Merceds Benz key & lock ?

I drive a 1983 300SD Mercedes that has its lock on the steering column to lock the steering wheel and "ignition" (its a diesel.) Mercedes furnishes the owner with several keys all cut from steel. These locks tend to fail at somewhere over a 100,000 miles and sooner if you have lots of weights on the key ring. Recently one of the group on snipped-for-privacy@mbz.org disassembled a lock and took some pics that are available at

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I was surprised to see that the wafers are brass and I would think the steel keys would cause accelerated wear on these wafers compared to a brass key. Most avid Mercedes drivers are quite adamant on using steel replacement keys that can cost twice as much as brass keys. ( I'm not sure their logic is sound, but I'm not a locksmith but I don know quite a bit about metallurgy and engineering. I was one till I went to management, but now retired.)

The reason for this they say a lock lasts longer with a steel key and if the lock fails while in use it can cost close to $1000.00 to drill it out and replace it. The lock is supposed to be made of very hard steel alloy and its very labor intensive to drill it out. A new lock is about $135.00 and steel key another $35.00 from the MB dealer. You have to give them a copy of your car title and driver's license before they'll order it.

If any locksmiths in this group have experience in this area I sure would like to understand this issue better. Does Mercedes sell only steel keys instead of brass so they can sell more locks and get to drill some out? tnx

Reply to
Henry Kolesnik
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Henry,

The lock is not hardened steel, it is the bezel and the face of the lock.

I suspect the reason steel keys are common in Europe is due to the history WWII brass was rather scarce and they used steel because it was cheaper. I suspect they used brass for tumblers was for ease of manufacture and to prevent rusting inside the locks.

Reply to
Roger Shoaf

Roger

Where are all the other Mercedes locksmiths?

Reply to
Henry Kolesnik

had 2 calls this week on MB's broken key in a sidewinder.. 87 I believe.. dealer said $400

and the second was a 'catching lock', sometimes it would and sometimes it would NOT turn

referered BOTH to the dealer.. first calls on that brand in 12 years.

--Shiva--

Reply to
--Shiva--

First off they have to be in a market that has a lot of Mercedes. Secondly they have to be willing to work on them. The learning curve is steep and plenty of shops pass on them.

I was lucky to have worked in such markets, and at such shops where there were plenty of opportunity to be exposed to them. A lot of places will jump in break a door panel, get stuck paying more for repairing their screw-up than the job was worth and decide to forever pass on them.

Some locksmiths that post here might not be heard from for a month or two and then pop in. There are also closed forums where there more folks in the trade. Since this place is open to anyone, a lot of locksmiths get tired of telling yahoos that we will not tell them how to pick locks that they go to a place where they are free to talk shop.

Reply to
Roger Shoaf

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