Changing locks without keys
Turbo Mini Forums

i have a few sets of handle but no keys, can the barrels be changed without keys present?

just try some of your spare keys you will be amazed what will open mini locks! i have opend one with my old mini keys on my friends one, chunks opened with a garage door key...

Drives
-Ford S-max Mk2 Ecoboost
-Rover 100 VVC #2 - track project

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My clubby estate, jet black and red cooper all had the same door locks! Same code on the keys etc. Pretty coincidental. The clubby I have you can open it with a spoon. Time for some new locks me thinks.

If something is worth doing, it's worth doing half of.

my shed, garage and safe keys will open one lock on the red mini lol aswell as both mini's keys

Yes i moved to the darkside

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Technically no, but in practice yes.

With the key out, all the plungers/pins are extended into the slot in the handle assembly and the slot is "closed" at the outer end so even with the clip removed from the inside end of the barrel it can't slide outwards with the plungers/pins extended.

But in practice, the plungers/pins are really thin bits of sheet metal and the closed end of the slot is shitty diecast alloy of a very thin section. So if you remove the clip and tap the barrel from the back, the thin bits of metal bend and/or the diecast closed end of the slot disintegrates.

The new barrel will then only be secured by the clip, not the closed end of the slot as well but..... there are two slots as the handle casting is useable one either side, so you can either put the barrel in 180 dergrees out (ie, the key goes in upside down) or swap the other bits of the mechanism and make the left one a right one etc...

To save you wondering, I had some without keys so bought a new set of barrels from MiniSpares and decided to find out the hard way.....

EDIT - typo

Edited by Rod S on 26th Apr, 2010.

Schrödinger's cat - so which one am I ???