legacycentral bbs

For a while I had been bending keys in my drivers side door, the cylinder just woulden't turn to unlock. I figured it had something to do with the auto lock system or the cylinder itself. I finially had the time to take the door apart, and check everything out. What I found was that all I really needed to do was pull the trim from around the inner handle, and get some lube in behind the lock button itself. It was something binding in that mechanism that kept the links and lock cylinder from turning. Now the lock works better than new.

yeah, mine does that every now and then. I'll have to squirt some lube up in there. I'll be taking the door panels off to redo stereo stuff in the next few months.

I haven't used any of my door locks for over a year now. My remote alarm controls the doors too (which is a bonus because the car's been broken into so many times that none of the lock barrels are useable anyway).

And before any of you start on about flat remote batteries etc, I renew them every year and even if not, putting the remote touching the side of your head nearly doubles the range! (try it - it really works!)

Here is what I've noticed. When I lock the door, and someone pulls the handle, it makes it very hard to unlock as you described. I know when someone has toyed with my car when it's hard to unlock. I also fear breaking or bending the key, so here's what I do when it's difficult like that: I go over to the passenger side and unlock that door, and reach across and open the driver's door from the inside. That lock automatically opens when you pull the handle. That way, I don't risk breaking a key off in the cylinder...

This will all be attended to eventually

I replaced my key and had no further problems. Initially there was the ignition switch and door locks that would hang up. I went to the dealer with the original key and they made a new key that has worked flawlessly. The dealer needed the key number stamped on the side of the key.

How do the covers come off around the interior door handles? My electric locks are slow to work. Sometimes won't work at all. I would like to shoot some lube in there to see if it helps, but don't want to bugger up my trim.

thanks - Mark

to remove the cover there are small clips where the lock button pivots, pop the back end of the cover off, and then push it forward to get the last clip off.

A fix that works more often is to remove the cylinder and dremel all the sliding portions down level when the key is inserted. As the key and cylinder gets worn down they no longer stay flush. You end up cutting grooves into the housing. The worse part is these grooves usually end up on the unlock side and not the lock side.

We had this problem when we picked up Elizabeth's 91 Turbo. The door latches were sticking about half the time at that point, then they began to get worse.

I removed the door card on the drivers side and sprayed the lock mechanism down with some PB blaster. I let it sit for a bout 5 minutes, then sprayed it down again. The lock seems to work great now. We have had zero problems with it since then.

I know this is a little ot but are you the same guy from rs25.com?

Yep, that is me. Same screen name on rs25, Nasioc, I-club, WRXHackers, Legacycentral, and TeamNABR.

Coolness, I have some questions for you if you don't mind my inquisitveness, but I'll save them for another topic or a pm or something.

Dr Nick wrote: putting the remote touching the side of your head nearly doubles the range! (try it - it really works!)

If i put the remote under my chin I can easily double the distance human aentenna