The door lock on the drivers side has a small plastic quadrant on the end of the key barrel that can break and leave the key and central locking inoperative, locking the drivers door and using the passenger door to get in and out is a royal pain but is the only way unless you fit an alarm with the central locking option.

 

So why not just buy the offending part and replace it, well in Nissan's wisdom they decided that they would only sell the part connected to a brand new key and barrel so a small piece of plastic becomes a £60 wallet hit.

 

But there is an option which with a little work is free and will get you drivers door lock and central locking fully working again.

 

So here is how it starts, following a normal key operation the key will spin around with no lock action, no where to go but door panel off and door handle removal (2 x 10 mm nuts)

 

The picture below is what you will see, the yellow plastic quadrant broken away from the lock barrel, release the door handle and remove the handle to your table.

 

 

So with the handle on the table its clear to see where the quadrant has broken away from, the circlip needs to be removed.

 

 

 

Now if you have been lucky enough to find a god used quadrant you can fit it in place and refit the circlip, and refit to the car.

 

 

 

 

 

 

However its likely you will have little luck finding a good used one or at least it will take some time, but take a look at the quadrants below, the yellow one been the drivers door one and the white one been the passenger door one.

 

 

 

 

The two quadrants are handed and initially look like they will not interchange, however looks can be deceptive.

 

 

First note the barrel register keys and the plastic key ways in the quadrant, the passenger one is the wrong way around of course at this point and hence will not fit.

 

 

 

However with a small needle file or similar you can open up the key way slightly so it matches the layout of the register keys on the barrel.

 

 

The barrel also has a small metal stop that will need removing with a file, not too hard but go careful made out of monkey metal and is soft.

 

 

 

Will a little effort the passenger quadrant now fits the drivers side lock, there is a slight difference in position but its so small it has no effect on the locking action.

 

 

Of course you do have to strip out both doors or you can double your chances of getting ones from breakers by asking for either door quadrant. As most times you do not enter the car from the passenger side there is no real need for the barrel to be working on that side, the central locking will remain fully operational from the drivers side anyhow.

 

Jeff TT

Is this the part that can be changed for a metal one did mine years ago got a metal one not sure if the metal one is a nissan part or not ,Good write up:thumbup1:

Having done this modification about 18 months ago when only to hand amongst my spares was passenger side quadrants and having now bought the aluminium quadrants I set about fitting them.

 

The problem with this fix above is that once the metal stop is removed the key can travel too far both left and right, this is not a problem as you can just flick it either side to lock/unlock which I have been doing.

 

But I wanted it perfect and briefly thought today that the removal of this 'stop' had come back to bite me on the bum, look at this pic below where the one on the left as this piece of metal removed.

 

 

Looking more closely at the barrel I took the spring off the end which returns the key to vertical position and then the key slot cap was teased off as it's crimped in a couple of places - you can see this crimp in the above pic, after these are removed the cylinder itself slides out and I could swap over the barrel housing, crucially to one with a metal stop.

 

 

I then had a problem as the key would not turn in the 'new' or different housing which puzzled me for a while but it turns out I just needed to take a fraction off the pins that lift once the key is removed, key in and the pins retract in ie making it flush.

The pic below is not the best but you can see how shiny I have the part on the left having run it on my wire wheel, what happens now is what you want, with the key in the cylinder, the housing on the right spins with ease especially with some grease/oil.

 

Just replace the spring and crimp back down the metal cap and job done, I have my aluminium quadrants now fitted and the travel with the key is again as intended.

 

where abouts did you get the aluminum quadrants from? mines knackered at the mo :(

where abouts did you get the aluminum quadrants from? mines knackered at the mo :(

 

 

See here: http://www.300zx.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?174871-Bargain-lock-quadrants-in-metal-here-now!

 

 

 

Jeff TT

good man :thumbup:

just bought a set, this forum is great :)