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

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!

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!