Cougar Key Make

One the aspects of the job I find challenging as a locksmith technician are the automotive services. There were many times where I found myself coming for a job where the customer called with what it seemed to be a simple issue that turned into an hour or more worth of work. Aside from lockout services, most of the automotive services I would get called for are making keys. Sometimes the vehicle would only need one key that would act as a master key operating all the locks in the vehicle including the ignition and sometimes it would require two keys where one operates the door and trunk locks and one would operate the ignition. However, most of the issues I encountered with were when a vehicle required a master key to be made.

I got a call the other day to make a key for a 99 Cougar. I haven't done many keys for these type of vehicle before, but I did several keys for similar Ford models. I knew I only needed to make one key since similar model Fords that I've worked on needed one "master-key" as well. I quickly checked my inventory to make sure I have the correct blanks to do the job and luckily I had two. I then took the customer's information and started heading his way.

Once I got to the customer's location, first thing I did was to verify the exact model of the vehicle to make sure the blanks I had were the correct ones and they were. Next step I had to decided what would be the method i would use to originate the key for the vehicle. Since the lock and ignition cylinders should have been the same, I've used my EZ-Reader tool to get the right cuts off of the door lock cylinder. Once I had the key made, I went ahead and tried it on the ignition switch but without any success.

It seemed as the key I made worked well on the door lock, but not on the ignition. There was a lot of resistant as I was trying to operate the key through all the positions in the switch. I figured that maybe the semi-faulty key was as a result from using the EZ-Reader tool. I then decided to try and progression a key using the last blank I had which did not work as well. As a last resort, I called a Portland locksmith co-worker of mine to see if he had any more blanks and maybe an advice for me.

Luckily, when I got my co-worker on the phone and telling him the story, he mentioned it was a common problem with these types of ignitions on these models. According to him, the solution was very simple. All I needed to do was locate the two screws holding the ignition switch to the rear of the lock housing and slightly release them while the key is in the ignition until the key operation will be smooth. To my surprise, after following my co-worker advice, both keys seemed to work and the customer was satisfied since now he had two keys.