Nothing changes for Ross-Dean Locksmiths over this period Our staff Christmas dinner bowl of Frosties can wait until we get you into your house/car or fix your lock or whatever.
Christmas Eve: Open 24 hours.
Christmas Day: Open 24 hours.
New Years Eve: Open 24 hours.
New Years Day: Open 24 hours.
If you need a locksmith in Ross on Wye, Forest of Dean or surrounding areas over this period do not hesitate to give us a call. It’s cheaper for us to unlock your car than you smash your own window and replace it.
It’s pretty common when called to a broken UPVC door to be told by the customer that they’ve been squirting WD40 into. It’s understandable, but for starters it’s the wrong lubricant for the job. Secondly the difficulty locking is normally because the door is out of alignment. WD40 won’t magically re-align the door.
If you ignore difficulty locking a UPVC door eventually the mechanism is going to break. You could end up with a door jammed shut, or unable to lock. In the photo below a customer had been using WD40 to try to make the door work. No amount of lubricant was going to put all these broken pieces of metal back together. Adjusting the door in time would have prevented this breakage.
It is far cheaper to adjust your door correctly than it is to open a broken UPVC mechanism and replace the parts.
REPLACEMENT LOCK DETAINERS
With most mortise locks that are difficult to lock there are 2 main reasons. Either the door has dropped and the bolt is hitting the keep, or the keys are badly worn / cut. If the bow of the key does not have a manufacturer’s name, (or has an aftermarket brand such as JMA) the key is likely to be a copy. Take a look at the bitting of the key for worn or bent elements. If the key only works one side of the door this is a good indication of a worn key.
Worn keys can be exacerbated having too many keys/junk hanging on the bunch. This additional weight can wear levers or the curtain on one side.
If the keys are too badly worn they may have damaged the levers. It is possible to replace these levers but it’s normally cheaper to replace a complete lock. An exception to this rule is for Chubb (now Union) 3G110 lock. A detainer pack for these locks is cheaper than replacing the entire lock. Some companies do make cheaper locks that will slot straight into the hole but they’re not the same quality as a 3G110.
Renault Koleos handsfree card supplied, cut and programmed. The original key was faulty and would not lock the car. This style of Renault card are renowned for becoming damaged. They might fit nicely in your back pocket, but eventually you’re going to sit on it and break it if you keep putting it there.
UPVC door gearboxes shouldn’t look like this one above. Customer could have just replaced the gearbox but instead decided to cut the faceplate into 3 parts, requiring a complete replacement strip. Most gearboxes fail due to door misalignment (not rust or being cut into bits).
Above is an antique steamer trunk. It had regularly been across the Atlantic. The chest hadn’t been opened in decades and the key could not be found. We opened the lock without damage.
First example is programming of some Renault key cards. Work carried out for a lot cheaper than the rip off price the dealer quoted the customer. Dealer had also insisted the card reader was faulty and needed replacing before the cards could be programmed – that was a blatant lie.
Damaged UPVC door gearbox – and wrong fittings.Damaged gearbox due to somebody taking the lock out without knowing what they were doing.
Next example is a UPVC door that was jammed shut. This occurred due to a misaligned door. Once we got the door open we replaced the damaged parts and aligned the door. Previous repairers had just replaced the cylinder, ignoring the root cause of the problem (misalignment) and also put a wood screw into the gearbox instead of the correct M4 screw.
Last example from this week is a non-destructive entry to a commercial premises. British Standard 5 lever ERA Fortress picked open.
During this hot weather we are attending a lot of doors that cannot be locked. This is normally due to the doors being out of alignment. This most often happens to UPVC doors but can also affect wood and composite doors. If you have to use excessive force to lift the handle then very soon the mechanism is going to break. Your door should not be “knocking” when you shut the door with the handle held down.
Door roller locking point showing wear from door misalignment.
It is far cheaper to get the doors adjusted before the mechanism breaks (possibly locking you in/out).
UPVC door locking point showing wear due to door misalignment.
There is a fairly new housing estate in Coleford where we often go to conduct repairs. There’s also a new estate in Lydney with the same door mechanism. It isn’t the fault of the door mechanism, it’s the fault of the builders / installers who never took the time to line up the doors correctly to begin with.
If your sliding patio door is difficult to move or lock, it could be due to the rollers. Most patio door rollers can be adjusted to account for wear. Sometimes the rollers are so badly worn or collapsed that the aluminium door frame itself is rubbing on the track. Eventually this rubbing can also destroy the track which will add to the expense.
Worn patio door rollers (left). New replacement patio door roller (right).
In the picture above you can see 2 old rollers (left) which we removed from a door in Forest of Dean today. They are pictured with a new roller for comparison. The old rollers are completely worn away ( the only bit left is the bearing). No wonder the door didn’t want to open and couldn’t be locked.
What maintenance should you do for your sliding patio door? Keep the track clean and free dirt and grit. Do NOT lubricate the track. Lubricant on the track will attract grit and encourage the rollers to skid and flat spot. You want your rollers to grip the track and rotate correctly around the bearing. It’s the same as you don’t want your car tyres skidding on oil or ice – you want them gripping the road surface and rotating around the bearing.
This style of Garador lock and handle stopped being made around 1984. They can still be found on old metal garage doors. This type of lock barrel are also found on lockers in changing rooms.
In this example below the keys had been missing for months. We were asked to gain entry and fit a new lock. It is often possible to cut a new key for the lock but the original lock was so old and corroded it was worth fitting a new one.
The garage was one giant cobweb – it needed beating down with a stick to be able to enter!
Some older Mercedes cars have a boot mechanism that operates remotely using a vacuum pump. The pump can fail and the vacuum tubes can perish or disconnect. When that system fails it’s not normally a problem because the boot can still be opened using the key. If the boot lock is also faulty or damaged – then it is a problem problem. You can’t open the boot.
Mercedes boot lock. Visible signs of damage to the cover plate from previous attempts to unlock it.
In this example the boot mechanism could be heard clicking when the switch was operated. That indicated the vacuum pump was working OK so the likely fault was the actual actuator mechanism on the boot lid itself. The seats don’t fold down on this car – you can’t get into the boot that way. There are 2 ways to open the boot in this situation – one is to drill a hole through the skin of the boot to access the linkage. The other is to extract the lock barrel. Because this lock wasn’t working and needed replacing it was best to extract the lock and save drilling through the boot lid.
Mercedes boot lock removed – in parts.
Once the boot lock is removed the release linkage can be pulled, opening the boot and allowing the faulty mechanism to be swapped out.
A quirk of this Mercedes is that the battery is in the boot. If your key doesn’t work the locks and you get a flat battery you will struggle to get into the boot. There are ways around this if you know how.
Another vehicle with a weird boot/battery setup is a Rolls Royce Silver Shadow. They have a quirk where it can be difficult to tow an automatic with a flat battery. Again, there is a way around it.
If you can’t open your vehicle or have locked your keys in the boot / car in Forest of Dean and Ross on Wye areas give us a call.
Car remotes can stop working for several reasons. First thing to check is the battery. These can almost always be easily DIY replaced by popping the back off and swapping the battery out. If that doesn’t work then car key repair may be an option.
Some vehicles (particularly BMW/Land Rover and the blue Transit remotes) can have a rechargeable battery soldered to the circuit board. These are not quickly replaced. Like all re-chargeable batteries they have a limited lifespan and will eventually stop charging. We can replace these batteries when the time comes. For the blue Transit remotes it may be better to replace the remote for a newer type where the battery can be swapped out in seconds.
If the remote won’t work on all the buttons it’s probable that one of them is damaged or the solder joint has cracked. The flat Renault key cards are particularly prone to damage because the fit nicely in the back pocket and they get sat on. Replacing faulty or missing buttons can normally be achieved by anybody who can use a soldering iron. Old perished rubber centre buttons can be upgraded with ceramic buttons.
Land rover remote battery replacement. Checking operating frequency.
Even if your remote is working – check that your key actually works in the door locks. Sometimes remotes go flat but customers still can’t open the car because the locks have been changed or are faulty. If you don’t have the correct key for the lock you could be locked out if the remote or vehicle battery go flat.
VW Passat remote in for repair. Button had failed, was loose and rattling around in the case.
This venerable Triumph suffered a key snapped in the ignition. The key was so old and worn it was only a matter of time before it broke. Customer had a spare key but it only worked one way up. Anyway, the spare couldn’t be used until the snapped part was extracted.
The snapped part of the key was well and truly embedded in the lock. What I thought would be a 5 minute job took significantly longer.
Snapped part of key finally extracted.
If your key is worn or cracking, getting another copied on the high street will just give you another worn key that is shinier. An auto locksmith will be able to cut you a key to original depths and spacings by using a CNC cutting machine.
This Triumph is basically a rebadged Honda Ballade. Triumph and Rover made several ‘Japanese’ cars in UK. Cars have come a long way since then.
If you’re in need about to search for “auto locksmith in my area” when you’re in Forest of Dean, give us a call.
