Having all your keys on one lanyard or chain is also a really helpful thing to do: you will never lose your keys, even if they are in your purse or another bag. Finally, getting into the habit of stowing your keys someplace where they won’t get lost and will always be accessible is also a good idea. Having an automotive locksmith on speed dial is also a great idea: rather than breaking your windows out of frustration, why not call someone who can help?
- If you’ve waited long enough and the auto locksmith hasn’t come, then you can try to resolve the problem on your own. This is for those with an older vehicle that have manual locks. It sounds too simple to work, but here are two ways to do it: the first is a shoestring trick, and the second is a fishing line trick. First, grab a few feet of shoestring, fishing line, twine, or an antenna from your vehicle and fashion a loop in the middle of the string. Hook the loop onto the locking mechanism and pull up. The entire process takes about 5 minutes—if you’re lucky! A similar process works for any vehicle with manual locks that has a similar locking mechanism that you can hook onto.
The most important factor to consider when it comes to locking problems is your safety. The last thing you want is to get stuck in the middle of nowhere, but it’s even worse if you are alone. Not only that, you don’t want a bad driver with a broken key in their ignition barreling down the road right next to you because they couldn’t pull off to the side and fix their issue. Pull over, fix your issue using our handy tips, and get back on the road—safely! And if you ever need assistance, then Expert Locksmith LLC is here to help you!
