Ignition barrel failure

[Roger Jones]

No doubt this has been said before, but if your ignition barrel starts behaving poorly, get it changed immediately. In my W126 I have hesitated and fiddled the key for no more than a very few start-up sessions, but the barrel has now well and truly failed, and the car is stuck outside the garage waiting for the replacement to be fitted. When it goes, it goes quickly. I gather that the replacement job won't be easy unless the new key works in the old barrel; happily, I'll leave that to my mechanic. Can't really complain: the car's now done 146k and is otherwise in fine fettle.

 

[Roger Jones]

Well, what a pig of a job, especially after the old key finally broke in the lock, and not because of abusive treatment either. It took my mechanic more than a working day to sort it out, as he had no option but to remove the steering column. All is well now and I''m delighted to have the old girl rolling again.

So, to repeat the warning: don't underestimate the significance of any slight difficulty in the working of the ignition barrel/tumbler.

 

[gssboss]

w126 ignition barrel

hi, can somebody please advise how to replace the ignition barrel on my 1990 w126 560sel. i just cant find simple instructions on how to do this anywhere. please help

 

[Vlad]

Couldn't agree more Roger....I actually scrapped a W124 as getting the lock sorted would have cost more than the car was worth