burl

After a morning of errands, my wife parked our 03 GX in the driveway. When I went out to start it, the ignition switch locked up. Would not budge! I finally had to have it towed to the dealer. Has anyone else had this problem?

GS3Tek

iTrader: (8)

If it's not from the obvious steering wheel locking up, then I haven't heard or had this problem.
Normally, if you turn the steering wheel left and right while turning on the ignition, that would do it.

Linko

That was going to be my suggestion, too. Sometimes you just have to jiggle the steering wheel a little from side-to-side to get the ignition lock to disengage.

burl

The steering wheel would not lock at all by turning it as it usually would. It turns out the dealer is replacing the entire lock/tumbler assembly using the extended lexus warranty. I am happy with that solution!

SilverLady

That happened to my Ford Explorer, but it was almost 10 years old. I was in a parking garage in another town at the time. A locksmith was able to replace the whole tumbler mechanism, and I was able to see how the pins wore down when he pulled it all out right there in a parking garage. I'd hate to think that could happen on a newer car - it was a hassle and probably a lot harder with all the anti-theft stuff.

kphu

iTrader: (8)

yeah that issue sporadically happened on the 4-runner I traded in. Luckily it never happened when I was going home. It typically happened before I left the house so I just drive the other car.

BLKGX470

I myself had an explorer and luckily never happened to me.

Unfortunately, KPHU...I only have one car for me and one car for my wife...so if one car breaks...it usually means one of us is SOL...I would probably have to call in since I know a little bit more about cars than the wife and have it towed to the shop/dealer and see the diagnosis and hopefully it gets fixed the same day...

otherwise, we have to carpool while one car is being fixed...

kphu

iTrader: (8)

At the time I had a toyota pickup in which I used for house chores/projects and pulling my boat. I got rid of it last summer because the maintenance was mounting on stuff that just seemed to go one after the other.

Its really crappy to have it break down when you really can't afford to not depend on your car, but then again I guess that's why were all in this forum...because of reliability and to share fixes when we do occasionally run into them.

lnmeyers

My ignition lock froze out of the blue. The car was in my garage without any previous starting problems. Yanking the steering wheel while turning the key to the starting position did not work. The key would not move any any direction. In addition, the car was in the park position. I called AAA for service and we figured out how to unlock the shift from park to neutral. However, we could not unlock the steering mechanism, making it very difficult for the tow truck drive to pull the car onto his flat bed truck.

The Lexus service manager called the next day to say the ignition lock was frozen and could not be fixed. Replacement would be around $900, I got on the Internet and found the following post on the Edmunds.com site:

"The following will likely work: Since the security system has locked up the car, find the flat key (master key) of the RX. Just as described in the owner's manual, insert the flat key into the ignition but do not turn. Within 10 seconds, slide the flat key jacket (which has a transponder chip embedded) close to the flay key. Hold it until the security light stops blinking. Take the flat key out. Insert the correct RX key (remote or non-remote) into the ignition, and turn. The car should start."

I decided to take a chance and go back to the dealer to try using the flat key with the chip-embedded case. When the security light stopped flashing, I turned the key to every position. The service staff said that it was just a co-incidence, but since another driver had success with this method, it cannot be a coincidence. Before you spend $900 for a new lock,try this method. Granted, it may happen again, but I believe there must have been some electrical event that must have triggered it and not routine wear.

tz693

Thank you for sharing.