Well, evidentally the cars door was damaged in the PO's mechanics lot, who tried to replace it and pass it off as the original. He never got around to the lock cylinder which I ended up doing, but now its extremely difficult to turn the working cylinder in the drivers door (4 hours later). Upon inserting the key into the cylinder, I notice a few of the tumblers stick up just a tiny bit, of course a proper fit for the key, but the handle hates it. Could this be a problem with a bad copy of the key? Are these cylinders hard to get rekeyed? I could easily do it myself I'm sure if I had the tumblers, but I have absolutely no idea where to do any of this.

 

I just did mine, take a small file and file the ones sticking up so they are flush. It'll work like a charm.

 

I had to do this last week. I just took out the cylider and to the local locksmith. It cost 12 bucks, but was totally worth it. No more sticky tumblers.

 

Hopefully now if I do take a cylinder out I won't have to remove the door panel... that was an absolute nightmare.

 

Its possible to take out the cylinder without removing the door panel but the plastic piece that snaps onto the door handle is difficult to reinstall that way. File the tumbler is the easy cheap way but the locksmith will replace it with the proper ones. Filing in the inside of the tumbler is the right way to do it though filing the outside will work also.

 

Can these tumblers be purchased for a DIY job?

 

i doubt you can buy them individually, we re-key house locks at ace hardware, and when we order tumblers, you get them in packs of 12... and you need to know what size. we have gauges at work, but i dont know how it would work with double sided keys. much easier to take it to a locksmith, or file it. or remove the ones that stick up too high (thats what i did for my alarm cylinder)

 

Go to a junk yard and get some from old VW's. My '79 Scirocco had the same kind of tumblers in it. I'm sure Golfs and Jetta's around the 80's would be the same also.

 

You can buy a VW tumbler set at places online...but I found it was cheaper to take it to a locksmith and have him rekey it in about 10 minutes.

 

This is something I'll leave to the trained professionals that we call locksmiths

 

I don't know what year your car is but there is a distinct difference between the early 924, 944, VW and later 944 lock cylinders. Better get the right length the first time if go that route.

 

Cylinders are different but the tumblers are the same.

 

True, just don't try to use the long cylinders in an early handle. You can always just gut them and try swapping pins but I found out real fast I'm no locksmith when I pulled the key out and the pins fall out.

 

Here's what I did, first the key I wanted to keep worked in the ignition and the rear hatch, so I removed the cylinders from both door handles. I took out all the tumblers from both cylinders and started with the drivers side. It takes a minute or so to figure out what kind of tumbler you need but trial and error gets you going. I put one tumbler in, put the key in and tried it in the cylinder. then went to the next and so on. It worked really well. For the passenger side I did the same until I ran out of tumblers that would work, then I began filing down a few to make them work. I think I only needed to file down about three.

It's really not too hard, but I did do this once before on my VW so I wasn't as intimidated.

Oh watch out for the little springs, don't lose them if the fall out.

 

The cylinders for the power locks have the teeth on the end, with one tooth sticking out further for the pl microswitch.