Lock & Unlock

This post again about Ford Taurus 2006 (as of today ~171000 miles). While officially it is still mine, my son mostly drives it nowadays. On one of his trips (either Berkeley or maybe Oakland), there was an unsuccessful attempt to burglarize the parked car. Nothing was stolen but the car door lock was irreparably broken.  At the photo below you can see it.

So there was the need to replace this lock. On eBay, I have found a lock service package which suites our car. That package allows assembling the lock so existing car key will fit. Assembling the lock and replacing the old lock with the new one was relatively an easy task but as usual with some caveats. On the photo below, you can see the kit and all the tools needed for the job.

Apart from the kit, there was a need in the next set:

• Vernier Caliper (to measure existing key for recreating lock steps codes). Given the fact that steps differences are more than 1 mm, a good ruler may work as well.
• The hook custom made out of inexpensive awl.
• Philipps screwdriver.
• Ratchet with 7mm socket and extender.

Assembling the lock and fitting the key was straightforward. I just need to follow enclosed instruction.

The package is universal: not all packed elements were needed, but instruction gives enough details to understand what to use and what not to for your model. 

Next step was replacing the old lock with the new one. First  I have found this video. As all videos from 1aauto.com it is excellent and all that you need to remove and install back Ford Taurus door panel. 

 

But, alas, that video tells nothing about lock replacement. So I have found another one:

While it is not well polished as the first,  it contains some very valuable tips. Based on that video I may describe next steps to replace the door look (assuming door panel already removed):

1. Unscrew with 7mm sockets two bolts holding the door handle. That will make handle loose but not enough to take out the lock.

2. The door handle has a metal rod attached. The bottom end of this rod is secured with plastic clip to the door wall. On the snapshot below (I made it out of the second video)  you can see that clip (left bottom part of the picture) opened up. To open it up I used the metal hook, which I showed early. 

After that, I moved the handle out far enough to get access to the lock.

3. Then there was the need to remove e-clip from the back of the lock cylinder and take out lock lever.

4. The last step was to move to the left metal clip, which secures lock on the door. The snapshot below ( from the second video: many thanks to its creator) shows exactly where it is.

The new lock installation is straightforward:

1. Putting new lock into the place.
2. Securing it with the metal clip.
3. Putting the lock lever back to the lock cylinder.
4. Securing lever on the cylinder with e-clip (either from the kit or old one).
5.  Screwing back two bolts into the door handle.
6. Putting the bottom end of the rod into the plastic clip and closing the clip.
7. Installing the back door panel.

Job is done!