Help: Ignition Lock Problem

[HeNry2kOoL]

Someone attempted to steal my car last week and tried to jam something into my ignition lock which left it useless. I've managed to remove the old lock by destroying the release button that holds it in place. Now I've encountered another problem, the ignition socket is stuck in the "Lock" position and can only move in the opposite direction, not to the ACC, ON, START side. I first thought that it could be my steering wheel lock that's holding it but I tried moving the steering wheel around and still nothing.



Here's a pic of my steering column with the ignition lock cylinder removed. The straight arrow shows what I believe is blocking and preventing the ignition from turning to the right. The problem is that in order for me to put in the new lock cylinder the key has to be in the ACC position, but the socket in the steering column is stuck in the Lock position and that's as much as it can turn clockwise. The round arrows shows how much it can be turned in the opposite direction.

Here's a pic of the new lock cylinder:

The brass button on the side is the release button that can only be pushed in when the key is in the ACC position in the lock.

Does anybody know what's wrong and why it's locked into that position in my steering column? I'm pretty much fustrated with the whole thing right now.

[Conambo]

OMG I have the exact same problem!!! I just bought a new cylinder and can't get it to go into the ACC position. Does anyone have any idea to get it into the ACC position.

[HeNry2kOoL]

I ended up taking the car to Toyota to let them fix it since I was pretty much frustrated with it and stuck on how to get that socket thing inside back to the correct position for the lock cyclinder to go in correctly. I'm not sure if you have already taken off the lock cyclinder or not, but this problem can only occur when your lock cyclinder and ignition switch is taken off. From what the mechanic told me was that the round socket inside was turned incorrectly to the other side and got stuck there (possibly from me messing with it after taking off the lock cyclinder). This would've been prevented if the ignition switch was still attached to the steering column because it would've held the socket in place. He did say that I can try taking a corner of a business card or by rolling it up to to push down that metal piece shown on my first pic with the red arrow to free the round socket. If that's the same problem you're having you could try that. Good luck.

[Conambo]

Yeah, I jammed it into ACC position with a screwdriver for about an hr. Hahaha, it worked! Thanks for the tip though.