tranft

That's exactly what I wanted to know...thanks!
BTW did you get your lock cylinder replaced because of the "ignition stuck" issue?

NVAKeith

iTrader: (1)

Yes. Scroll up to post 19 for details.

sadgirl802

I have a 1990 LS400 and I bought it on Monday. Less than four days later the wheel locked up and I am unable to turn the wheel or start the car. I am seeing that there are a few things that could help, so I wanted to clarify.
1. Lubricate the ignition
2. hit with hammer????
3. replace the ignition?
These are my only options?

sbryant324

I wanted to put in my two cents worth. A week ago yesterday I had the ignition jam on my 2009 RX. I tried WD 40 and PB Blaster with Teflon as well as regular PB, to no avail. I was able to tap the Valet key once on the keyring loop, straight in with a pair of medium weight linesman's side cutters. It then turned and I started the car to get it back off the road and into my driveway. Once home I called my brother the locksmith (1800 miles away) for advice. He said his shop avoids petroleum-based fluids in all service out of concern for sticky residue and uses only premium brand graphite sprays. Hearing this, I elected to purchase a small bottle of contact cleaner with straw to pre-rinse any residue, as well as a can of Jigaloo graphite spray (all I could find on a Sunday). While this was working it's way in, I disconnected the battery, then dissasembled the dash around the cylinder and removed and serviced the electric portion of the switch mounted with two small Phillips screws on the inner tip of the cylinder. This switch contains several contact points similar to the numbers on the face of a clock. * Use caution when doing this*
Although I carefully dismounted the switch by unclipping it, I failed to keep it clamped shut and immediately it sprung open and ejected one of 2 spring-loaded positioning ***** and it's spring into the inner cavity of my center console. Fortunately, the ball trickled out onto my floor mat when I when digging for it. I replaced the missing 3/8" long spring with one fashioned from a ball pen and while the mechanism was apart I lightly polished the two inner contact rings by inverting them onto some 600 grit sandpaper on a hard flat service. I then lubed the mechanism with dielectric grease, reassembled and tested on the cylinder before remounting. All worked fine so I fully assembled without getting into the cylinder itself.
What I can not say for sure is if the electrical mechanism had become intermittent and " locked out" the ignition as I have read about, or if the graphite saved the day, but once both were complete I jumped in the car, test drove 500 plus miles locally on sales calls with no issue over 4 days and then left on a 1500 mile road trip to Kentucky. So far all is well... What I do know is the method of slamming and forcing the ignition was not necessary and several fools I witnessed on Youtube have cost themselves $100's of extra dollars in damage for no good reason. BTW the vehicle has now surpassed 190,000 miles. The Lexus dealership I used to work at still carefully removes failed cylinders and sends them out for tumbler repair, but this can easily tie up a vehicle for 3-4 days, time which I could not afford last week. I had all in out and reassembled in under 4 hours. It is an easy way to get a kink in the neck which cost me a trip to the chiropractor, on top of $20 in spray lubes and some di-electric grease. More than happy to walk anyone through the process if they chose to PM me or contact me at my Hotmail address, which is my name above ... @hotmail.com

sbryant324

The quick answer here is yes if you buy a new cylinder elsewhere with keys and then want all to match the locksmith would need to remove the cylinder again if you install it, so you would be better to take him your failed cylinder for a new set of " wafers" to match the pattern of worn set. As noted above, one reader had his cylinder re-done for $25 after removing the cylinder himself.