2003 Honda Civic 4 cyl Two Wheel Drive Automatic 73000 miles
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I have a 2003 2 dr Honda Civic. I cannot insert the key into the door lock on the driver side. The key just gets stuck half way through the lock. It works fine on the passerger side. The car does not have a remote key entry system.

Hi Hondacivic2003,

Something could have got into the key cylinder or the tumblers are stuck.

You can look into key cylinder with the aid of a torchlight and pushing the slot cover to find out.

If anyting is lodged, use a fine stiff wire with a sharp pointed hooked end and try to dig out whaever that has gone in.

If no foreign materials are found, try spraying some rust remover and if possible used compressd air to blow it clean. Try again buy shaking the key as you insert it to release the tumblers. You should get the key cylinder repaired by the locksmith.

My 03 civic has the same problem. started with the drivers side than progressed to the passenger side. We have had to resort to keeping it unlocked lately. We had to get new tires and forgot to tell them to keep it unlocked, now we cant get in, even with a slim jim.....help, we tried silicone lube, wd40, rust cleaner, graphite dust, but nothing worked. What to do??

Hi 03civicuser,

Which is cheaper,

1. To break and replace a door glass or
2. Get a locksmith to get the doors opened and the locks repaired?

I can't think of any other options.

Hi.
I also have a 2003 Honda Civic with the same problem (and so do 3 of my friends). When I realized that it was no coincidence, I called Honda Corporate to see if there was a recall. They said that they need a certain number of occurences first (such as yourselves) but to go to a dealer and have it professionally "diagnosed". I spoke to a friend of mine that works for Honda and he said that once a car is dignosed with a quality issue, they will create a 'service bulletin' and possibly repair the car for free.
I did some digging online (love the internet) and found that there is already one of these that exists for this same problem (03-068 to be exact. You can look it up). So with this information, I went to my local dealership in hopes of a positive outcome, but to no avail.
According to the service bulletin, a car under warranty with this issue will be reapired with apparently no problem. But, even if a car is out of warranty "any repair performed may be eligible for goodwill consideration by the District Parts and Service Manager". Well it seems as though I do not qualify for this because the car is "so old" and has "too many" miles on it. Yes, the car does have over 80K miles on it, but that does not mean that I use the lock cylinder more frequently. Personally, I do not see the correlation. If anything, all it means is that I have a longer commute. I drive 120 miles every day, but I only unlock my car twice (once in the morning and once to go home ... same as everyone else, if not less). But according to Honda, it is just a coincidence that my door lock, a part that they already acknowledged as being a quality issue, has the same issue but is totally unrelated.
Actually, now I don't even lock my car at all because I am tired of climbing over my passenger seat to unlock it.
Anyway, I just wanted everyone to know that this TSB is out there and you might be able to get it fixed for free. If they won't then you just have everyone you know with the same make and model make a big enough stink to Honda that they end up recalling it.
Keep me posted on your progress!
Good Luck!!

Hi jet62877,

Thank you for the input, much appreciated.