[QUOTE=Rebe;3412365]...... Well, looking in the cars hand book, Mercedes actually endorses using the dry graphite for lubing the door locks etc....../QUOTE]
And that ' hand book ' was printed in what year ?
When the lock has to be replaced.... or something else goes wrong... Mercedes is in line to make money...
I am not...
I have given fair warning and each can do whatever they want to to their cars..
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Best Answer
donmohan2 answered 8 years ago
Too much graphite will cause one or more pins to over-lift. It's okay to flush it out with WD-40. It will make a black, goopy mess, but once you wash that graphite out, your lock will open.
Graphite is obsolete, and it is what causes locksmiths to be crabby, surly people. We debate which spray solvent is best, but most agree that anything is better than graphite.
The tolerances in residential locks are sloppy enough that WD-40 can't gum it up.
Flush that lock with WD-40 and you will be fine.
Source:
I'm a retired locksmith
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linlyons answered 8 years ago
DON'T USE WD-40.
it's not good for this purpose.
what happens is that it attracts and holds dust and dirt.
and dries gummy.
then your lock really won't work.
graphite really was the right thing to use.
"now it doesn't work" lacks a bit of detail on what might be wrong.
"it goes in but won't turn" might mean it's a really old lock, and the key and pins are worn so that they no longer line up.
that would be a problem, you just cannot lubricate them to make them longer.
however, if that is the case, sometimes you can jiggle the key, and the pins catch.
and if that's true, it'll never get any better.
when you put the key in the lock, is the 'pointy' part up or down?
it should be up.
that's where the pins are, and you want them to be up.
if they're down, then dirt falls into them and messes the lock up.
good luck.
btw, having worked with locks 40 years ago, i really don't like the selection that's available today, particularly at hardware stores. the old Schlage A locks were so much better than what's available today. and Arrow locks were perfect copies -- so much so that you could interchange parts. you might go to a locksmith. you'll pay more, but you might get a better lock. and he could make sure all your locks used the same key, if you paid him to do that.
Source(s):
worked in the research dept 4 years at Schlage Lock.
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x answered 8 years ago
You probably packed in the dirt, and with the graphite, made it pack in tight so that it wont budge.
Get some PB BLASTER or WD-40 with the straw and shove it in the key slot and shoot the the lock with the lubricant so that the "grey goop" from the graphite finally comes out and clean. Your lock should work fine then!
What you did, is the dirt from your fingers got all over the lock insides and the crud packed in there, so, after the WD-40 I would get the PB Blaster and blow in the lock to rid the mechanism of the dirt from your fingers... Turn the key a few times in it and it should work fine...(Though, it will probably work fine with the WD-40, "that" is not a cleaner and the Blaster "should" clean out the grease and crud).
I wish you well...
Jesse