On my 190e, I had problems turning the key, especially when the steering wheel locked. It took a little wiggling before it would turn.

So I looked to my trusty Haynes manual for help and found out abt the "special tool". A friend of mine (who works in a metal shop) shaped a couple of pins for me and I was on my way back with a new ignition key barrel for a DIYer.

However, pushing the pin in as instructed, I could not get the barrel to come out (pulling at the key in position 1).

After 2 hours, I gave up on this DIYer and was on my way to a Merc shop.

Even those guys took abt an hour b4 they could get the damn barrel out. Turns out, the retainers at the end had broken, thus pushing the pins would achieve nothing.

Well, 20 bucks for labour? It was well worth the money.

Btw, the barrel cost me 60 bucks and now, I have 2 keys. The old one for the locks and the new one for the ignition switch.

That keyless alarm system i saw at the mall is beginning to look kinda' appealing right now...