99 T&C ignition lock cylinder

Any competent D-C dealership parts department can code a new lock cylinder for you, usually while you wait. You can check with a local locksmith, usually they are very familiar with automotive locks and many have inventory for curent vehicles.

Major line parts stores such as NAPA and CarQuest have lock cylinders available also, but they usually come pre-coded.

The price is the price, if it were really cheap, it wouldn't be of much use, would it?

Thanks very much for the information.

I run a manufacturing plant. I have a good approximation of what it cost to make and I also know that the total margin and markup will net a price at least ten times that.

I could stomach that (my company does the same thing) if it were not for the inherently poor design. The hardness differential between the pins and the rotating detent casting which appears to zinc or powdered metal of some type, is far to great. I'm also old enough to be used to ignition lock cylinders lasting, if not the life of the vehicle at least longer than 4.5 years in moderate use.

My pleasure.

I don't believe that yours is a typical example. There really haven't been a lot of complaints in this or other D-C oriented groups about ignition lock cylinder failure. The basic design has been in use for 10 years or so, my own personal experiences with a 95 and a 98 are not similar to yours. I have replaced them for customers, but at no where near the level of (for instance) Ford products.

Sometimes things just break.

It could be that something in the spring loaded pins fractured and one of the pins came out and got wedged in the cylinder, or some such.

Also they caution people against hanging heavy keychains off auto lock cylinders. What's your keychain like?

The cylinder metal by the way is what they call "pot metal" in short, it's all the scraps thrown into the pot. :-) It's not known for particularly uniform consistency. You might have just got a cylinder cast out of a bad batch.

Ted

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Yeah, and?

Oversized, heavy, crap laden key chains aren't something new.

For information of all who provided advice, a follow up:

The local dealer wanted $90 for the lock cylinder and would be glad to put it in for another $90. I bought the lock cylinder from a local locksmith, coded to my key set for $41 dollars. Put it in myself, took about 20 minutes.

My wife does have a heavy key chain but not that heavy. Plus it appears that the grooves that are worn into the "pot" metal rotating cast piece are not from the weight of the chain but from the number of cycles that it has been rotated. I still contend it is a bad design to groove out that quickly.

Did I mention that this is the second lock set that has worn out on this vehicle. First went about 2.5 years ago. I paid the dealers prices for the replacement. That is what drove me to look for an alternative this time.