Locks and keys

[nametooshort]

My 305 wagon has something reasonably odd. It has mis-matched style keys.

I am not talking about the keys being different, its common enough for cars to have several keys, in fact its rare to find a car over 20 years old which does not have more than one key, but this is different. I mean, it actually has different TYPE keys.

My car has 3 keys. One key fits one door and the ignition, one fits the other door and the fuel cap, and one fits the trunk.

The 2 door keys are the same style but different keys, but the trunk lock key is a different type of key completely. It looks like it's an earlier style lock, since it has less wafers.

I am one of those people who gets annoyed by mismatched keys. I am kinda stupid and have problems enough remembering which key is for which car ( ), but when a car has more then one key it annoys me, so with all my cars, the first thing I do is pull all the locks out and send them to this dude who has a lot of wafers in stock for pretty much every brand of lock, and because of that he can change the wafers in all the locks so they all fit one key. Every one of my cars has had this treatment except the pug, I have been using it every day pretty much since I got it, my solution to the key problem is to just carry the ignition key with me, and not lock the doors (since I always keep it in a secure building anyways), but I am now thinking about key-matching it.

So, that brings the question as to why it has two different styles of locks. How can the same car have different types of locks? If you are just skim-reading, no, I don't mean different keys, I means actually different style locks. So far, people have put forward several possible explanations:

-1 At some point in Pug's history, there was a change in the type of locks they use, however the locks remained the same externally, so, for example, a 80s car and a 90s car have locks which are physically interchangeable, but are internally different. So probably, somebody fitted later locks but not the trunk.

-2 More common cars (like the 205) locks can be retrofitted to the 305, but the boot lock cannot, so hence that was not changed, but the rest were changed.

-3 The production line was just so sloppy that they sold cars with mismatched type locks, since the wagon did not have the same locks as the sedan, rather then make it a special trunk lock, they just used something off-the-shelf.

Does anybody know anything about this?

Also, as a side note, does anybody know about interchangeability of locks? I am sure, as with most car brands, Pug would have used off-the-shelf parts, so no doubt locks used in the 305 were also used in other cars (maybe the 205?). Does anybody know if any locks in the 305 fit any other cars?

I need to find a lock set which preferably has the same key, or if not, then at least has the same style key, so it can be modified to take the same key. At the moment, since my car has different style locks, that can't happen.

[xmexclusive]

Hi Name.

Doubt that the factory fitted odds and ends.
Most likely owners may well have had the cheapest repair option fitted to solve problems.
Pug had their own unique design of key blade with cuts on two sides in use when they took over Citroen.
Citroen was at the time using a unique cruciform key with cuts on 4 sides.
For a few years the combined company continued to use both types but Citroen keys were used in preference on some new pug models.
Then later a high security type key blade introduced yet a third type.
The result is that over time many physical lock body types have been manufactured in all 3 key blade options.
Buying a new matching lock set from Citroen or Pug was very expensive.
Buying a new lock much cheaper but introduces the different key problem.
That different key problem with a Citroen can usually be solved by retumblering as the blade type tends to be the same.
With a Pug blade type differences are more common but not come across all 3 blade types on one car before.

I collect PSA locks to scavange for spares as I retumbler Citroen cruciform locks to make up full sets.
I happen to have a new early type PSA set (part number 4162.VO) in the junk box that came in a spares bundle.
No idea what car it was intended for I just took it to examine the differences.
Someone on here will look it up and post if they can identify the model intended
All 6 locks are present with 4 keys (2 normal, 2 plip blades).
Only the ignition switch wiring is missing as this fitted and repaired a citroen ignition switch.
If this is likely to be any use to you then send me a PM.

John

[nametooshort]

As far as I know, then, mine is a mixture of Pug's two blade types.

One type (the one I assume to be earlier, the trunk lock on my car) looks like it has 4 wafers, and the blank has 2 slots on each side and one small slit down the middle of one side.

The other type, which I assumed to be later, which is fitted to the rest of the car's locks, has only one slot on each side, and looks like it has 8 wafers. It also has a small slot-shaped hole right at the bottom of the key blade.

The cruciform type you are talking about, I think I know what that is (the Expert I broke for it's engine had those), is like a 3-dimensions key, this car does not have any of those.

So do I understand correctly that my trunk lock is a 'normal' style Pug key, and the rest of the car is the 'high security' style key?

So assuming xmexclusive's lock set does not fit, all I would need to find is either 1 'high security' style trunk lock, or 3 'normal pug' style locks, and then I can re-wafer them all and key-match my whole car.

Its kinda ironic looking at the lengths that companies went to make their cars secure, now that these cars are at worse are old junkers worth 20 bucks, or at best are someone's classic pride and joy and are kept in a locked garage. Besides, neither of those locks are particularly hard to open anyways. They should have just used dimple-style locks, those are actually hard to open.

(no, im not a criminal, I just like to pick my own locks in my spare time, iv had this fascination with locks and how they work since I was a little kid, I don't know why).