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Today I went out to my car to drive it. I put the key in the driver's side door lock and the key just kept turning around and around without unlocking my door. Has anyone had this happen before? Is this going to be an easy fix? It suspiciously happened today which would be just a few days after I had the new key made, anyone think the two happenings are linked somehow? PLEASE HELP I like my car locked

I don't know a bunch about door stuff, but I'm pretty sure you broke something in there, a rod or something...

It could be a rod or a plastic clip holding one of the rods or some broken components inside the lock itself. If you ask me it is probably the clip to the rod, there are two rod/clips to the door handle, one combination to the lock and one the the actual handle. The best way to find out is to remove the door panel and get a good look at it, you more than likely will have to remove the window to get to the inside of the lock and clips, not to complicated if you have some know-how about cars. Hope this helps, good luck, john k

Just letting you know that even if the rod fell off, you would not be able to turn the key 360°. also, you would probably hear the rod clanging around if you shook the door back and forth. you said you had a new key made. Try the old key and see if it still does it, if so the locking cylinder is probably damaged, but I would recomend looking at it more closely as well.

Good luck,

Mike

I have the exact same problem,been opening car thruogh passenger side for months.mine happened about two weeks after replacing driver side auto lock control unit in door I think the solution is going to be new door locks on both sides,which means another key.1 key for locks and 1 key for ignition I havent wanted to invest in this so i dont know how much it will cost.i have more pressing matters like bad front axles and blown cam seals so for now i will have to stretch across car to unlock driver side.if you do change locks drop another post and let me know what kind of change you drop.thanks

I know exactly what happen. Because it happen to my car back in 1995.

The lock cylinder has a backing plate on it, which attaches to the rod going down to the lock mechanism.

To fix it, go to your subie dealer, buy a new lock cylinder....I think it was like 20-25 bucks. You will get a new set of keys with the lock cylinder. You can either keep these keys and use them, or take the new lock cylinder to a lock smith and have him re-key it to the original key.

Remove the door panel, peel back the plastic moisture barrier. Reach your hand up in there and pop off the plastic clips that go to the door handle rod & lock cylinder rod. Loosen the two 10mm bolts that hold the door handle on. Take the door handle off, remove the snap clip that holds the lock cylinder in the handle. Pop the new lock cylinder in, and re-assemble.

WARNING: If you remove the old lock cylinder and drive the car in the mean time....DO NOT put down the window....lock the window. What can happen is the window can pop off the rod that goes to the lock assembly......I can speak from experience.....it bent the rod....we bent it back, but it was an unbelievable biatch getting it back into place.

777 you said it happened to you before. Do you remember having trouble actually locking the door without the key too? You know how you have to hold the handle up and then push it shut. It either pops back open or will shut and not be locked, or it will barely catch and I have to give it a second push with the handle up to get it to lock. I haven't had time to get into my door to see what is going on in there but I will let everyone know what I find out. Sounds like I will probably be buying a new lock cylinder, which will be a big pain in the patoot to have two keys but the lesser evil of having to go around and open the passenger side when the -50 degree wind is blowing up my backside. Thanks again guys.

Go have the lock cylinder re-keyed to match your original key. It doesn't cost a lot of money and works fine.

The holding the door handle up shouldn't be affected by the lock cylinder. there is a separate linkage for the lock cylinder to the lock mechanism. The interior lock button and actual lockin mechanism still work fine.

READ THIS

I just dealt with this problem. I did it all myself and it cost me 2 dollars and 2 hours time. I could do it in an hour if i knew what i was doing.

My inner cylander had broken. It could turn around just as you described.

I went to the junkyard and picked up a drivers door lock off a 94 turbo. I went home and took my door handle off. There are 2 screws holding a backing plate that holds the handle on. the plate will fall into the door, disconnect the 2 wires from the lock assembly, not the handle. Thats the only way to get the handle back on.

Take your lock out of the handle by removing the retaining clip. disassemble the lock by taking off the C clip first, then the aluminum thing that is pressed on, and slide the broken lock core out. Take off the recentering springs, noticing where they go.
Take apart the donor lock in the same way.
Slide your key in the broken lock and see how the teeth move up and down. Thats how the lock works.
Now, use pliers and wiggle to pull all the teeth out of the donor lock core, being careful to leave the springs in place. Take the teeth and throw them as far as you can.
Now, line the two locks up together so they are facing the same way. Pull each key individually from your broken lock and place it IN THE EXACT SAME PLACE on your donor core.
When you've done it correctly, all the teeth will be in when you put the key in, allowing the core to spin in the casing. Put the whole assembly back together and put it in the handle.
The 2 wires are still attached to the handle, put the handle in the door and put the backing back and reconnect the wires. Congradulations, you now rekeyed a lock!

can this get a sticky?

WOOHOO!!

Using both Josh's and Scott's instructions, I just successfully repaired my driver's lock. No more climbing across the car for me!!

Thanks guys!

Okay scottzg is a genius. This didn't cost me much. The salavage yards around where I live wouldn't let go of parts of the door only the whole door. And the other places only had ancient Loyales and GL's that weren't compatible donors. So I said screw 'em and ordered the parts I needed off the net. I haven't updated this in a long time. Since this lock problem I also had the door lock actuator in the interior break on me, according to the parts list it is a "remote control" under the hardware category. I ordered a new remote control from subaruparts.com and and installed without a problem. Then I got the lock cylinder I ordered from a guy on ebay who was parting out a subie. Scottzg's post was awesome. Everything worked like he said, except for one difference. I didn't have to take apart my original lock the way he said because it had completely blown up, just like Josh had said earlier the back plate on the lock cylinder that's connected to lock was connected to the rod and not my lock. So I don't know if the back plate is on correctly now because I have a new problem. This rod was completely bent down, so I bent it back up and connected it to my door handle but my door won't open from the inside, and I don't even know if the lock works, the key turns in the lock and looks right but something is royally messed up. I took the door panel off the passenger side and it looks like everything's the same. The driver's door has all rods and plastic connectors on and everything, but there is just something that won't quite work and it's driving me INSANE Does anyone know if a shop would be able to help or would they just order a bunch of $150 dollar lock parts and charge me $60 an hour to figure it out. By then I may as well have bought a new door and had it painted or a new legacy all together. If anyone knows anything about this please PLEASE post soon

WOOOHOOO!! Door fixed. I took out every piece I could and WD40'd the hell out and then put it back together when I thought it had stopped sticking. Then I used my old key.... The old key works fine those weinerheads at Wal-Mart are gonna get a good old fashioned ass stomping. Well I know everything there is to know about my door locks now so please if you have any questions at all go ahead and ask because I am now the self proclaimed BC/BF door lock latch thingy GOD [music and singing of angels and honking of horns]. Now I just have to wait for the WD40 to wear off and I'll do it all again. THANKS FOR ALL THE HELP GUYS

Talk about perfect timing... (not really... but anyway) my car just started doing this today out of nowhere!! Driver side door won't even lock for me!! I've parked it next to a wall and climbed out of the passenger side.. I'll be trying to fix it tomorrow Good thing I was planning on spending a few hours of quality time with the car anyway.

inzomniac wrote:Talk about perfect timing... (not really... but anyway) my car just started doing this today out of nowhere!! Driver side door won't even lock for me!! I've parked it next to a wall and climbed out of the passenger side.. I'll be trying to fix it tomorrow Good thing I was planning on spending a few hours of quality time with the car anyway.

Gary,

by chance have you gotten my emails about the rear strut tower bar?

Hey I had the same prob ,I fixed it the lazy way , I took it to the dealer and said it was the master cylender( which I figured that thanks to this forum ) they said that well fix it and change the oil.2 days later I picked it up it was like $200 to do it , and the same key works so I guess they rekeyed it . I works great

thought I share that

Damn man, I would have fixed the lock and changed the oil for 100$!

I would just like to thank Mr. Scottzg For that great explanation on re keying a lock!!!!
I had the same problem for quite some time. The lock kept spinning in circles... I got a donor core for practically free at the JY, re keyed it in like 10 minutes according to those instructions, and everything works great now!
My wife will be thrilled to not have to crawl across the car to unlock her door now.... (Hey, I MIGHT even get a little action for this one! ) hahaha... file that one under T.M.I.

One piece of advice to add, is to be VERY careful when removing the handle to get the donor core from. If you fail to remove the little plastic clip from the bar that attaches the lock cylinder to the latch mechanism below before popping the handle out, it could be very easy to accidentally break the lock core. Probably in the exact same place that your original one is broken.

Also, I hope you have long skinny fingers like me when trying to get the handle out, or even worse... getting the handle back in.

It's really not hard... I could do the whole thing again in about 20 or 25 minutes.

Anybody got a part number for the lock cylinder? I've done a search and can't seem to find one for it.

For the driver's door, I used X5741AA020.

I had the same thing happen to me yesterday on my 91 SS. Todya I will pull the door panel off and start monkeying with it.

My drivers side lock cylinder broke yesterday. I too followed the instructions legacy777 provided. I took the new and old lock cylinders to a locksmith to get rekeyed to match the old. Had an absolutely wonderful time, it was so much fun, doing the reinstallation. Those two nuts(10mm wrench size) that go on the bracket that holds the handle on were just delightful to get back on. Got them properly tight. They were already loose before I removed them. The instructions worked very well. This is a very doable, "diy" job, and you will love those two nuts. Several beers and some food made it all possible!

Hooray! Beer can make anything happen. DIY FTW!!!

Just a bit of advice, when I put my dorr handle back on I broke one the bolts on the handle. I barely tightened it and it snapped.