cont...

Once the panel is off you can see the back of the door handle. If you look really close you should be able to see the top of the clip that holds the lock in the handle. There was too much stuff in the way for me to get a good pic of this but here's one with the handle out so you can see the orientation of that clip. You will need to use something to get at the bottom of it and pull down, I used a curved awl. Once the clip is removed, the lock is free and it will come out to the inside of the door.

I took the handle out for picture purposes only, you do not have to remove it to do this. Actually you can't remove the handle until the lock is out.

 

cont...

Taking the lock apart is pretty easy. At the tail of the lock remove the c-clip, tail piece and spring. Remember which way they go.

 

cont...

At this point, if you're not careful, the lock will fall apart. If you can, go ahead and insert the key into the lock, this will keep the wafers from falling out and you cussing me out. With the key in the lock you want to push the core from the back. Do not pull it out with the key or you will, once again, be cussing me out. If, when you take the core out of the case, you see any wafers protruding out any further than most of the others then you have worn or stuck wafers.

 

cont...

I almost forgot, if you decide to try to DIY you should make sure you have a dealer or locksmith who will sell you new wafers. You can either buy a few of each or do all of this first and find out exactly how many of each you need, they are numbered.

Ok where were we... at this point you will need to remove all of the wafers. Be very, very careful when you pull the key out. Keep your fingers over the wafers while you do this. Do whatever you need to do to remember which ones go where, a short pencil is better than a long memory any day. Lay them all out and see what numbers they are. Lay them out one by one with the new ones. In the last pic you can see the difference between a worn one and a new one.

Another method that is perfectly acceptable is removing only one at a time, looking at the number and replacing it with the same. I don't know why I didn't think of this before cause there will be a lot less room for error. (my bad)

 

cont...

Out with the old, in with the new. Don't forget the springs. After you have put the new wafers back in, hopefully where they're supposed to go, stick your key back in and you should not have any protruding like you did before. If they're worse, I hope you like puzzles. (I'm not trying to be mean, it's just getting really late and I've had a few beers)

If everything lines up you're good to go. Put it all back together and enjoy.

Once again thanks to Steve and Debbie for making the trip and being the guinea pig.

If you do this yourself and get stuck anywhere please let me know and I will try to help in any way I can. Good luck.

Pierre

 

Good Informative Post

Excellent Job done with this post. Well stated and with pics. Sheeeze, makes me wish I had a lock problem. (almost).




regards,
jurn

 

What he said. Seriously, excellent job.


I hereby nominate this thread to be a sticky.

 

Nice Job!!

This will help several members, with the lock Problem.

This needs to be a sticky in the DYI section !!

Dom

 

Sticky for sure!!!! Excellent documentation!!!!

 

Very nice job! Yup should be a sticky!

Or maybe set up a wikipedia diy manual

 

Thanks guys, I've been wanting to do that for quite some time. My little contribution to the club.

Pierre

 

Thanks for doing all of the work! I plan on using this to fix both of my sticky locks. Don't know how soon I will be ready to tackle this though. I my print this off, take the locks out and then take them to a locksmith to replace the wafers (I do not have the most steady of hands). Thanks again for the great instructions and pictures.

 

I just had my mechanic do this for me. I also had him change out my lock actuator. I am glade I did not try to do this my self. He only charged me 40 so it was worth it to me since it took him about 1.5 hrs it would of took me more like 3 – 4 trying to figure out what I did & not to mention the parts I would break. This is a very good post. That’s about every thing the mechanic did with the lock cylinder

 

Forty bucks... nice! You got a great deal. I don't think I've seen a mechanic charge any less than $60 hr since the 80's.

Looks like I might be doing this to my E pretty soon. I've noticed a little bit of a catch when I insert my key into the drivers side door lock.

Pierre

 

very well written diy, so good o wd40 didn't work? or jiggling the key?

 

WD40 worked for a min. The mechanic showed me the shavings & told me this is conmen in Elements & CR-V on the driver’s side.
Oh and it was kind of a pkg deal with the mechanic. It was a new side window, lock actuator, & new cylinder lock, then put replace every thing for $300. But I had to take the car to him 2 times. Once for the door & the 2nd to put the little window in.

 

So, most locksmiths have compatible wafers for sale?
Thanks

 

Maybe, maybe not. A complete stranger walking into a locksmith shop asking for lock wafers will most likely get some strange looks. It may actually be easier to get them from a dealer, once you explain the situation.

Hypothetically speaking, if I wasn't familiar with this I would be very reluctant to sell them to someone. I would most likely offer to do it for them. If they wanted to save $$$ I would suggest they remove the lock and bring it to me. I would then re-pin it for a small fee.

Pierre

 

Key wont turn!

Thanks so much for the pics. Now I won't have to climb through my passenger door!!

 

Great write up, and good-to-know info.

But perhaps this is a little sad to say...I don't think I'd ever know if my key wouldn't go into the lock all the way. I think I've only used the key in the door maybe twice since I bought my E in August...I always use my remote to lock and unlock the door. Just a habit I got into with my previous vehicle...if you didn't use the remote to unlock the vehicle, the alarm would go off. The alarm would shut off once the key was turned in the ignition, but I hate car alarms so I never used the key in the lock unless the battery was dead.

Just out of curiosity though, is there a way to prevent this from happening? Graphite lube? Some other sort of lube? Use the lock a lot? Never use it?

 

Just out of curiosity though, is there a way to prevent this from happening? Graphite lube? Some other sort of lube? Use the lock a lot? Never use it?

Prevent, no... delay, yes. There are many opinions out there, mine happens to be good ol WD40. I have 172k mi, no remote entry, all my locks work and my key is not worn at all. I also prefer it because when I'm working on a lock it cleans it very well and makes my job a lot easier. I know they sell graphite as a lock lubricant but every car lock I've ever seen that someone put graphite in has been ruined. I don't really know why, It's just what I've seen. It may have something to do with the quality of the powder. Wikipedia mentions graphite as a lubricant and it says having low-grit or no-grit (ultra high purity) is desirable, that leads me to believe if the quality is not there it will act like sandpaper. I am not willing to take that chance.

In general I see the most problems from cars that live near the ocean, on construction sites and dirt roads. I imagine if I lived up north I would also see problems from the salt on the roads but it doesn't snow here. The key is protecting the metal parts from moisture, corrosives (salt), and contaminates (dirt). Oil based spray lubricants take care of the first two and repetition takes care of the last.

Pierre

 

nicely done, now i know if this ever happens to me i need to go to a dealer, this is just the type of thing i would f-up beyond repair, though i have only actually put the key in my drivers door lock once as my E came with keyless entry

 

Door Panel

Hey, this is a great thread Locksmith. Thanks a lot for the help. This problem has been killing me on my '03 E. I was wondering, how easy is it to take off the door panel, to get to the lock? I want to attempt to do this myself, but I def dont want to screw it up. If you could just please give some kind of direction on how to begin removing the door panel, that would be greatly appreciated!

My dealer told me it would cost me $160 to replace the key cylinder, so I think I'll give it a go myself before I throw that much money down. Also, do you know about how much it costs to replace the wafers?

Thanks a lot Locksmith!

 

I was wondering, how easy is it to take off the door panel, to get to the lock? I want to attempt to do this myself, but I def dont want to screw it up. If you could just please give some kind of direction on how to begin removing the door panel, that would be greatly appreciated!

I thought about writing out the directions but since a picture is worth a thousand words I figured I'd do a DIY on it. I'm going out of town this weekend to visit relatives and with Christmas and all I'll have to get to it next week. Look for it in the "do it yourself / mods" section, hopefully by next weekend. When it's done I'll link to it in this thread.

Pierre

 

door lock blues

Thanks to 'the locksmith' for the great post on the locks. I had both door locks replaced under warantee. Now at 150,000 km I am passed that and the drivers side is stuck again. The E has usually been parked within 100 yards of the ocean but clearly something is wrong with these locks. The locks on my Volvo and Morris Minor before that always responded to a little WD 40 and never needed a lock replacement. Is this related to the more complex wafer mechanism? My dealer wants $350 for a replaced lock so I will be following 'locksmith's' instructions. I'll post my results. Thanks again.

 

Thanks to 'the locksmith' for the great post on the locks. I had both door locks replaced under warantee. Now at 150,000 km I am passed that and the drivers side is stuck again. The E has usually been parked within 100 yards of the ocean but clearly something is wrong with these locks. The locks on my Volvo and Morris Minor before that always responded to a little WD 40 and never needed a lock replacement. Is this related to the more complex wafer mechanism? My dealer wants $350 for a replaced lock so I will be following 'locksmith's' instructions. I'll post my results. Thanks again.

You're quite welcome. Just curious, had you used any kind of lube in the locks or did you wait till you noticed a problem to spray WD in there? Do you have keyless entry or do you always use your key in the door? I was wondering cause if you have kept the lock lubed, all the advice in the world ain't worth a hill o' beans if it breaks anyway.

Pierre

 

locks

Unfortunately I have only responded to problems with the WD 40. I will now have a regular lube program. I don't have keyless entry. Is this lock style more likely to fail than the old pin style locks?

 

Then your situation holds true with what I've seen, salt air + bare metal = bad news. I have mentioned it before, Honda locks are among the best out there. I've been locksmithing since 1994 and I've replaced (I think) 4 Honda locks. Compare this to others cars that we see many times a week for the same problem. Ford designed a lock for the Focus, Contour, Mystique and Escape that was garbage. They have since quit using it but no matter what you did you were guaranteed to have ignition problems around 40k to 60k miles. Chrysler has a design that is very susceptible to debris building up in the ignition and causing it to fail at about the same time. Every manufacturer has unique lock issues but if you lube your Honda lock every once in a while I honestly believe it will outlast the car. The 4-track system that the E uses is still kinda young so I may change mind but so far the only problems I've seen are from locks that were not lubed.

Pierre

P.S. I am working on the door panel DIY right now and it will be up later today.

Finis

 

locks

Finally found a locksmith with the 'wafers'. He suggested that it is usually the first 1/2 wafer that is stuck and he throws it away. He doesn't think it is of any use. He doesn't replace it. His second suggestion was to check the other wafers for burrs, and if found flatten on some fine sand paper. In most of the Honda 'high security' locks which he has seen this has been all that is needed. Does any of this jibe with your experience?