About a week ago, I got into my manual transmission 2006 Honda Civic DX to drive home and found that no matter what I did, the key would not turn. After talking to my wife, I learned that we'd both experienced a bit of difficulty getting the key into the ignition in the prior week. I sprayed some WD-40 into the lock as recommended on some forums, but this did not help.

After watching several videos, I took my tools to work yesterday determined to remove the cylinder and pull the offending wafer.

First, I disconnected the negative terminal on the battery (since I'd seen warnings about accidentally triggering airbags) and popped the cover off of the steering column. It took me a little bit to understand how to get the ignition lock cylinder out, but I eventually got it out with little issue. While removing the ignition cylinder, I also took the ignition switch off. (I thought this was needed, but I guess not.) With the cylinder lock out, I was able to pop it apart with little trouble and pull out the bad wafer (a couple of other wafers also fell out but I don't think that's a problem.) This allowed they cylinder lock to turn freely again with the key in, so I headed back to the car to install it. I reconnected the battery, put the spring back on the cylinder lock tip, and jiggled the full mechanism back into place and -- it wouldn't turn. I pulled the cylinder lock back out, put the key in, and it turned freely.

After a few choice words, I removed and reinstalled the cylinder a couple of times, at each point making sure it still turned. The steering wheel IS currently locked, so I tried pulling the wheel to one side and then the other while turning the key -- nada. (With respect to the locked steering wheel, I did notice that my wheels are facing straight forward while the "H" on the wheel is turned to about ten o'clock.) At some point in all of this I put the ignition switch back into place, I believe that this was after I'd reconnected the battery.

Any ideas what would be keeping the ignition cylinder lock from turning when it's in place?
Should I not have removed the cylinder with the steering wheel locked? (FWIW, I don't know how I could have unlocked it when I wasn't able to turn the key.)
Did removing the Ignition Switch do something that would prevent the key from turning?
Is it possible the WD-40 did something?

Thanks in advance for your ideas!
Jacob

 

Came across a related thread, that had the answer. See below.

https://honda-tech.com/forums/tech-m.../#post52746573