Ford wanky door locks

[sierraman]

Keep saying I'm going to get a spare key for the Focus. Needless to say the remote central locking does not work. Anyway the drivers door lock has suddenly become difficult to unlock, sprayed grease in still no joy feels worn. The key still opens passenger perfect but this drivers lock is going to cause me a problem if it fails. Question. Would a new key help and if mot is there anyway to get the lock rebuilt? I could swap the entire lock set but that's a real fuck about.

[JohnK]

Could be that the key is really worn, so a new one would work?

 

My old SWB Transit would lock with the key but wouldn't unlock because the key was nearly bare.

[fordperv]

If the new key doesn't do it the lock can be re built, a place local to me has done quite a few for me over the years, at £15 a lock it's hardly worth getting your hands dirty and risking losing the wafers

[UltraWomble]

Its a Ford.

Why bother locking it - I never locked our Mk 3 Fiasco and no one ever bothered with it

[sierraman]

Was pondering just getting a lock for that door from breakers and having 2 keys. Works perfect in the ignition and the other door. Key doesn't look too knackered tbh, but how knackered is too knackered. It requires jiggling to get it to lock.

[sierraman]

Its a Ford.

Why bother locking it - I never locked our Mk 3 Fiasco and no one ever bothered with it

The 14th worst postcode for car theft is about 3 miles away that's why. That and walking home would be a right fucker.

[SiC]

I guess you've tried putting a new battery in the remote and tried resyncing the Remote Central Locking?

[sierraman]

It's £40 for a new key. Say I got hold of a complete lock set, bonnet, doors, ignition etc, how will this interfere with the immobiliser? Would I just need to tape the old chip to the steering column? Or just retain the top half of the old key?

 

Been through the palava of replacing the battery and the recoding, hasn't worked.

[Barry Cade]

If it's the old chubb type key then get the lock rebuilt, it's only really the oder brass type keys that wear and these weren't used on the Focus IIRC. If you are really tight, you can turn the wafers round in the lock.... any Ford key should lock it, but only the correct one should open it. This used to cause hassles in the dealership when the guy behing the desk didn't lable keys properly.

[sierraman]

It's the tibbe type key. What's making me consider changing the lot is I'd have to fork out for the lock being rebuilt and then still have to pay another £40 for a spare keys need.

[SiC]

If all else fails ...


Too expensive, how about this solution?

 

 

Doing it the autoshite way!

[Ghosty]

[Barry Cade]

It's the tibbe type key. What's making me consider changing the lot is I'd have to fork out for the lock being rebuilt and then still have to pay another £40 for a spare keys need.

My local locksmith does Ford keys for 9 quid..? Or a universal remote locking kit of Ebay for a tenner- they are pretty good.

[sierraman]

Yes that's for a key to open it, I'm wanting one to start it also as a back up case I lose the key. Mind you for sake of £9 could just get one purely for using to open the door properly and lock it.

[sierraman]

Could I just tape the original remote key to the column and buy the cheaper type key and have it cut ?

[Barry Cade]

Could I just tape the original remote key to the column and buy the cheaper type key and have it cut ?

Yes.

 

Just glue the chip to the side of the antenna ring and you can still use the key as well.

[doobietoo]

Just swap the passenger and drivers side barrels round.....

[Barry Cade]

They are sided IIRC,

[PhilA]

They are sided IIRC,

In that case, any key would open it but you'd need the particular key for the car to lock the door.

 

Useful

[Barry Cade]

In that case, any key would open it but you'd need the particular key for the car to lock the door.

 

Useful

No, they have cutouts to fit to the door and the operating rod would face the wrong way.

[PhilA]

No, they have cutouts to fit to the door and the operating rod would face the wrong way.

Psh, don't spoil my amusement.

[doobietoo]

They are sided IIRC,

They don't look it... Just a square block on the back...... when did ford ever make two parts when one would do??

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FORD-FOCUS-1-4CL-5DR-52-03-IGNITION-BARREL-KEY-2-X-DOOR-LOCKS-BOOT-LOCK-/161854835104?fits=Car+Make%3AFord%7CModel%3AFocus&hash=item25af4cc9a0:g:D-QAAOSwo0JWGnOO

[sierraman]

Right, we're getting somewhere now... What part of the remote key do I need to tape to the barrel? I know £40 isn't a lot but the cars a shed so why spend £40 when £10 will solve it.

[sierraman]

This is the key - doesn't look that fucked?

[Bren]

The key wears at a much faster rate than the lock. A new key may be enough.

[alfetta]

Isn't any car with factory immobiliser, basically anything after 1996 tricky to steal without a key? Sure they could use brute force techniques on the crypt, but probably not on a focus...

[SiC]

Isn't any car with factory immobiliser, basically anything after 1996 tricky to steal without a key? Sure they could use brute force techniques on the crypt, but probably not on a focus...

Not if its a BMW...

 

Those guys actually did it wrong too as they broke the window. What they should have done is put a screwdriver in the door lock to activate the microswitch in it, which then opens all the windows and deactivates the interior alarm.

 

They could have then reached in, plugged the tool into the OBD port, program a new key (takes 30 seconds) and then used that key to unlock the door.

 

BMW did eventually "fix" this. The official fix for the door problem was a reprogram of the body computer so it no longer opens the windows and deactivates the alarm when that microswitch was hit.

 

This was all publicised on the BMW, but its known that plenty of other manufacturers have vulnerabilities too.

[fordperv]

Yep its a common way of stealing newer cars See mk2 focus rs/st and a lot of other newer ford's

 

Range rovers, jaguars also suffer this

[sierraman]

Sure as hell beats someone kicking your doors in then holding you at knife point for your keys!

 

I was talking with someone a bit back they said they'd seen a spate of car thefts where they simply followed the Audi/BMW/etc driver home, waited until he/she got out, then smacked them (quite hard I'm guessing - not a 'dry slap' as Frank Butcher would say) then took the keys off them and you can guess the rest.

[SiC]

The other way that it happens is on the cars with keyless start. Keyless Start = you don't put a key in the ignition to start it, nor push a unlock on the fob - you just have to have the "key" in range.

 

These rely on a little radio transmitter to work. When in range, it allows entry + starting. Unfortunately, as most people leave their keys by the door or near an outside wall, all you need is a RF repeater in the right frequencies. This picks up the cars polling over the airwaves to see if it can see the key in range. The repeater then repeats it to the key inside the house, and sends back the response. As its a proper key, you don't need to even know whats going on, just pass that data across. This allows the thief to get in the car, start it and drive off. Pretty much all the key-less systems out there, once they've got a start authorisation from the immobiliser system, will carry on running - even if the key isn't in range, for safety purposes.

 

I believe its quite a common occurrence too where ladies leave these keys in their handbag, put their handbag on the roof of the vehicle while putting in their kids/shopping/etc, forget the handbag is there, start car (as its near enough and in range), drive off and bye-bye handbag. Get to their destination, shut down the engine and then realise they can't start it again when they've realised they don't have their handbags and need to back to get it!