W124 Ignition tumbler

When I purchased my 300TE, I noticed two things that slightly concerned me. The first was that I only had one key for the car. The second was that the ignition barrel was slightly sticky. There are key blanks available for Mercedes of this era at locksmiths, but the only key I had for the car was a copy. I didn’t feel like a copy of a copy was all that great an idea, so I contacted the classic centre to see if new ignition tumblers were still available.

Turns out, for this era of W124, with the transmission interlock, […]

Stuck W116 ignition barrel – part 3

I’ve ben grappling with a stuck ignition key on my 280SE W116 for some time. In part 1 I finally managed to move the key to position 1, but could not unscrew the collar to remove the tumbler. In part 2, I tried a special tool, and then attempted to remove the whole steering lock. As the collar and tumbler was still on the steering lock, I was unable to get it past the dashboard. At that point I rigged up a temporary solution to take it to mechanic.

I was hoping he would find something I missed and get […]

Stuck W116 ignition barrel – part 2

Previously I had a stuck ignition barrel in my 280SE. After 5 hours of trying, I finally got it to move, allowing me to get the car out of the way. At the time, I was feeling pretty confident that the right tool would get the ignition tumbler out no problem. As it turns out, my optimism was misplaced.

The first issue was getting the tool to grip the collar. The collar just screws off, but I could not get a grip on it. I found a cheap tool on AliExpress that seemed to do the job. However, a couple […]

Stuck W116 ignition barrel – part 1

I was quite keen to start using the 280SE more now I have sorted out the steering, exhaust and drivers seat. I don’t have a modern car, so I rotate the various historic registered cars I own to keep them inside their 60 day logbook. The 280SE obviously has a lot of entries available. I was also looking forward to driving it more now the main issues were sorted out. I brought the car home on Saturday night after finishing the seat. That meant I would have it available to use over the next couple of days.

Sunday was a […]

W126 Ignition tumbler replacement

When new, a W126 Mercedes would have come with four keys:

Two square headed master keys. One round headed valet keys. A flat ‘wallet’ key.

The master keys were designed for everyday use and opened all locks on the car: doors, ignition, glove box and boot. The valet key is similar, but does not open the glove box or boot if manually looked. The premise being you can keep valuables in the car while being parked by a parking attendant. The master key doesn’t have a plastic head. Instead, it has a small flat metal one allowing it to be […]