yesterday the lock in my '87 300TD just stopped turning. there was absolutely no warning, it has never given the slightest hint of going bad. i tried both original keys, the vibrating sander, spray lubricant, compressed air, everything i read on here. no joy and the lock would not turn so i could not get the tumbler out. this is my wife's daily and a much needed vehicle to our family so i had to drop all other work and get it drive-able.

i had to get out the power tools and destroy the tumbler and hardened cover to extract the lock cylinder. i have another 124 wagon that is idle at the moment so i replaced the ignition lock with that one until i can get a matched tumbler from the dealer.

our car has just under 300,000 kms and i would suggest anyone who has this kind of mileage to re/re the ignition cylinder as a preventive measure. i wish i had done this. extracting the tumbler by destroying it isn't so hard, but hacking the car made me curse. such a brutal method of 'repair'. my 4-year-old wanted to know why i was breaking the car. then she said something very smart: "do you have to break it to fix it?". from the mouths of babes indeed.

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punkinfair