Foreign object in car door lock...help needed

[AllyCat]

My fiance was trying to "help" me unfreeze the locks on my car doors with deicer and graphite. He broke off the tip of the deicer sprayer nozzle in the lock, then buried it in their in his subsequent attempts to retrieve the plastic bit.

I can't use my driver's side door...suggestions??

[mr_hat]

1. You must first determine its nationality.

Can you try hailing it in the more common languages?

[AllyCat]

2. Universal translator is broken

...I'll look up plastic-speak on the internets.

Good thing I can still get in the passenger side, but the frozen snowbanks are making it tough to get that door open unless I park in about 5 feet from the curb.

[tjwmason]

3. That's an act of War

It's probably got some W.M.D. hidden in there, at the very least it's an illegal immigrant.

[4morewars]

4. Go to a locksmith

Or the car dealer. My first choice would be the locksmith. These guys do this kinda thing everyday and have the right tools for the job.

[NoPasaran]

5. Use a blowtorch to heat the lock to 850 degrees F

And tilt the car over to the left. The melted plastic should run out of the door lock with no problem.

[fit4life]

6. Not much you can do.

Unless you can put a piece of very sticky adhesive tape on the end of a key and see if you can fish it out.

Otherwise, I'd just pop the door panel, remove the lock cylinder and disassemble it to remove the object. Once you're done with that, look at the disassembled lock, mutter some horrifically naughty words, and take the pieces to a locksmith for reassembly.

[Ready4Change]

7. Maybe if you have some dental picks.

Some dental tools for cleaning teeth can be good for this if the object hasn't been driven really deep into the lock.

Otherwise you're probably going to have to contact a dealer or locksmith.

[Richard Steele]

8. Straighten a medium-sized paper clip...

Then bend the last 1/16" to a 90 degree angle.

You should be able to reach past the obstruction and rake it out. Might take several patient tries.

A locksmith will charge you 50 bucks to do the same thing.

[AllyCat]

9. I'm gonna try this.

Now that it's daylight, it should work better than with the yellow-lit flashlight I had last night.

[ProfessorGAC]

15. Or Try This!

Get a turkey baster. Take a piece of soda straw and tape all but a small slot on one end.

Fix the other end onto the turkey baster, after it's full of water.

Blast that water in as hard as you can. The pressure behind the key (the cyclinder is deeper than the key is long) should push it out a little bit. Then you should be able to grab the very end and pull it out.

I saw a locksmith do this once with one of those little cylindrical(no-pick) keys back when i was in college. He had a special tool that looked like a huge lavvage syringe, but it did work. I've never tried it, but saw it done and that was many years ago. So, i would guess it's an long standing remedy.

The Professor

[jswordy]

10. Tried a thin piece of stout wire with a very small hook on it?

That might work. Seems he buried it pretty far in there, though.

As a LAST DITCH ONLY, you could heat either a wire or the key up with a propane torch, then insert it far as you can and let it cool, then try pulling the hopefully attached plastic bit out when you withdraw the cooled wire/key. It may also be possible this way to melt the plastic enough to get it in the very back of the lock, where the key will then work in it, even if you can't get it out.

Otherwise, you will need a new tumbler.

BTW, the best way to unfreeze locks is to toss hot water on the lock. Once it is unlocked, run the car with heater on for awhile and then spray graphite in it to help keep it free. Hot water on the lock works every time, no damage.

Be sure you spray silicone spray or other lube on the door latch and down inside the door through the window opening with the nozzle extension attached and window up or mostly up. Most freeze-ups have more effect than just the tumbler. It is water getting past the window seal and freezing the inner works.

[AllyCat]

13. That would explain the inoperable door handle

and inability to open it from the inside ONLY below 32 degrees F. Should I pull off the whole door panel and spray that graphite stuff he bought on the mechanisms? Supposedly, a mechanic "fixed" this to the tune of $250 before I left Milwaukee.

There is a darn good reason I do my own fixing when I have a place to work and decent weather, no matter how long it takes me. Get sick of paying for things that aren't "fixed".

[Metatron]

11. The same thing happened to me last month.

I used tweezers to gradually move the plastic tip to make it more easy to grasp and then lodged the tweezers underneath the plastic and basically forced it out (very slowly). The metal part of the exterior of the lock did get warped a little, but the key and lock work just fine. Good luck. I swear I will never use that lock de-icer again!

[Hand]

12. Lock de-icer--FEH!

The biggest consumer fraud since Super Glue...

:grr:

[AllyCat]

14. It's probably the same thing! Super-Glue in the summer,

Lock De-Icer in the winter. All it seems to do is make the thing less operable the next time you need to open the door. Supposedly, the graphite spray was supposed to counteract that delayed seizing effect. Guess we'll never know if it worked until I get that thing out of there.

[MsAnthropy]

16. Your bigger problem is what to do with that fiance?!

He's just practicing for when you're married. He'll pretend to be so inept that you won't allow him to touch anything anymore. They get out of alot of household repairs that way.

[AllyCat]

17. hee hee...that's why I do my own repairs

He gets mad and starts to force things (bolts, pipes, etc). When the stuff breaks, we have a bigger problem.

He was trying to help though, and is a pretty good egg all around.