How to rekey your locks; some experience, a fail, and some questions...

Not sure. i haven't looked at that small detail. Brass seems to be common. if you are just one or two pins cups short, then just try it if you have a lathe. Or you assemble the lock with a pin less. It'll also work :)

However, someone who would do this as a side business, just needs a bunch of old locks to harvest the cups and pins. with the guts of 30 locks (or so), one will likely have enough to rekey a whole car. from that car, the incorrect (replaced) pins and cups are then again added to the stack of parts for the next rekey job. these locks are likely used also on older Mercedes cars.
I already have 3 old locks ;-)

It would be interesting if someone would produce the pins and cups; with those elements one could rekey ANY e3/e9 lock without having a stock of parts to start with. But it'll quickly be an expensive excercise, as one lock needs 6 pins + Cups. a full car thus has ign+door+door+trunk+glovebox = 4x6 +1x7 = 31 pins and 31 cups. Even if you could make the pins and cups at 10 euro/usd each, it'll run up the cost to >300 euro/usd on parts alone.
 
Good summary. I was playing with E9 locks as well (for fun).

Pins and cups can be bronze or specific alloys.
According to other BMW models new lock parts (coded) are plated (chrome?) to make the lock work nicely and to limit oxidation the bronze is sensitive to. It could be the reason (despite dust flap at the front) these design was not durable enough as the friction surface of the pins is much bigger than thin "windows" used in newer BMW locks. (E3 facelift, E12 ...E24...). In the end dirt and oxidation makes the pins/cups unmovable and the lock is blocked due to even a single latch-up of any of these.

I'm pretty sure we could produce such parts but for sure galvanic process in needed and the issue of the lock with still be there.

Maybe using new plastics (self-lubricative) would improve the durability of the locks (a lot of tests would be needed including test bench design). :)
 
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