Ignition Key won't turn in 99 Grand Voyager

Seems to be a common problem as it happened to our 1999 T&C twice now. First time was under warranty , but the last time was in March of this last year. I bought the dealer ignition cylinder and had them key to my existing key. I then took out the old one and put in the new saving the labor. I actually did this through a dealer in SC (Galeana) that advertised its services at a discount via the Internet. I just looked at the parts bill and found it cost me $107.58 total. This broke down to $70.00 for the cylinder, $3.60 for a spring, $1.03 for 4 tumblers, $25.00 for re-keying labor, and $7.95 for shipping.

The only thing that was a pain was I needed to send them a key so they could use for the re-keying. Removal and Replacement is pretty simple. Good luck.

Bob

Look up Locksmiths in the yellow pages. Find one that specializes in Automtive. These guys have more tools than an Aircraft mechanic! My bet is he can do the job quicker, better, and cheaper than the dealer. Plus he will come right to where the van is - and may not charge any extra to do it if you schedule him (as opposed to an "emergency" call).

hth

My 99 did that. I bought an aftermarket lock cylinder from a local locksmith and put it in myself. Wasn't hard to do. Lock cylinder cost about $50-60, as I recall about two years ago.

Thanks for all the advise. I called a locksmith and he came right to my driveway and changed the tumblers/waffers inside the key cylinder for $130 Cdn. Still cheaper than the dealer and his warranty is 90 days. If it didn't work, problem will likely resurface before the 90 days are up and we'll get him back, although I'm cautiously optimistic that the problem is now history.

Thanks Again - D.Cervoni

I just had the same problem with a 1999 T & C Van, The key would not turn at all.

I tapped on it a little with a small hammer and was able to get one more turn out of it.

I was going to my mechanic to have some minor work done and when the car was done we could not get it to turn without tapping it again with a hammer. The steering wheel pod (2 pcs plastic cover comes off when you remove the 3 screws. The key has to be turned to the acc. position so you can push the silver square button in that holds it in place. Just push the button and pull the entire cylinder straight out. I used a super large screw driver to drive around over the weekend until I got it fixed. I called 3 different dealers to pick their brains. Dealer 1 $

300.00 if you bring the car in Dealer 2 also in Los angelas $250.00. My local dealer said if I bring in the key they would match the new cylinder to my old key in about 5 minutes Total $ 108.00 I would have to put it back myself. I called the local locksmith He put new wafer pins and rebuilt my cylinder total price $ 42.40 Always skip the dealer whenever possible. This problem is common for these vans and is not hard to do, just follow the directions I used.

Let me add my own experience regarding this problem. We did the "hit the end of the key while in the ignition cylinder" for about a year until it decided to finally die. Thank God that it died right in my driveway. (Footnote here: I couldn't get it to turn to the start position in order to get it out of the column. What finally worked was putting my propane torch to it for about 30 seconds followed by putting in the key and hitting it a couple of times. It finally turned.) Anyway, the only place that had a replacement cylinder was the dealer who was going to charge me about $102 for the cylinder and about $30 to set it up for my existing key. Since that didn't sit well with me, I tried one more auto wrecker who, like some others, said they only would sell the entire steering column (no thanks). However, he recommended that I call a fella he dealt with that is an ACE Locksmith. Huh...was my reaction but, hey, I'm desparate, right? So I call the guy and, sure enough, he says "sure, just bring me your key and (here's the kicker) for $50 I'll have it done". I actually called him back to confirm that for the $50 that I was getting a new cylinder. He said I was. Well, I met the guy who proceeded to take a cylinder apart (he said he does this about 6-8 times a week. By the way, the cylinder he had was a new blank one which means it didn't have any of the internal guts (tumblers, whatever you call them) in it. He took my key, installed the internal pins and gave it back to me all in the space of about 5 mins tops. He also said that the lubricant to use when one of these things does start sticking is BP Blast...never use WD40. He also said that you should only have the key and maybe the remote on the key chain when it's in the ignition vs. having a ton of keys hanging off of it....the weight of the other keys eventually damages the cylinder. ACE Locksmith, who would have thought!? I hope this helps someone in the future that experiences this problem on these vans.

He is right about WD40 - it has no lubricating properties or staying power whatsoever - not a good lubricant, nor is it a good penetrating oil at all either. I suspect what he recommended was "PB Blaster" - which is a very good penetrating oil. Never heard of BP Blast. Personally, I use spray lithium grease - real lithium grease in a very light carrier - the carrier evaporates leaving a nice, very thin layer of the white lithium grease - has good lubricating properties and real staying power.

I know he's technically right, but that's not practical. I mean - I'm either supposed to carry around multiple key chains - one for each vehicle I own and and another for all other keys, or stop and separate a single on into two every time I get in, and put them back together when I get out of the car - give me a break. :)

I carry around a fairly good size set of keys, and in 40 years of driving I've had to replace or lube two ignition switch cylinders on my personal vehicles.

Yes, you are correct (my apologies)...it was PB Blaster. As for the other keys hanging off of your key chain, I agree. While it's good advice, it's not practical. I've been driving for the same amount of years and this is the first time I've had to replace a cylinder. Ergo, I'm not to worried about having a somewhat substantial collection of keys on my chain. I think one of the main considerations in all of this discussion is that if you can avoid going to a dealer to get something fixed then go that route.

I frankly don't believe the claim about extra keys. I just can't think of a credible mechanism by which this can cause extra wear.

Disclaimer: I did indeed need to replace the ignition switch cylinder on my '78 Newport a couple of years ago. So it did indeed fail after just short of 30 years, with my Mom hanging all her keys for the first

20 or so and me hanging all mine in the years after.

Amen to that! Been my philosophy for years ever since my first bad experiences some years ago.