My friend's car, a '92 Integra GSR, was broken into the other night and attempted to be stolen. Luckily they broke off the key (that's what it looks like from what I can see) in the ignition. So my friend's family was instead awoken to cops knocking on the door at three in the morning to say the car was in the road.

So now I'm stuck with this problem. There is a chunk of key or screwdriver or something stuck in the ignition. It's deep enough that there's no way to touch with your fingers. It's probably in there a good 1/4 to 1/2 an inch before you see the key.

Does anyone have any tips to getting this out or would removing the cylinder or ignition entirely in order to replace it be easier?

It doesn't matter much if we destroy the cylinder in the process; we plan to replace it.

 

I just went though this on a friend's civic. His little daughter jammed the tip of a pen in the ignition hole and broke it off. He unknowingly put his key in and jammed it to the back of the cylinder.

Key cylinders are easy to replace if you can get the key in. Unfortunately, if you cant get the key in, then it's a bigger pain. I've heard of people drilling out those special bolts to remove the cylinder. I've also heard of people drilling out the cylinder but it's kinda tough to get straight access and you risk damaging more stuff.

In the end, because it wasn't my car, we just had it towed to the dealer who replaced the whole lock assembly (including the part that surrounds the cylinder) for $200. They did not drill the cylinder. It looked like they just unbolted the whole assembly and put a new one in.

Now he has two keys, one for door and one for ignition.

Moving the car was a PITA with the front wheels locked!! Good luck!

 

We were lucky and got the chunk of key out. And by "we" I mean I talked to my friend's dad while Eran did the work.

We tried a hotwiring method, but the wheel locked after we got it started! Given we were trying to be careful with the car so nothing else got damaged.

But we ended up getting it started up with the key so the wheel wouldn't lock. Looks like we'll need a new cylinder in the near future, but I'll be keeping my eyes open for that.

Btw, regarding your friend's cylinders. You should be able to bring that cylinder in and have it re-keyed to match all the door locks. You'll want to bring both keys in to a locksmith. If you can, remove the cylinder and bring it in instead of having them do the work (they'll charge a lot more to remove that cylinder and re-key it than they would to just re-key a cylinder already out of the car).

 

Just noticed this is the other thread I made (made it in two locations since I could get help in both).

Here's the other thread:
https://honda-tech.com/forums/acura-integra-6/theft-attempt-chunk-key-stuck-2868296/

Eran managed to use a dental pick (available at most Walgreens and such) to wiggle the piece of the key out of the cylinder enough.