That sickening half-turn snap: now the business end of your key lives inside the lock and the head lives in your palm. Don't reach for the super glue: gluing the halves together is the single fastest way to turn a $69 extraction into a replaced cylinder, and tweezers usually push the fragment deeper. Lockout Krew extracts broken keys from residential doors, car doors, gates, and padlocks all over San Diego with purpose-built extractor tools that grip the fragment's cuts and slide it out clean.
Extraction pairs naturally with what we do all day: getting you through the door the broken key just locked you out of. One visit, one flat price, both problems solved.
How Professional Key Extraction Works
A broken-key extractor is a thin serrated tool that slides into the keyway alongside the fragment, bites into the key's cuts, and draws it straight out: no drilling, no disassembly in most cases. Stubborn fragments sometimes call for lock lubrication, a plug spinner, or pulling the cylinder; either way the lock goes back together working. We'll tell you in the first minute which kind of job yours is.
Where Keys Break (and Why)
Keys are the fuse of your lock: years of copying-a-copy, a stiff cylinder that's never seen lubricant, one cold-handed twist, and the brass gives. Front-door deadbolts and car doors are the classic sites; gate padlocks near the coast corrode and grab keys; and worn apartment locks in older buildings from North Park to El Cajon snap more keys than anywhere else in the county.
After the Extraction: The Honest Part
Here's the part other shops mumble: once the fragment is out, you need a working key, and we don't cut keys. If you have a spare, you're done, and we'll test it before we leave. If that was your only key, we'll tell you plainly and point you to a trusted key-cutting locksmith or your dealer. We'd rather be your fast, honest first call than upsell you at your worst moment. And if the snapped key left you locked out entirely, that's exactly what the 24/7 crew is for.