Hung out with the kids at Fred Meyer for 30 minutes this morning, then walked them to school. Then walked an hour back to where my car sat at McDonald’s to wait for a locksmith. (Thanks, Nobody Likes Onions, for keeping me entertained for the walk.) Yesterday Jammie sent me a few links related to ignition problems which ended up giving me some good advice and information. In the end, I saved $140 by having a locksmith come to McDonalds and fix it for me, rather than taking it to the dealership. I couldn’t fix it myself since the lock had to be drilled out.

From reading some forums last night, I found out that the ignition locking up in a Ford Focus is very common. Some people claimed they had to replace their ignition every year or two. Others said that the locksmith or dealership would tell them that they usually replace several Ford Focus ignitions per week. The locksmith I talked to today said the same thing. The Ford Focus and the Contour, they get them all the time.

The cool part is this - the guy drilled my lock out and then noticed he was out of the tumbler whatever sets for my car. He said we could go by the dealership and ask them for one. Or he could just not put tumblers in it at all. Since the tumblers are the part that’s always failing (causing some Focus owners to replace their locks yearly) I can never have this problem again! Plus I can start my car with a flathead screwdriver instead of a key! Well, the key has to be there since there’s a chip in it and the car won’t start without it. But that seems secure enough. Why even have tumblers in there if you have the microchip?? So I saved an extra $60 on all the tumbler stuff, making my total $110. Not bad at all.