I have a 2003 Honda Accord and need to change my door locks. The tumblers are shot because someone tried to break into my car. I have manual locks, non electric. How hard is it to remove the tumblers? I was told there is screw I had to loosen from the door jam and they come right out????

 

Remove the door panel. Remove the rod from the lock cylinder assembly. Remove the locking spring clip. Remove the cylinder. Replacment of the tumblers is a very delicate procedure. When you disassemble the lock cylinder you need to make sure to not lose the tumblers and their sequence. They are numbered and if you swap their locations the key wont work. I recommend removing the cylinder if you can and have a lock smith perform the work inside the cylinder.

 

Yeah, it's just the lock rod and 1 clip that holds the cylinder in place. The clip is a pain to remove and install if it's your first time, and if you don't know how to rekey a cylinder anyway, you might as well take it to the dealer.

 

The dealer will charge you about a hundred and fifty bucks or more to do the job. If you can remove and install the cylinder, a lock smith may rekey it for you for much less.

Then again, if you arent confident, pay someone to do it for you.


**** 150 bucks PER lock cylinder ****

 

Are there any special tools required to remove the lock or the door panel?
I will be doing a handle swap later this week and have not looked up the proceedure in the helms

 

An angled pair of needle nose pliers make removing/installing the lock cylinder retaining clip easier. The door panel has a few screws. Once you remove the screws the door just pops off. There are clips that hold it on but they are easy to defeat. Just pull out on the door panel. Be careful not to damage the plastic retaining clips for the linkage rods. They are easy to break. When you are pulling the door panel away from the door be careful because the inner handle cable is not long and only lets you pull the door panel away a few inches. Then remove that cable. It is easy to damage the cable if you pull the door panel too far without releasing the cable.

 

Gotcha, thanks

 

The clip that retains the lock cylinder looks like the clips for manual window cranks, only bigger. You will need to remove the run channel bracket for access, but space is still tight.

I use an angled pick to pull out the clip.

To help snap it back into position, I install and old lock cylinder that I modified so it will help guide the clip into place (it's something you're doing more by feel, since you can't see crap). The modified cylinder has the two "ramps' ground off so it doesn't have to be perfectly aligned for the retaining clip to slide back into place. Usually, I can just push the clip back in with my finger.

Since the ramps are ground off, the old cylinder will push right back out, and the new cylinder will push in and "click" once you have it seated, just like how they do it at the factory.

You'll probably break the inside door handle cable taking off the panel. Be careful, pull off the door panel just far enough to remove the plastic retaining clip on the cable.

If it breaks, and it happens all the time, use your brain and you'll find a way to keep the broken cable from sliding off the bracket. I use foam tape turned inside out and a zip tie. It never fails.

 

thanks for the advise.. i'll try to fix it on my car then..

 

Thanks for the tips.

I'm looking to go to the dealer and buy 2 new door lock tumblers for the doors. My Accord is a DX with manual door locks and it doesn't matter to me if the door locks do not match the ignition key.

Now wonder how much 2 new tumblers cost....hmmmm

 

The lock cylinder is not too expensive. The lock cylinders come keyed with their own new set of keys. If you replace two lock cylinders you will have two seperate keys. One for each door PLUS one for the ignition cylinder for a total of 3 different keys. The tumblers are the pieces inside the lock cylinder. You can actually take the lock cylinders to a lock smith and have them rekeyed to match the ignition lock cylinder before you install them in your vehicle. Could save trouble in the long run trying to find the OTHER key that fits the passenger door etc...