The ignition switch lock in my wife's Grand Caravan failed yesterday. I had to
call a locksmith to come replace it. In talking to him, he said he's doing a
lot of these for Chrystlers and Fords from '99 to '03 or so, as they all are
failing. He wasn't sure if the Dodge trucks used these locks or not.
But, since I have an '01 Dakota, I'd like to know if it has one of these
things in it, so I can plan to have it fail.
Failure mode details, if you haven't run in to this before:
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/6477875.html
What this means is that the usual lock wafers that the key aligns to free the
cylinder to rotate now have some extra springs and there's another thing
poking out of the cylinder off to the side. This thing, the side bar, keeps
the cylinder from rotating. I guess it's supposed to make it harder to pick
the lock, or force it, or something.
But, what happens over time, is that the mechanism wears and stops working
perfectly. At first, you'll stick the key in and try to turn it, and it won't
turn. But if you take the key out and put it back in, or maybe jiggle it
around a bit in the lock, it'll free up and turn ok. You can do that for a
while, then it'll fail completely.
When it fails, the lock mechanism is now completely jammed, in the locked
position. To remove the cylinder, though, it has to be in the "Run" position.
Talking to the dealer (parts department) wasn't real helpful. According to the
parts guy, to replace the cylinder ($140), you have to remove the airbag,
pull the steering wheel, remove a "lock plate" which requires a special tool,
then remove the lock cylinder, which requires another special tool, and
install the new one, which requires yet another special tool. And, this
assumes that I can get it turned to "Run", so that it can be removed. If I
could get it turned to "Run", I wouldn't be replacing it... So, enter the
local locksmith.
His method was a bit less elegant, but the only special tool needed was the
18v Dewalt drill. He removed the plastic covering around the column, drilled
out the side bar part of the lock, and was then able to turn it to "Run", and
release it. Out it came.
In went the new one, no special tools needed.
And, at this point, the battery died, leading to hours more fun.
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