Before buying my own XM, the only one I'd been in was the S1 car belonging to the father of a friend of mine. My friend borrows it reasonably often so has driven it a lot, is quite fond of it, and knows its odd habits.

He rang me today, and during the course of the conversation asked:

He: "So have the lock barrels failed yet?"
Me: "Um.. yeah. That happened today. It still opens from the passenger side though."
He: "You try one of the other keys, and I'll call Dad and ask him if he remembers where the problem lies and if it's something you can easily fix."
Me: "Cheers."

Honestly, if my mate hadn't been with me when I picked the car up I don't think I would have even got it off its drive. I love the bloody thing but it is SO eccentric. And I've owned GSs, BXs and a CX.

Um... help?

Hi Stu

Noz put up a post on refurbishing door lock barrels a while ago. You will find it in the self help section. They are very easy to take out of an open door but not if the car is locked up. I have a few spares and a tumbler kit so can make up replacement lock barrels to suit a supplied key.

Regards

XMexc

Stu, my S1 is like that too, we both need a new plip by the sounds of it :-)

If it's not too advanced (was it working till yesterday?) a course of WD40 over a few days may unblock it. My hatch lock was resurected like that (was spinning endlessly). My passenger's needed removing, dismantling and a good clean (was totally stuck). And then they need regular WD40-ing. Also spray plenty over the lock mechanism (from the outside), from all angles, shove the WD40-stick as inside as possible.

Also operate the electric windows regularly...

cheers
George

Hi guys, thanks for all the advice, I'll give it a good WD-40ing then contact xmexclusive if I don't have any joy!

I've only had the car since the weekend and the locks were working fine until yesterday. However, the car had been standing since August so I'm not surprised to find some things a little seized up.

This morning the driver's door opened on one of the other keys, but it was a little stiff!

DrTim, I really need to get my plip sorted! The previous owner swapped components over with his other XM to figure out where the problem lies and he's convinced it's the key or the receiver. He suggested I get a plip and receiver off a scrap ZX or something.

They used to recommend that you use only graphite powder on lock barrels because any oily products tend to attract dust.

Derek

Stu, did you try looking at the plip LED with a digital camera (phone will do).
Can you see the LED shining? If not its probably your plip. The ccd will pick up the infrared. I could see my TV remote shining but not the S1 XM plip, leading me to conclude the pli pwas the problem. You CAN try and repair the solder joints but it looks very fiddly to me. Apparently the S1 plips can be recoded for a different car, but I'm not sure how expensive that will be.

My main key is very worn and quite often wont unlock the drivers door, the one on the plip usually does unlock but often does not activate the central locking,. Passenger door seems OK for now.

stu

look here

http://club-xm.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=250