Ignition switch

[limoncello]

I talked with the guy at Autozone, they have the switch - an electrical piece and the locking cylinder. He was asking whether the problem involves the steering lock. Sort of, maybe, not sure. When I first got in (car had not run for a week or so (had to use the key in the door lock) inserted the key and it would not move in either direction. I turned the wheel back and forth slightly to see if that would free things up. I don't think it did. Then, seemingly randomly, the key turned freely and the car started normally. Drove a while, came home, turned off normally. Got back in later the same day - same routine. Key wouldn't turn at all. Fiddled with the wheel. Then randomly, key worked. The sudden free turning of the key did NOT seem to correspond to fiddling with the wheel. (Had an 80's Volvo, had to move the steering wheel every time to turn the key - know what that feels like.) Is this the steering lock or just the cylinder not working? Any way it could be an electronic/coding issue? Open for ideas -
Starting with changing the locking cylinder seems fairly cheap, if that doesn't do it I could try other things (?)

[deliriousga]

Just the ignition switch will take care of everything. You don't need to bother with the key cylinder. If you replace that, you'll have to get it re-keyed at the dealer. The ignition switch is at the end of the locking cylinder so when it breaks it causes the locking cylinder to act weird. The locking cylinder is metal so it's difficult to mess up. The ignition switch is cheap plastic.

I had the exact same type of problem. A/C quit working, radio freaked out. Then the key was hard to turn. Then it would not go in without a lot of coaxing. Then it wouldn't turn again. Etc, etc, etc. Replaced the little, plastic ignition switch and everything's copasetic.

Unfortunately, it's a very common problem. Enough so that I ordered 3 switches just in case they stop making them. RandallNeighbor just had to do it too and two people on another forum I like to visit. I even ran into one when I was test driving them before we got ours that was doing the "no turn" thing. I didn't know about the problem so I don't know if the dealer figured it out or not.