Mk3 Cavalier Owners Club | Vauxhall Cavalier Dot Com

My driver's side lock is appalling, it's hard to get key in and it only unlocks, doesn't lock or deadlock. I can lock the car with passenger side lock (or boot) but that doesn't deadlock the car.

Can I swap the lock barrels around?

If not I have another Cavalier that I can take locks off but it would be a lot of work I'm sure.

Many thanks

You might be able to swap barrels somehow but I doubt you'd be able to keep the deadlocks... Changing the lock set on the Cavaliers is fiddly but do-able with basic mechanical knowledge. I usually start with the easy bits, glove compartment, tailgate lock, ignition barrel, then do the fiddly door handle ones. Door cards off, raise window for access, it's a matter of having good hand-to-eye co-ordination, for the small 8 or 10mm nuts that hold the handles on, and for the microswitch on the driver's lock.

Thank you

Yes, you can remove the lock barrel from the backplate.
However, I can't remember how to do it off the top of my head.

Barrels will swap from one housing to the other. Clean it thoroughly, regrease and run a file over the tips of the brass tumblers too. If you remove the handle backplate that holds the barrel and look at the rear of the barrel there is a horseshoe shaped circlip that retains it. Hold all the little levers and springs together with your fingers and remove the clip. Keeping everything else exactly where it is slide the barrel out away from the clip side. Get a friend to hold it all carefully while clean it up, then get another friend to hold the other one while you do that so you can swap them. If you don't have any friends you can carefully put it into the jaws of a vice, with only just enough pressure to keep it from pinging levers and springs all over the floor. Might add that you need the key in the barrel or you'll have bits everywhere.