MurtazaDSM

My cousins em1 got broken into on monday night. The thieves messed up his ignition really bad, I think they used a scredriver or hammer on the ignition because now the key wont work anymore. The little white part that connects to the ignition was also hacked, but now I can unlock the steering wheel. Is there anyway to unlock it?

boostedjdmdc2

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by MurtazaDSM &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">My cousins em1 got broken into on monday night. The thieves messed up his ignition really bad, I think they used a scredriver or hammer on the ignition because now the key wont work anymore. The little white part that connects to the ignition was also hacked, but now I can unlock the steering wheel. Is there anyway to unlock it?</TD></TR></TABLE>

the steering wheel is unlocked, so you want to know if there is anyway to UNLOCK it? i thought it already was unlocked?

Dramier

What has happened is your factory steering lock is engaged, and without a key you can't really unlock it. There is a solution however, but it is a serious PITA.

Take the steering column covers off. That would be the two plastic pieces that are between the steering wheel and the dash, one on the top, one on the bottom. Once those are off you need to tilt the wheel down as far as it will go, and look down on top of the steering column. You will see a metal band around the column with two bolts holding it on that holds your ignition switch. You're going to need to either drill the heads off those bolts, or take a hammer and chisel and tap them off.

Once they are both removed, you can remove your ignition switch and fix it or replace it. To drive the car, you can simply undo the solenoid on the end of the ignition switch. It's a big roundish looking piece of black plastic with two philips screws and a bunch of wires coming out of it. Unscrew it and pull it off th end of the ignition. You'll notice it has a funny looking hourglass shaped socket in it. You can take a screwdriver and rotate that little hourglass socket and turn the car on and crank it that way.

Good luck.

MurtazaDSM

thanks for the advivce but sounds too risky, I will just tell him to take it to dealer to fix or buy new parts. Sorry if this sounded suspicous in any way

Dramier

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by MurtazaDSM &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">thanks for the advivce but sounds too risky, I will just tell him to take it to dealer to fix or buy new parts. Sorry if this sounded suspicous in any way </TD></TR></TABLE>

Risky? Not really. There's nothing to break. Unless you mean risky by driving it around like that. That is risky, but I'm telling you this so you can just take the ignition to your dealership and get it replaced easily.

Chances are they are going to want to sell you the whole switch, which means all locks re-keyed. Depending on how much is damaged, you should be able to replace only what is damaged and have the new parts match existing keys.

I just did a 2003 Pilot today that the keys were worn out on... It's not that big of a deal.