1983 300td
 

Ignition not working....

The steering wheel is stuck in a locked position and the key will not turn. I fought with it for about..20 minuts pulling and tugging etc and finally it worked, cranked fine. I drove it for a block, came back, parked perfectly straight, slowly turned it off and removed the key...

AND IT LOCKED AGAIN

Then I spent 1 hour cussing, yanking, yelling, and moving the steering wheel and key around, with no luck. Even tried some WD40 where the key goes...

nothing

any ideas?

i'd like not to have to have it towed to a shop, where i probably won't be able to afford the labor hours

search 'steering lock'...
heres one of them: http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/showthread.php?t=58636&highlight=diamond

oh geez, this is going to be hell

well I guess I am screwed, I've played with it for over an hour and nothing...

so...assuming i take this to a shop (and i don't care if i have a diff key for the ignition and the door)

how much am i looking at money wise?

no ideas on $$ guys?

I talked to the shop I am getting it towed to. He said he is going to try to use some lubricant, a little heat, and just patience to try to get it to the 1st position and replace it, cost there is around 150 bucks

if not, then the whole replacement for everything will be around 400.....

i'd much rather pay 150, i don't want this car (360k miles on it) to not work anymore

once you got it to turn the first time you shouldnt have turned the key off again!

I'd still work like hell to try and get it to come loose and get the key to turn, otherwise the shop is going to have to drill the tumbler out. I've had to work at some ignitions for quite sometime before they finally came out. If you DO manage to get it to turn again, get the wire needed to remove the tumbler with the key and do NOT turn the key back if it turns this time!

I talked to a tech at the local MB dealer and he said 90% of the time he can get them to turn by putting some grease on the key then working at it or spraying a lubricant in there. I think either would be better than a tow. Less humilitaing at least. I hate seeing an MB on a tow truck.

Thanks
David

i can't attempt it anymore, i have an open blister the size of a quarter over my finger from trying

the tow is free, so that's fine, i just need it fixed now, it is going to be towed saturday morning

it is towed and at the shop waiting for repair next week

the two truck driver parked it next to one just like it at the service place, but the other one wasn't a turbo and was white

( i feel like i'm talking to myself)

so yeah, looks to be a no go, he has to destroy the housing and replace the whole shebang

he told me 50 dollars for the cylinder, 200 for the housing, so 250, plus labor, comes to like 450ish

plus it needs an oil change...so 480.....

Which is about 4 X what I paid for the car......

Plus I got the insurance quote, which is 422 more every 6 months, with no comp coverage

the gods must hate me

I sympathize with you. It cost me about $500 some 8 years ago when I ran into the same problem on my 300sd. Had to be towed to dealer. No problems since...yeah its a lot of money, but this is one of the toughest things to repair it seems and it's best repaired professionally Maybe you can save money elsewhere. I did my own oil, fuel, air, transmission filter changes for 10 yrs when this car was my daily driver.

thanks for the response

the total came to about 545 with sales tax..oil change was more like 50

i'm happy it is fixed, but very bittersweet about it, broke college students shouldn't buy old 2nd cars (my regular car is a 04' toyota matrix)

hopefully nothing will go wrong w/ it for awhile

he said the rear axle is pretty new, and tires, belts, hoses are all in good shape, just needs new brake pads soon (100ish dollars)

..

New brakes are EASY!!


Do it yourself! Buy some Textar yellowbox pads online and a package of brake paste. It would be good to bleed/flush the brake fluid(1 liter). I can do a set in 20-30 minutes.


Michael