Key won't go in mechanical door lock

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As per subject. Have tried a skoosh with the GUNK equivalent of WD-40, to no avail.

Might try solvent (brake cleaner?) and a blast with compressed air, if I can get to some, next. I see graphite sprays recommended, but I dunno if I can get them here, though I can get pencil lead, so maybe I can blow graphite into it.

After that I suppose I MIGHT try to take it apart, but I'm not very keen.

Any other ideas? Lock picks?

One consolation is its fairly low risk leaving it unlocked here even with stuff inside it, and I should make a sun cover anyway, so maybe I can live with it, and/or use a padlock.
 
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Being able to fix it depends on the construction as well. On my BMW you can quite easily disassemble the lock cylinder and remove the wafers and springs, clean everything up and put it back together. The Toyota cylinders are different though and you can't get them apart without drilling out a portion of the housing somehow.

Once I got the BMW cylinders apart it became clear why spraying stuff into the lock wasn't going to help much. The grease had become old and hard and the springs could no longer align the wafers properly. BMW gives a small tube of grease with a new wafer set that works pretty well, I haven't been able to find an equivalent grease anywhere else.
 
Swap cylinders from driver door with the passenger door. They are usually the same cylinder and of course the same key.
 
Originally Posted By: kschachn
On my BMW you can quite easily disassemble the lock cylinder and remove the wafers and springs, clean everything up and put it back together.


I did the same on an old Mercedes. Really quite straight forward.
 
Thasnks, all, for the reponses. This is a Daihatsu so it'll likely be the uncooperative Toyota style lock, though they probably arent the originals.

Passenger side hasn't worked since I got the car, but is probably different, since I have three keys and the rear hatch and driver side ones are different.

I'll try and get some idea of the local cost of a pro job. It'll likely be more than I paid for the car, but thats not an especially relevent metric, since I didnt pay much for the car.
 
Originally Posted By: SilverFusion2010
Um, I might approach this problem with a hammer...


I could get in via the rear hatch and open it, so no hammer immediately required. Its now open, but of course wont lock, which isn't too big a deal, though of course not ideal.

If I really wanted to lock it I could do so from the inside and exit via the hatch, but Id have to REALLY want to.
 
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Looked at those Scotty Kilmer vids.

He was using replacement parts from a scrappy. I think I'll be lucky to find one of these in a scrappy, since this is an old (1986) and now quite rare but not "collected" car so there'll be no demand for parts.

AFAIK the only old cars in demand in Taiwan are the BMC Mini, VW Beetle, and maybe the Datsun Sunny, a bit.

These days (in the UK anyway) scrappies tend to be depressingly efficient, and low-demand cars tend to go straight to the crusher. Probably the same in Taiwan since space is at a premium.

If there are any I'll have to go through a mechanic to find them which'll put the price up.

Scotty seems to be a big WD-40 fan, which apparently is a bit controversial for locks.
 
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