My son just bought a 96 honda accord with 86,000 miles on it, but the door locks are hard to open with the key. It takes a little while to open them. Can anyone tell us how and if we can replace them on the driver side and passenger side. The dealer has had the car for a week and his money but he doesn't think the work on the locks will be done for my son to pick it up before he goes to school. So I am asking this forum for help on how to replace them? Thanks for all your help.

 

What possibly could be the hold up?
Parts most likely.
Servicing the doors should take no more than 1.5 hours each once they get what parts they need.
On the other hand, you didn't pick the most adventagious time to have work done; what with the holiday schedules and all.
What money has changed hands?
I wouldn't have charged you until the job was finished.

Unfortunately, without pictures, diagrams or a shop manual handy; delving into the door to reach the lock mechanisms can be rather daunting and requires several special tools to pull it off.

If the dealer still has the vehicle; call them at the first opportunity and ask what the holdup is. More than likely it's for the parts required.

P

 

The dealer who is called the internet car lot is located in a larger city here in Nebraska, had the money for the car in full payment. He said he needed payment before he could get the work done.He has a guy who does the work for him but as I found out he is very slow. So now we will get the car with the windows fixed, but the door locks are difficult to open and not fixed so we will need to go somewhere and get them taken care of. Any suggestion. I should point out that the dealer had the car for over a week after we had purchased it to get the work done.

 

I always get nervous when they have such a pretty web site.

http://www.theinternetcarlot.com/

Yeh, I looked. And it says volumes that he's looking for help, particularly in this economy. It tells me he can't keep techs for very long.
Unfortunately, I'm at a loss as to advising you on recourse; I'm unfamiliar with the Omaha area and couldn't refer you to anyone.

Is it that the Key locks are stiff to turn?
If they are, it's possible someone in the past may have mistakenly shot some graphite into them.
You might try some WD40. it comes with a spray probe that will allow you to shoot it directly into the key slot and it may well flush out some of that 'gunk'. This will be a temporary move but may well get your son to school and buy enough time to line up a perminant fix.

Sorry I can't be more helpful

P

 

Thanks P. Adams,

Yes, the key is hard to turn and you have to jiggle it back and forth to open the locks. We will try the WD40 tomorrow when we pick up the car. We tried to go and get it today but had to turn back because of the icy roads here in Nebraska. After seeing several accidents I thought best we come home. Thanks for your help.

 

Safety's paramount (and comes first)
If this lock issue was a condition of the sale, you may have some wiggle room in dealing with him.
If he's not willing to make good, you might want to approach the Dealer Licensing Commision in the State of Nebraska (or the State's Attorney General's Consumer Protection Division) for an advisory. Who knows, they may just ring the guy up and give him an earfull. *
Let me know how it turns out.

P

* I really, really dislike it when people are taken advantage of

 

P Adams,
Well we pick up my sons car today. The dealer of course was not around being Sunday, but the title and keys were in the car. So I am guessing he was there before we got there? The car does not have a front license plate holder which we must have in Nebraska. Any suggestions on where we can get one? I was thinking a auto part store and using self tapping screws into the bumper I am going to write to him and ask him to send our instransit tags for the windows which are good for 30 days. Appreciate any help you can give us and thanks for your previous help.