Andy_M

I think the ignition switch, and/or lock, in my '90 300E is beginning to fail and need some advise what the replacement procedure is. The key will occasionally not turn to the start position, and you have to turn it back to the off position then back to start again, then it usually goes. Also, the "key in the ignition" warning chime sometimes keeps sounding after the key has been removed, and you have to reinsert the key to get it to turn off.

All of this just started in the past week. Before that it was fine, although somewhat "worn" feeling. Any advise would be appreciated from those who know .....

bandit1

my E300 did this i took it to my local merc man and good friend, He replaced the barrel for me problem solved, The barrels wearout but for god sake don't put any kind of wd40 etc in there as it ****s them
i know it doesn't help but that is what happened to me
kind regards jamie

Andy_M

Actually it does, a little, Bandit.....it is some confirmation that those symptoms are presented by a tumbler barrel issue. Thanks.

ps2cho

Replace it, NOW!!!

Seriously its an absolute nightmare if you can't get the key to turn to position 1. You can get a dealer made tumbler to match your doors for like $150 or a generic one from autohausarizona for $22

Heres my thread over at mercedesshop
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...d.php?t=252160

Carnage pics

Andy_M

Yea, I read that thread yesterday afternoon and ordered the parts from Autohauz AZ this morning ps2cho.

For the difference in price I can live with a separate key for the ignition....

ps2cho

Thats what I thought too. Also, its super easy to remove if 6 months down the road you get sick of it. $22 is just peace of mind for now.

Andy_M

OK, so I searched and read all the stuff on here and over at MBShop forums on the trials and tribulations of doing this. I bought myself a 1.5mm dia bicycle spoke and made up a tool. Keep in mind I have my eye and a dremmel to make the "important" angle of 60 deg on this thing, so I do the best I can.

I could not get both sides to go in at the same time, so I believe my width was a little off. I cut the tool into 2 "L" shaped tools and the angles are indicated by the "L", so I know how they are oriented at any time. Then I got both sides to go all the way in fairly easily.

According to all the stuff I read, the tool should go in about 1.2" to engage the dogs that release the black cylinder, and mine appear to be going in about 1.4" when it seems to bottom out. This is where the progress stops though. No matter what I do, how much I jiggle the black cylinder or the key halves, I can not get even a HINT of the black cylinder breaking loose. I have spent HOURS and HOURS with this thing. Can anyone tell me what, if anything, I might be doing wrong?

I'm debating whether to buy the Mercedes tool from ZDMAC tonight, or just leave it torn apart and drive it, and the new tumbler, to the MB dealer and tell them to replace the tumbler and charge me for it.

ps2cho

The bottom hole serves no purpose. The actual mechanism only engages on the top hold so you only need a thin line. If you look at my picture above, you will notice I cut the end off very slightly (bottom fork in pic).

You may have to shave off the same on yours as I did because IIRC the mechanism that unlatches it is slightly smaller than the hole you put the tool in...make sense?
Once it "presses" down on the spring, all you gotta do is use the key as your pulling device and it will come out without any hassle. If it doesn't, the spring is not depressing so your device is hitting the spring instead of going "over" it to push it down.

Sorry its hard to describe without a picture. Does that make sense?

ps2cho

Here I made a pic....maybe this will make more sense.
Sorry I suck at diagrams, but I did my best to label it all. As you can see the spring sits slightly ABOVE the line, hense why you might be just simply hitting against it instead of pushing it down. Shave off a little on the end of the device so it will slide over it and push it down like I have shown in pic too.

Andy_M

I do have the bevel that you are indicating in your diagram cut into my tool halves already. According to what I have read, that spring mechanism on the tumbler itself is only there to keep the tumbler from rattling and moving inside the outer sleeve.

The real key here is to release the 2 dogs holding the black cylinder on, and those are another 3/4" deep (about) behind the spring you are indicating on the tumbler. The tumbler can't come out until the black cylinder has been released. In your pictures, it looks like you cut the black cylinder off, and I may have to do that as well, but I will buy and try the MB tool first, or just hand it over to the MB dealer, disassembled, and tell him to replace the tumbler for me and I will reassemble the dash panels myself.

ps2cho

The spring that I show in the pictures, is to release the black outer sleeve. I made the mistake of trying to see the orientation of the outer sleeve first before putting the tumbler in and it accidently got locked in. To remove it, I had to basically do the same thing as I am saying above, but I got to see how the mechanism worked as the tumbler was not inserted. Once you push down that pin, the sleeve unlocks and it comes out.

Once the tumbler is locked inside the cylinder, it cannot move side-to-side anyway. The purpose of the sleeve is just anti-theft.

If you can't seem to get it to unlock, either take it to the dealership, or a good MB independent indy as I'm sure they have come across tons of these before. With it all apart, I'm sure he wouldn't charge much at all unless you got something else going on causing it not to release?

Andy_M

Well, Karl (my German indi mechanic with 38 yrs of MB experience) got it !!

.........after 2 hours of cutting with a pneumatic pannel cutter that is...

ds190 - I have no doubt that it should be a 5 min job....I was more laughing at that phrase because I already had that many HOURS invested. Turns out 2 more (hours) were needed though. Turns out I wasn't doing it wrong..it was just being a B*#&%.......

To top it all off.....we get it out and start putting it back together with the new tumbler and cover, and find that the cover that they sent me was the wrong one - they sent me the smaller one.

You can't make this stuff up...........

Thanks to everyone who tried to help out. Very much appreciated.

pifcat2

I have a thread on it as well and it looks like you found out the later locks have a larger diameter. The cable lock mount, extra holes I plugged, switch screw holes weren't threaded on the AutoHauz lock asm... Did you find out why your tool did not release it?

Andy_M

Yes. Someone had either replaced it, or tried to, before apparently. In doing so, they had apparently used a flatheaded screwdriver wedged between the security cover and the main body on the bottom side of the assembly to either try, or to actually pry, the cover loose. In doing that, they had buggered up the aluminum enough to make the bottom spring/dog/latch - whatever you want to call it, stick and not be able to release.

Once the front was cut off the security cylinder, we could see that this was the problem, fixed that situation, and it popped right out. It was then promptly thrown far away.