IGNITION SWITCH 300E
 

I have a 91 mercedes 300E. I turned the car off and 2 minutes later tried to start it and the ignition just refuses to turn at all... Any ideas what I need to address?

You need a new tumbler. Since it is broken you may need some additional parts too.

ignition reply
 

It would just break out of the blue like that?

Sometimes a jammed shifter linkage cable can cause the key to not turn.

How do I check to see if thats the problem?

You might try a different key.

I just went through this on my '93 190E I've owned since new. I drove the car to CVS and when I came out the key didn't want to turn....first time this has happened. I gave it a wiggle and it turned. I drove it home and parked it, called my indy parts guy and ordered a new tumbler. It arrived from MB in 2 days. I was able to remove the old one with 2 pieces of coat hanger. Luckily I was still able to turn it to position 1 to remove and replace.

Hope you can get it to turn to position 1.
Good luck.

300 E ignition
 

No i cant even get it into potition one

yup
 

most likely the tumbler.

How do I change the tumbler?

Yeah, just follow the guide it's actually not that hard. BUT - you really want to be able to get that joker to turn one last time so you can remove it easily. It's worth putting a shot of graphite in there and doing the wiggle until you coax one more turn out of it. Also, you really should try another key too, sometimes you get lucky that way.


Good luck.