Only one post in 5 years, but a really nice and detailed summary.
Where have you been all this time ?
The forum needs more input from posters of your caliber ...

 

I just finished the sticky key fix. What a great help this forum has been. My thanks to all

When I was putting the ignition housing back in, I dropped a small spring out of the plastic insert.

In the attached photo, the yellow arrow points to the plastic insert and the red arrow points to the small spring.

I cannot figure out the purpose of the spring or if I've even put it back in the right place

Any suggestions?
Best regards,


Pete


By the way, this is not the same spring that I was trying to remove to solve the sticky key. This spring fell out of the barrel of the ignition housing as I was hammering away with a punch (as suggested) to get to the "problem" spring.

 

Attached is a photo of the pin and spring responsible for our sticky ignition keys.

FYI I am in the process of creating a v5 PDF file. By when? Work gets in the way of my hobbies, so I am hoping to be able to post it later this week.

 

I have just done a v5 and will publish it tonight.
Mine is based on the reckah's v4 and your addendum.

Sticky Ignition Key Fix-v5. PDF

 

It has been 3 years, almost 3 years and one month in fact - and I sure can't remember that spring.

BUT AGAIN, I keep telling people that you should fix the thing BEFORE it locks up for reasons like this.
Hopefully, your experience will convince someone to fix theirs before it actually locks up.

 

Mods were told that reckah had modified the write up from v2 to v3 and then to v4 and ignored it. There were time saving instructions added.
Now we have a v5 I'm sure they will ignore that mod as well.
Just because the mod is not to obvious does not mean it has not changed.
reckah has left the building, he sold his Crossfire.

 

Hell All:

I had the exact same problem, my ignition key wont turn to position 1, so i followed all the steps in .pdf V.5. however ;after drilling the pin on step 10. i was not able to turn the key to position 1 either, so i decided to take the whole assembly out, without removing the black cylinder (since the instructions states to removed it on step 10 with key in position 1.).

so after having the assembly out, i removed the spring (even tho i had already drilled the pin), but the ignition key still does not rotate.

My question is, since i have not removed the black cylinder, would it be safe to remove it knowing its on position 0 ? maybe the black cylinder is pushing the plastic interlock button. the black cylinder has the flat edge at 12'clock btw.

any suggestions?

 

ahh! i just notice there is a second pin inside the housing, as the instructions stated, i was confusing the pin with the drilled one, now it works perfectly, i am only dealing with putting back the dam trims under the steering wheel, cant seem to align the left side.F*&^% sh*I@. LOL anyways amazing and many many thanks!! to this wonderful forum.

 

I am new to the forum, what exactly are we doing with the locking pin once we get to that point and what causes this issue. Also can someone tell me if this procedure is for the laymen, I have done somethings to my cars in the past but never owned a german engineered car. On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being a mechanic, what number would be given for this procedure. Lastly is there a part of the process that I need to be careful not break anything and also on average how long does the process take?

thanks in advance.

 

1-10, about a 4.
Only thing to be extra careful about is the sensing ring around the key lock.
The rest you can mostly beat into submission.

 

Oh ok, is there a reason the ring is an issue or is it delicate? How long did it take you?

 

Took me about 45 minutes and it's not that hard, I am probably a 6 in terms of mechanical skill using your scale. Don't know why the pin is in there in the first place as I removed mine nearly a year ago and never had any sticking ignition since and the wheel lock still works perfectly.

 

The wire to it is delicate.
Since I've now done it on 3 cars, I could probably do it in 15 minutes the next time.

 

Hi, im in serious need of help... I just did all of the steps and after i removed the spring and pin, the locking pin will not press down and the key will not turn in the lock cylinder. Any suggestions?

 

I am not sure what stage you are at, do you have the lock cylinder and housing apart? Or are they together?
The lock cylinder should not be put in until the housing is back in place and clamped down.

 

I appreciate the response. I figured it out I had only removed the spring and not the pin.

 

OK, good news.

 

Just had this taken care of. My ignition locked up on me last weekend but I was (thankfully) able to get the car started after about 20 minutes and some manhandling.. got it home and decided to bring it to a mechanic since I didn't want to try and deal with the dremeling.. it started again fine to get it to the mechanic but apparently locked up on them at one point but they got it all taken care of after some arguing about me not needing any new parts.. they said it took about 2 1/2 hours with the locking issues but charged me 1 1/2.. I'm just glad its done but wish I had just taken care of it myself months ago before it became an actual issue

 

My 04' Crossfire with 75k miles has had this issue since I bought it late last year. From day one you had to jiggle the keys around a little bit to get the key to turn. It slowly got worse and worse. Eventually getting to the point where no one could turn the key but me. I had a feel for it after having done it for so long. I did some research, printed out the guide, and borrowed my father in law's dremel. Last week, I was planning to fix it in the upcoming weekend. I drive to work no problem, drive home for lunch, and drive back to work. I noticed when I went to start the car to drive back to work that it took me maybe 6 tries to get the key to turn. I remember thinking "hmm that's odd, it normally only takes me one or two tries". That day when I got off work I tried for 20 minutes in the parking lot trying to get the key to turn. No such luck, it was too late.

Ended up bringing in all of the tools/guide and fixed it in the parking lot after work the next day. So anyone contemplating fixing this issue, go ahead and fix it before it's too late! It would have been sooo much easier if I didn't have to drill out the locking pin. Took about 2 hours total. An hour of that was probably drilling.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to the guide!

 

Thanks so much for the writeup.. I just completed the job on a new-to-me 2004 6-speed with 11k miles!
I removed the little shuttle with the pin and reused the component.
The steering wheel still locks without the key! I was under impression it shouldnt lock after the ópereation'.
One scary thought is this: Is it possible for the wheel to lock whiile the key is in the ignition? I.e. while driving?!!
Thanks for your thoughts.
Jan

[QUOTE=drhrsh;356157]A lot has been written on this site about this problem. I was having the problem of the key not turning, and having to try 6 or more times turning the steering wheel, etc. until it finally worked. I also read about others who were finally unable to turn the key at all, requiring a tow to the dealer and a bill for $1500.00 or more to fix. I want to thank Crossbow 39 for his nice thread on how to do this. I am a visual guy and thought I would take pictures and post a thread to help others. I also learned a few tips which may help others.