Is my central locking f**ked?

[Jordi17]

Right, bought my clio last june and when buying it i was told the central locking didnt work. Anyway this wasnt a big issue at the time, as the car was in such good condition. Since buying it i have been manaully locking and unlocking it. Went out to the car this morning in the freezing cold, and the key wouldnt go into the hole, so i threw some hot water over it and then the key went in. Once the key was in it wouldnt twist round...after a few mins i managed to twist it, but it just twisted all the way round twice and didnt unlock. So, after another few mins i finally managed to unlock it, told my dad and he said the whole central locking may be fucked, which will be a big and expensive job. Its back to normal now anyway, just seems to do it when its freezing cold outside.
What do we think?

 

[D4N13L]

the lock was frozen and you were just turning the whole barrel

 

[Jordi17]

they all do this? nothing wrong with it?

 

[Swish]

Put some WD40 in your lock, I always do it to my fuel cap once a year when I find it frozen when I want fuel, once done I never have problems again with it in ice. No idea about the central locking but I would have thought you could get second hand parts.

 

[benstone]

i had this exact problem a couple weeks ago mate, but dont worry your hole central locking aint got a problem with it, its just the barrel.
what u have done is, not put the key in the whole way, turned it and its spun, not i imagine when u put it in now it does about 90 degrees eeach way yes?
if so, start inserting the key and try turning it, keeping insertin the key deeper till finally it spins like the first day u did it, hopefully once it locks back in it should turn normally again
dont do what i did and remove the whole door card and removing the locking mechanism, cuz its a real pain
anyways hope that helps