Lock tumblers

[Cruz]

Does anywhere sell just the tumblers for the door locks?

[CovKid]

Nope. Spent years trying to find those. Best you can do is strip a pile of old locks. I imagine a small factory supplied lock barrels to VW but finding them may be next to impossible. Even with new ones, the locks are not great. Better to come up with more secure versions.

[Cruz]

On further inspection the problem is that the tailgate lock barrel is worn which has in turn worn the bore of the lock housing.

Like on my cab door handles (before I got new ones) grease bungs up the springs on the tumbler segment so they dont retract quite far enough, then that makes you wiggle the key and apply a bit more force to turn it, which in turn wears a groove in the housing. Eventually you can open the door with a lolly stick.

I've ordered a new early tailgate lock from VW and I will re-tumble it to my existing keys, liKe I did with my cab doors.

If anyone ever searches

Early tailgate lock 251-829-231 £38.77 + vat from VW 23/9/11 Can't be many left as there are none in the uk and its on backorder from germany. Cheaper than £50 for a repro version from other sources

[Aidan]

vw do the tumbler sets about £50 will do 16 locks

[Cruz]

Flipping heck. Cheers aidan and thanks for the etka

[dansimpson]

vw do the tumbler sets about £50 will do 16 locks

Whats that work out, about £3 a lock, canny

[CovKid]

Mind you as Cruz points out, you get wear in barrel/handle which is beyond fixing to be honest and even WITH new tumblers, they are not great locks.

[dansimpson]

LOL, they aint that good when they're new locks/complete units.
But its like anything, its only a degree of deterent, there will be ways around any lock, destructive and non destructive.

And a big thanks to Aidan for pointing me in the right direction with re-keying these locks a few months ago

[CovKid]

Agree.

[Aidan]

forget to say tumbler kit also has new springs in, which helps a lot, it's difficult to get really cruddy ones out of the cylinder without damaging them, so rip them out with a bent pin and then ream the hole with a fine drill bit, ream the slots with an old tumbler and they work pretty well with the new bits in them, worth it on sliding door especially as that's the one that normally seizes and can be opened with any key ime

[Cruz]

Early tailgate lock 251-829-231 £38.77 + vat from VW 23/9/11 Can't be many left as there are none in the uk and its on backorder from germany. Cheaper than £50 for a repro version from other sources

Bugger. Early tailgate lock now obsolete from vw

ordered on backorder on 23rd september. Kept being told the delivert date was in a few days. Last week it was this saturday gone. Now been told it's been marked as obsolete

So as far as a I can tell only customandcommercial sell early tailgate locks now

Thankfully I managed to rekey my old one so it no longer sticks