Question About Part Price Cylinder Lock $890?

[Bostonlex]

Hey there,

Last week all of the sudden my RX300 key would not turn the car on-

Wheel was not locked, Key was stuck in ACC mode and I had to have the

car towed to the dealership. It's a 99 model, AWD, with 90K on it.

The dealer said I need a new igition lock cylinder, cost $892 and 4 hours

of labor at $90. Ouch!

Can anyone tell me if they've had this happen to them and if the cost of

the part is legit or severly marked up. I feel it's totally worth having the

dealership do the work on the car as their mechanics are awesome, but

I did find what seems to be the same part online listed at $130. (!)

Any advice?

thanks very much!

[sgriffith]

I am not familiar with that procedure, but I did find an ignition lock cylinder on newlexusparts.com (Park Place Lexus Dealership in Plano, Texas) for 109.00. These are the original parts from Toyota. I don't know what all is involved here, though. Maybe more parts?

[dgorrie]

www.alldata.com/diy (membership required, but its cheap) suggests that the ignition lock cylinder is P/N 6905748020 and may retail around $132. The "ignition switch" is P/N 8445012200 and goes retail for about $76. I'm thinking that the ignition switch itself may connect to the ignition lock, and you turn the lock to turn the switch.

I'd call another dealership for their pricing. Try to get and verify their part numbers with the other dealerships. If your dealer can't tell you what he plans to replace, and show you in this manuals where all this is going on, then "gouging" may be in progress. Even the local Toyota dealership may know how to do at , and at a lower price.

There may be an issue with rekeying the lock to fit your key. Consider taking the new lock and old key to a loch smith to re-key the lock to fit the key, if possible, before installing. Let us know what happens next.

[Bostonlex]

Thanks very very much for your responses,

I put a stop order on the work this evening and should

be hearing from the dealership tommorow morning- now

I have some very valuable information to share with them

and it should be very interesting to hear their response,

I will share the outcome with you,

thanks again!

[SKperformance]

I agree ,call a local locksmith for a quote as they also change key cylinder/tumbles .

I can;t see the tumbler being rekeyed to match the old keys being that much maybe $100 as the transponder security chips shoudl be reused.

[Bostonlex]

Hi there,

thanks again for everyone's suggestions.

I called around on the price of the part and the lowest

I found it for was $675. I also called another dealership

and they suggested that the reason I needed the entire

lock cylinder assembly replaced was that the dealership did not have

a locksmith on staff.

I did contact a locksmith who wasn't sure if they could do the job, but his estimate

was 600 to $700, and he didn't instill me with a lot of confidence. I am very

pleased with my dealerships mechanics.

The dealership I have the car at said an alternative to replacing the

entire assembly was to just replace part of the assembly, but then

I'd have to use 2 different keys, and wouldn't be able be able to automatically

lock the car, windows roll down etc. and I didn't feel like that would be a great

detail for resale, so... paid $890 for the entire assembly, charged 4 hours of labor.

They kindly knocked off one hour of labor, and gave me 10% off the total cost of

the job, plus a great loner car free for the 3 days it took to sort out.

rather expensive but that's life sometimes. end of story!

thanks!

Bostonlex

[sgriffith]

Well, I am in the same boat now as Bostonlex and am wondering if anyone has any suggestions. My wife let a friend move our car while she was at work doing something else and they moved it to an incline. I don't think they got it in park good enough, but the key is out. The ignition switch is stuck in the ACC mode without the key in it. I really think the lady forced the key out because the key will go back in very easily and will not turn the ignition one way or another. I have tried rocking the car to get it to go into park, but didn't have any luck. I have a couple of questions and maybe you all can provide some insight. The way the car is parked, the front of it is not accessible. The car is in front of a sidewalk and there would not be enough room to get a tow truck in there to get the car out. With the thing locked up, would they have to tow it on a flat-bed truck? Nobody in my small town will touch it, but there is a toyota dealership 60 miles away and they have said they would fix it for me. I called Lexus and their "mobile service" won't do anything but change the oil and air up a tire :-( I really want Lexus to fix it (as I have a 3rd party extended warranty and this is probably covered) but the dealership is about 200 miles away....and I don't want to see that towing bill. Any suggestions on other things I can try to get it out of the locked position? Any advice on the towing? Thanks in advance for the input.

[RX in NC]

Try disconnecting the battery cables and allowing the vehicle to sit for 20 to 30 minutes before reconnecting them. This may enable you to turn the lock with your key afterwards. I heard of this approach being successful with an RX300 in a situation exactly like yours last summer. Good luck and keep us posted on whether this works for you.

[sgriffith]

Well, that didn't work for me. I left it sitting for about an hour and still no go. So, it is about to be towed to a Toyota dealer that is about 60 miles away. They have worked on the car before and everything went ok. Not anything like going to a Lexus dealership though ;-) I will post what ended up being wrong with it. I imagine it is the ignition lock cylinder.

[RX in NC]

After disconnecting and reconnecting the battery cables, did you try jimmying your steering wheel back and forth at the same time you were attempting to turn your key in the lock? Sometimes it takes a combination of all these things to get a stuck lock to finally release. If you didn't, try this before you let the tow truck driver cart your vehicle away. Good luck and keep us posted....

[sgriffith]

Yeah, I tried that. Honestly, you should have seen it. I was jacking with the key and turning the steering wheel, my wife was messing with the gear selector, and my dad was rocking the vehicle back and forth. It must have looked like a 3 ring circus. Oh well, the tow job is only $170....and my extended warranty will reimburse $50 of that....and the repairs SHOULD all be covered by the extended warranty. I guess it could be worse.

[RX in NC]

Sounds like you tried just about everything with the exception of squirting a shot of graphite into the key slot as a last resort. Let's hope that your warranty covers the fix, which indeed sounds as if you're going to need part or all of a new ignition assembly. I assume that the dealer will be able to program the new assembly so that you'll be able to use your existing key. Keep us posted on your situation....

[sgriffith]

Ok, got it towed and the dealer called me today. No, I will have to get new keys. It is the cylinder lock. He said that the warranty company said they will cover it all, but only with one key. The dealer told me that they little remote piece in the key will still unlock the doors...so I am going to order a new key off of the sewell parts website and put my remote piece inside of it. All of the parts are on back-order....so it may be a week before I get it back....or longer. Oh wel, my keys were falling apart as it is...so it is nice that one of them will be replaced free of charge...and the other one will only set me back about $100. So far I am pleased. I will post back when I hear more. Thanks for all the assistance!!

[sgriffith]

Ok, I got my RX back from the dealer yesterday and everything is great! They replaced the ignition cylinder and I received 3 new keys. It was at a Toyota dealership & they do not have the ability to cut the keys (which I found strange), so they had one of them cut for me. I actually only received one complete key. There were two other keys that did not have the remote transmitter in them (which I have two old keys that had those in them and they can be reprogrammed) and were not cut. So, I know a place that will cut them for $25 each and I can reprogram the transmitter myself. So, it is actually great because our keys had been broken around the base for a while and I had just continually reglued them....so I am getting new keys for pretty darn cheap. All works well now, just wanted to report & let you know how it went. Thanks for all the suggestions!!

[RX in NC]

Glad it worked out to your satisfaction, and it sounds as if you'll have sufficient keys for everyone in the family.