Door Lock thingamajig- itty bitty piece, King sized price.

[BlueBabyBenz]

One by one, I'm trying to deal with the issues that seemed minor when I bought the car.

The key would not lock/unlock from the driver's side.

So, after some effort, I managed to remove the cylinder.

There is a little cast metal piece, about 1 1/2" long that hinges off the end of the cylinder, which turns the lock mechanism. It's broken.

I went to the dealer, and he told me the piece is not available. In fact, he also told me I cannot even take it apart to replace the piece if I could buy one. The new lock cylinder would cost $140 Canadian.

Being stubborn, I worked out a way to disassemble the hinge part. I figured if I could get just that piece from a wrecker, I could fix it without even having to redo the tumbler to my own key.

So, this morning I visited my local Shylock, er I mean wrecker.

He happily told me he would sell me the cylinder for $250. As I dusted myself off from the sudden fall caused by the fainting spell, I explained that the dealer offered to sell me the same part for $140. He told me the dealer gave me the wrong price.

Well, as it turns out, Shylock was right.

$474 at the dealer. To replace a 4 gram (1/8 oz. for you Americans) part. That's $60,672/pound. Canadian dollars, mind you, but expensive none the less.

So, any advice?

I'm figuring a machine shop could produce that part, using the passenger side as a model. Probably less than $250, I'm guessing.

Actually, for $250, maybe I should consider buying a parts car.

I can see how this can get out of hand...

[jbaj007]

Try other wreckers. Even with shipping you can easily beat that price. I'm sure there's a lot of wrecks out there with no key to the cylinder, making for a difficult to sell part. Heck, you can buy a whole door with a lock here.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1860362859