Key won't go into driver/trunk key hole

[Freude am Fahren]

Hey Folks,

The recent E30 that I bought came with one key. The said key won't go into the driver or trunk key hole. However, it fits in the passenger and ignition. The only way I can luck and unluck the car is thru the passenger door. I suspect that the PO broke a key in the driver's key hole and one in the trunk. Is there a procedure to pull the broken pieces out of these lucks or am I shit out of luck here? Would a locksmith be interested in this or will the work cost more than my car did? Any info on this helps.

[110stx]

Replace the lock cylinder in the driver door. A BMW lock repair kit costs about $25 bucks.

If you can remove the existing cylinder, I'm willing to bet you can disassemble it. If there's a key stub inside it, you should be able to persuade it to come out with a pick.

When you remove the inner cylinder and tumblers from the outer sleeve, do so slowly, with your fingers covering the tumblers so they don't spring out on their own.

Pull them out in order, note the numbers on them and how they were installed.

Get new tumblers, install them in order in the new cylinder, then assemble and install the lock.

Voila, you've rekeyed the new lock to work with the old key.

There is a nice pictorial, step-by-step for this project online, but I don't have the link handy.

d.hitchcock

[Freude am Fahren]

I know the locks all use the same key, and that the key I have is the original key. I'm just looking for a tricky way to pull the broken stub out of the keyholes. The process you described suggests rekeying the lock. or am I missing something?

[Vivek]

Try a screwdriver in the trunk/driver's door. If they unlock that way, you know what your problem is...and you know that you don't need to fix it, just put a skinny bottle opener on your keyring.

[Ceeker]

take the lock cylinder out and disassemble it. You can remove the broken piece that way. If the lock cylinder is not damaged. Just relube it and put everything back to way you took it apart. but you should know or have an idea of how it comes apart in order to do it right. otherwise you could screw the sequence of key codes up and you won't be able to use the lock regardless.

[110stx]

Correct. I was describing the installation of new lock cylinders.

If there's a key broken off inside, I'd suspect it's because the lock wasn't working properly before the key broke.

dh

[SlamedIAm]

I know the locks all use the same key, and that the key I have is the original key. I'm just looking for a tricky way to pull the broken stub out of the keyholes. The process you described suggests rekeying the lock. or am I missing something?

What he described would remove the broken stub. If the PO broke a key off in the lock there is probably a reason it broke, I doubt he just used his superhuman strength for no reason. Get the lock kit and fix your locks properly.

[Freude am Fahren]

This lock repair kit that you folks mention, where would I obtain one of these?

[Nsquared97]

Don't know if you got this all figured out already, but I had to take apart my trunk lock recently as well, mainly just to clean it and prevent it from sticking. I did a pretty detailed write-up on how to get the lock cylinder out, unfortunately I don't know how you would go about pulling the cylinder apart to rebuild it. Here's the link for the write-up:

http://www.e30performance.info/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=1590

Hope that helps you out.