Originally Posted by
Doug427
My key suddenly stopped turning in the ignition. The car is a 1998 C230. I charged the battery, checked the terminals, checked every fuse, checked all connections under the hood, just about everything I can think of. Still no luck, the key won't turn. I used to hear a sound of some sort of electronic action when I inserted the key into the receptacle in the dash, I no longer have that.
Running out of my limited knowledge of the car and not having any diagnostic options left, I called three local M-B dealers. All three demand that I bring the car to them to make a key. It will cost me many hundreds of dollars to tow the car to them, in addition to $350 for a key, and after all this the key might not even be the problem. I can't gamble that kind of money with a car I only paid $500 for. The frustrating this is the car ran fine after I bought it, this only happened the other day out of nowhere.
Can anyone think of anything else I can check. My only option if I can't get this to work at home is to junk the car. I can't spend over $600 for a tow and key, only to find out the darned car still won't run. I have to say out of frustration that Mercedes Benz is hands down the worst, most disinterested organization that I have ever had the displeasure of dealing with. They're terrible.