Replacing Drivers Lock - Is it easy?

[Mrs Miggins]

Hi all

Last week, some low life, thieving scum bag broke into our beloved Bongo and helped themselves to the CD/DVD player. Really fed up especially as we've only had the Bongo for a month!

Anyway, they got in by punching out the drivers door lock. The only up side to them breaking in was they were extremely neat about it and there was barely any damage done to the surrounding metalwork (just 3 small chips of paint where they presumably used a screwdriver or something to break the lock off) and a few scratches around where the DVD player was.

We've ordered a new lock and, as we don't want to push our insurance premiums up by claiming, we'd like to fit it ourselves.

Question is............. how easy is it to do and will we have to mess around with wiring as it's the central locking side? The central locking is still working if you push the lock down from inside the door.

Thanks in advance

Mrs M

P.S. A word of note to anyone not wanting to claim on their insurance following a break in. If you report it to the police, as we did, you still need to let your insurance company know about the break in as the police will log it onto the motor insurance database and every insurer will check that database. If you don't let them know and something happens in the future the insurance company will use it as an excuse not to pay out!

[321Away]

the lock itself is just a barrel, fitting is very straight forward, remove the door panel, 3 screws on the panel, i behind the release handle, the last in the pocket, quick pull and the panel will come away, undowindow wiring plug and set the panel aside, unpeel top, right hand corner of the plastic sheet stuck to the door and you'll be able to get at the back of the lock, its tricky but no that tricky, HOPEFULLY either when you got a new lock or when they pulled out the old, the retaining clip (looks like a U shape with squared outer edges), it may have fallen into the bottom of the door and just waiting to be used again! there should be a small pull rod near to the hole that the old lock left, this locates into the plastic locator on the new lock, once attatched, push the lock home and using the reatining clip slide it in to hold the new barrel in place, again sounds tricky but all makes sense once its in front of you. Dont worry about central locking or anything else thats done via rods so the mechanism isnt close.

Maybe worth investing in an alarm or some kind of noise maker to prevent any little oik having another go, even just a fake flashing led

Julian

[Mrs Miggins]

Thanks for that info.

Not sure if I will be able to do it myself but I will have a little play and see if your instructions become clear when I actually see it all undone for myself!

The lock is definitely in the door still. I can hear it rattling around in there. When I took it to be looked at the mechanic said the lock had been sheared off at the outer ring and the central part then dropped through so he didn't think it was salvageable. I have ordered a new one, just waiting for it to arrive.

We have an alarm on the Bongo but we don't use it because it's always going off, for no apparent reason other than it can! I think we will look into getting a decent one fitted.

[321Away]

it sounds a lot worse than it is, once you have the door panel off you'll be able to see whats left of the lock probably still attached to the rod.
That sounds like MO of car thieves a few years ago, keep setting an alarm off so the owner leaves it unset! A decent brand of alarm will usually come with Thatcham approval and an insurance premium reduction, but they can be costly, You'll find lots of differrent opinions over alarm makes and whats best, but they all do pretty much the same thing and cost around the same mark.

Julian

[Mrs Miggins]

That sounds like MO of car thieves a few years ago, keep setting an alarm off so the owner leaves it unset! A decent brand of alarm will usually come with Thatcham approval and an insurance premium reduction, but they can be costly,

Pretty certain it's not car thieves setting it off purposely. Previous neighbours used to have the same thing fitted to all their cars (unmistakeable irritating sound!) and they were always going off when heavy or noisy vehicles passed by. In fact, I think you only needed to break wind near it and the damn things would go off! I've seen something similar in Maplins for about £20 or so. I'm guessing it's just a very cheap alarm that's completely inefficient! With things like that, you buy cheap, you buy twice or more!

I agree, we do need to get a decent alarm system though but, with Christmas on our heels, it's going to have to wait a while. The cost of the alarm isn't so much the problem but the added cost of fitting is!

[Bogmonster40]

I had no idea car radio thefts were still a problem !! I very often leave my bongo open all night quite by accident I might add

And no I am not telling you where I live so you can pinch my radio !

[Mrs Miggins]

I had no idea car radio thefts were still a problem !! I very often leave my bongo open all night quite by accident I might add
And no I am not telling you where I live so you can pinch my radio !

Oh how I miss the radio! If I'd left the doors open then all I'd have had to replace would be the DVD player now which would be far cheaper! Makes me wonder if I should take a leaf out of your forgetful book and do it myself in future!

I guess theft may be less of a problem these days as the newer ones tend to come with removable heads you can keep out of sight but it depends on where you live and who knows what you have. I'm pretty certain they were watching our bongo for a while before they took their chance. The night they broke in and took it was very wet and all the windows were covered in dew/condensation the next morning. They couldn't have seen what was in there without having to wipe the windows and there was no evidence of that which leads me to think they're local. (Check out inspector Miggins there!)

It bothers me they'll return when we get another one, although I won't bother with a DVD player this time. I guess I should be grateful they didn't trash the van in the process but it still rankles. Still waiting for a new lock and key and fed up with having to get in and out using the passenger side first to unlock the driver side.