[Bumbleboy92]

My previous thread

I am making this thread for some insight, recently my brother uncovered a key that he wasn’t sure which car it belonged to. I noticed it is an exact match to my key which wouldn’t unlock or lock my door physically. I decided to try again and this time I peeked in and saw that it is turning the lock, my question is if someone could pop their cover and try their key to see if it does the same. If possible to try another key and see if it turns with the wrong key or not.

I’ll probably head to a dealer and ask to try it but wanna see if it’s really a key issue or if something is unplugged or wiring issue.

Last time I ended up thinking that the auction which we got my car didn’t give us the right key, the car being a previous repo it made sense to me. Now with uncovering this key I feel as though they didn’t have any key at the auction and had new ones cut as the procedure to program a new key involves turning the physical lock cylinder IIRC.

All this is in effort to program my new key so I don’t have just one fob for my car lol

[Bumbleboy92]

An update, I have a spare key to my sisters 2014 Camaro and it is the same dimensions as my 2016 key. Tried that and the cylinder did not move at all. I now believe I have the right key for the car but the locking cylinder is not connected or having another issue with wiring. For all I’ve owned the car I have never been able to use the physical key.

If anyone can suggest anything to look at like a fuse or wire I’d be thankful. I’ll continue researching and checking fuses.

Edit: the physical key does not lock the glove box, it barely goes in half and does not turn either way

[Sweptwing]

Looking thru the access hole it appears there is an empty grommet without a linkage rod attached to it.

[Bumbleboy92]

I see what you mean, thanks a bunch! I was looking for any photo or explanation on how the door lock works without tearing my panel off. Since it’s just a physical Rod it looks like I just gotta open the panel, find the rod and attach it. My fear was it being electric connection instead and something shorting there

[Sweptwing]

I just went to the garage to check and there definitely is a linkage rod connected there. The question is, does the signal for the programming of the keys come from the key cylinder or the lock mechanism on the other end of the linkage bar? Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

[Bumbleboy92]

So I did it, it was horrible and time consuming but now my lock works and I even programmed my spare key.

First I unbolted the lock to reach the little rod in question.

Video with audio

That wasn’t enough space still, along the way the rod actually unbolted itself from the lock on accident so it was slightly easier. In the end I took the rod and bent it with needlenose pliers and locking calipers from the top then bent to fit bottom, lastly trying to bend to its original shape.

Bent rod installed

Bent to somewhat original shape


This was a simple fix on paper, but with there being no room in the door panel at all, I could fit one hand at a time and the rod could not be maneuvered into position with the physical lock with red installed. The only real way was to bend the rod first into the red key lock then again into the door lock.

Last time I had this much trouble I was trying to shove a thick wire down the door-body harness (I ended up stripping the wire and going one at a time, the easy but not pretty way always seems to win in the end)

This won’t be an issue for the majority of peoples cars. My car was a repo, I’ve come to the conclusion that the lock on the door was changed but the rod not installed (I kinda don’t blame them as it’s impossibly tight). Without the rod, the key will turn but not actually interact with the actual door lock which sends signals to the vehicle to lock or unlock, hence why I couldn’t program another key.

[Sweptwing]

Glad it all worked out for you!