I have blisters on my fingers from trying to turn the ignition!!!!
everything was fine, until I got back in my newly acquired 95 e320, put the key into the ignition, and wont turn (at all), I though it had to do with the steering lockso, i was turning the steering wheel and playing with the key about a million times, until it finally works (45 minutes..)
anybody has any idea?the key locks the car just fine, and the previous owner never had a problem (very trustable guy)....
thank you.

i live in London but come from South Africa originally and tend to visit about four times a year. my dad bought a 200 W124 in 1987 and i bought it from him about ten years ago. this beauty still runs a dream, about a million k's on the clock she has had her second engine at 300000 but always starts and never left me on the side of the road. i think it has something to do with the fact that electrics are none exisitant in this car, no electric windows, no engine management, no computer, no injector too, carbed motor. also she has the old 4 speed manual and still gets 190k/h.

anyway getting to your problem.

was in sa three months ago and struggled to start the car one day same as you. thought the stearing look was jammed. finnally got her started and no problem again for days. then couldnt get the key out one evening. turns out the cast aluminium ignition houseing had cracked and was casuing alignment problems. so had to change the ignition. problem was i would need seperate keys for doors and ignition and merc wanted about 900 rand 140 dollars for a new ignition and two keys. went to a scrap yard and bouth the whole set for half pent the other half having it all fitted, but when buying second hand check the housing for cracks. common fault especially on high milleage and loads of stop start.

good luck

well, thank you for the help...
thats the problem, that it is an intermittent one...will work, then, more wasted time!!!!!
it seemed like an alignement problem....because after shaking the ignition , and the steering is finally started....
I was really pissed, it is only the second day I have the car...
she has 155.000 miles, black on tan, love the 3.2 engine...
thanks again for your help!

Stop what you’re doing immediately, and search the forum for “ignition tumbler” or “lock cylinder”. You are living on borrowed time! The problem will get progressively worse until eventually your key will not work at all (and it will undoubtedly happen at the most inopportune time). This is a common problem that can be corrected in about 15 minutes provided you can get the ignition tumbler to the #1 position. However, once your current key stops working – and you can no longer get the tumbler to the #1 position – you are looking at a VERY difficult and expensive procedure.
You can order a new tumbler that will match your current locks from your MB dealer.
But I can’t emphasize strongly enough that you need to do this immediately. Because the next time your key works, could be the last time it works… then you’re screwed!
Get the info on removing the tumbler by doing the search. Then the next time you start your car, DON’T SHUT IT OFF! Remove the tumbler. You can still operate the ignition switch by inserting the key where the tumbler was. (At least I could with mine.) This way you can still safely drive the car, while you wait for the new tumbler to be delivered to the dealer.

Good luck.

Jeff Pierce

__________________
Jeff Pierce

Current Vehicles:
'92 Mercedes 190E/2.3 (247K miles/my daily driver)
'93 Volvo 940 Turbo Wagon (263K miles/a family truckster with spunk)
'99 Kawasaki Concours
Gravely 8120
Previous Vehicles:
'85 Jeep CJ-7 w/ Fisher plow (226K miles)'93 Volvo 940 Turbo Wagon
'53 Willys-Overland Pickup
'85 Honda 750F Interceptor
'93 Nissan Quest
'89 Toyota Camry Wagon
'89 Dodge Raider
'81 Honda CB 750F Super Sport
'88 Toyota Celica
'95 Toyota Tacoma
'74 Honda CB 550F

As tvpierce says, you are living on borrowed time. Get this taken care of ASAP or you'll be faced with drilling out the cylinder yourself or paying a dealer big bucks to do it. Take your car ID and proof of ownership to MB and get a like keyed cylinder in about a week (about $90 two years ago). Or you can immediately get a generic cylinder from MB but then you'll have two different keys for the car. Replacement is straightforward. Check the archives. You can start the car with just a screwdriver after the cylinder has been removed (but so can anyone else!)

As danieldono mentioned, the cast aluminum cylinder housing is weak and does break. It is weak from all the cut out slots that the brass lock pins fit into.


glenmore
1991 300CE
1990 LS400

just wanted to thank you all, for the precious help I recieved..
i went to my mechanics, (it was actually funny, I called him this morning, starting to describe the problem, and he immediately interupted me, and said:whatever you do, if the car happens to start, DO NOT TURN IT OFF....)so, I drove it there, he had a used ignition tumbler that he lends to people like me, so, he slpapped that in, in 5 mn and ordered the new one..so, I go back there when he recieves it...
it is still $90...I am actually tempted in getting one on ebay ($30) and just have different keys for the ignition and the doors...
anyway, thanks again!!!!!this forum is great.

Thank goodness for this site. After having fixed a number of things on my car and driving it more than usual the last few weeks, I noted the other day that I couldn't get it started-- that the key was locked in there. After some wiggling it worked fine and since then fine. We were actually out in the country, getting stuck out there would have been ugly. I bet the tumbler is going bad based on this and other threads and so I'll change it immediately. I never would have thought about that without this site. I'm going to use an aftermarket one since I hate dealing with the dealerships on anything I don't have to, will just have 2 different keys, doesn't bother me.

Since you did it yourself you don't have to worry about a comeback.

Instances of these events are about evenly distributed between tumblers that are wore out and steering lock gearing that is wore out. Really a ***** to guess at which is bad when the problem isn't occuring OR when it is, as the symptoms are the same. It is possible to verify a worn tumbler by the loseness of the hardened plate the key is inserted through.

__________________
Steve Brotherton
Continental Imports
Gainesville FL
Bosch Master, ASE Master, L1
33 years MB technician

When you park the car always try and relieve the pressure of the steering before using the steering lock when you park. The recirculating ball can put a lot of pressure on the lock if you just turn the steering, lock and release....ouch!

When my key was stuck in there, I do not believe the steering wheel lock was engaged. The issue of pulling that steering wheel back (in response to another post) is pretty obvious I think for most people with these cars because there seem to be times with most cars I've owned that if the lock is set, you have to pull the wheel back a bit to get the key out of there.

Steve mentioned something about the plate being loose. Is this something you can tell just by sitting in the car, or do you have to remove the tumbler to tell? My feeling on this is that if I'm going to get that tumbler out of there, I'm going to go ahead and replace it anyway for the $60 bucks for a new one. But if there were a way to diagnose externally of course I'd do that first. The gist from your post and others is that it's guesswork in the end (?)

That being the case, proactive changing of this thing sounds like a good idea. My car has 125,000 miles on it. It was the first time it ever did that to me (lockup like that) and it was scary. I was reasonable sure there for a bit that we were absolutely stuck wherever we were.

A trick to get a stuck tumbler to turn to the #1 position for removal is to place the handle of a power reciprocating /jig saw [ no blade] on the key head as you try and turn the key.. elect vibrating sander works too..
Locksmith vibration trick......

In hindsight, the ignition tumbler on my car was extremely loose when I bought the car. I lived with it for awhile not thinking any thing of it. I took a closer look at it when I would get an occassional SRS light. Someone mentioned that sometimes a loose ignition cylinder might cause it. I checked the archives and read the horror stories so I got right on it. When I took the tumbler out, it came out in two pieces, the front keyhole plate and the rest of the tumbler. So in my case the sloppy looseness of the ignition was indication of pending disaster.

glenmore
1991 300CE
1990 LS400