While changing the cylinders on my junkyard doors I stumbled upon a solution for a worn out key if you have the cylinder out and free. So simple and obvious-- the key wasnt reliable-- it stuck sometimes and sometimes not.
Hardly what you want in a door. Looking carefully at the exposed cylinder, I found that with the key inserted, some of the wards ( those little copper slices of metal the key runs through) didnt fully retract. This is hardly surprising, its a 25 yo key. So the solution is to take out the slots that dont retract, leaving in the ones that do retract. I think theres a total of ten, so the loss of two or three isnt exactly the end of the world. I removed the three worst ones ( and the tiny springs that go with them) put the cylinder back in the lock, and the key works fine now. Just remember to be careful when you remove more than one at a time to put them back where they belong. wish Id though of this when I was replacing my 85.00 ignition cylinder!

On my junkyard door, with the cylinder out and the key in, I just ran it over the belt sander to make all the long inserts the same length. Sound crazy, but I have had no problem for over a year now.

I've done this on many VW door handles and glove box locks. It works great. I usually use a hand file, the brass tumblers are very soft.

-J

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1991 350SDL. 230,000 miles (new motor @ 150,000). Blown head gasket

Tesla Model 3. 205,000 miles. Been to 48 states!
Past: A fleet of VW TDIs.... including a V10,a Dieselgate Passat, and 2 ECOdiesels.
2014 Cadillac ELR
2013 Fiat 500E.

the ignition key in my '82 w123 (240d) failed to work. i took dieselgiant.com advice (thank you!!!) on grinding down the pin potruding into the steering column. regardless the key still did not work! i bypassed the system by removing the vacuum lines and plugging them before starting...
glowplugs don't work but a squirt of WD40 does it everytime... I just short connectors on starter ad it comes right up
and unplugging the vacuum lines to kill the car!

my question is will continued use in this state cause any damage to the electrical sys or otherwise???

thank you for any input!
john

I cannot think of any senario your approach is going to really damage anything. You will need those glow plugs though as the weather cools I imagine.

I think someone did that very thing to the driver's door lock on my dad's 300SD....the key goes in.....different (too easily almost)......and I tried the key from my SD....and it worked! The keys are similar but different, I guess those parts of the lock are missing! I can open his car with my key but it doesn't work in the passenger door, trunk, or ignition, nor the glove box....

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-diesel is not just a fuel, its a way of life-
'15 GLK250 Bluetec 118k - mine - (OC-123,800)
'17 Metris(VITO!) - 37k - wifes (OC-41k)
'09 Sprinter 3500 Winnebago View - 62k (OC - 67k)
'13 ML350 Bluetec - 95k - dad's (OC-98k)
'01 SL500 - 103k(km) - dad's (OC-110,000km)
'16 E400 4matic Sedan - 148k - Brothers (OC-155k)

ty barry!

we got a week of 110f coming up, wont be needing wd40 for a while ;-)
yes before it gets cold i will do a "proper"!

If compression is good, about 5-10 seconds on the starter w/ the skinny pedal on the floor is fine when it's warm.

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CC: NSA

All things are burning, know this and be released.

82 Benz 240 D, Kuan Yin
12 Ford Escape 4wd

You're four times

It's hard to

more likely to

concentrate on

have an accident

two things

when you're on

at the same time.

a cell phone.

www.kiva.org It's not like there's anything wrong with feeling good, is there?