The Common Keychain Mistake That Could Be Ruining Your Car's Ignition

Keychains are a fun way to express some individuality, as people can place nearly any object or character that they like on a loop with their car keys. While keychains may seem like an innocent addition to your person, they can actually cause severe damage to your vehicle's ignition. When people attach more than just a couple of trinkets to their keychain, the whole mess can get pretty heavy and will actually pull down on the ignition.

The issues that arise when a heavy keychain pulls down on the ignition is that it can add stress to the ignition and potentially wear the ignition out prematurely. That can cause your vehicle to not start when you turn the key, and then you're out of luck. However, you can replace your ignition switch for an affordable amount.

Ignition switch replacement can cost anywhere from $50 to a couple hundred dollars, depending on the type of vehicle and the part required. You can actually replace an ignition switch yourself, although it's better to do if you have a bit of wrenching experience. If you do decide to fix your ignition yourself, make sure you have all the correct tools and follow the instructions to the letter.

Having a heavy keychain isn't the only issue that can arise with your car keys. Whether you have a physical key or an electronic key fob, key issues can affect us all. Many of these issues have arisen due to the rise in electronic key fobs over physical keys. The most common thing that happens to these electronic key fobs is that the battery dies, which is easy enough to replace. Just head over to your local auto shop, and they should be able to provide the correct battery.

There are a few other reasons why your car's key fob may stop working, though, including dirty or worn-out connections inside the fob, the circuits in the fob itself may be damaged, the contacts that the battery connects to are loose, or the programming for the fob itself has been lost.

As for how those issues can arise, the circuit board inside the remote can be damaged after being dropped or can even be corroded if any moisture gets into the casing. The battery contacts can come loose because the smolder points on the metal contacts can break down. If the fob loses its programming, it just means that the fob needs to be re-paired to the vehicle.