Technical Steering Wheel wont lock and car wont start

[Backstrum19]

I just purchased a new battery and I am having a problem with my steering wheel not locking and the key will not come out of the ignition. I have already used the red emergency release tab on the ignition to turn it to the stop position to get the key out of the ignition, however the steering wheel still wont lock. When I put the key back in the ignition, I hear the fuel pump, I have plenty of lights, I turn the key to start and nothing. The key is now locked into the ignition cylinder again. Only way to remove is red emergency tab. Did I mention that the vehicle will not go into any gear, stuck in the park position, unless, I use the key in the port hole on the passenger side to release the shifter into other gears. Do you think its ignition key related? Why wont the steering wheel lock? Why is my key Stuck?....Please help

 

[varesecrazy]

Hi

Do you have a North America spec.500..??

The ignition barrel (lock cylinder) also provides the steering lock

Chances are there had been a mechanical failure in the lock..

Have you owned the vehicle long..?
As this would ordinarily give signs of failure before reaching this point..


Ok..
So in use the lock barrel has 2 or 3 phased stages.. then a sprung return ( for the triggering of starter motor)

As yours is just freely rotating.. it will not get around to the triggering of starter

I suspect the gear selector issue you see is actually a safety override related to the lock barrel failure


Unfortunately the Mexican built 500 is quite different to the Polish built 500/panda.. so I cannot quote hard facts of your locking problems.

Ok..dumb question.. are both keys behaving in the same way..??

 

[Backstrum19]

North American 500, built in Mexico.
I am the original owner 70k miles and already replaced the automatic transmission at 55k.
Both keys act the same way.

 

[AndyRKett]

I believe these have an electronic steering lock, the car won’t start if you are in gear, the steering won’t lock till you take the key out and the key won’t come out till you put the car in park....

I would guess your car still thinks it is in gear and is either not registering the gear selection correctly or the selector is not working properly, so while you think it’s in park it’s still in gear.

 

[varesecrazy]

Ok.. thanks for your inputs..

So..

So does the ignition barrel lock..have the defined positions..and the 'spring return' for starting..?

Or is it just rotating freely...??

 

[Backstrum19]

The car is in park. I put the key in the cylinder and turn to the on position. All lights come on and hear fuel pump motor going. Then I turn to start the car and the lights stay on....but nothing, no cranking....nothing. Then I try to remove the key and its stuck, will not come out unless I revert to the red tab to release the key. In the meantime. the steering wheel never locks at all.


I used the spare key in the passenger side shifter area to manually get the car out of park. When I do it goes into neutral and all the positions normally, then I put the vehicle back into the park position to try to start the vehicle, same results. I even tried starting in the neutral positions too. No results.

the lock assembly cylinder seems to be fine; it does not keep rotating freely, It is acting as normal. I believe when I turn to start it springs back to on position as it would when you start the vehicle.

 

[varesecrazy]

Hi

It does sound as if the basic lock mechanism is ok

Im afraid I cannot comment on the grarbox lock..but that is almost certainly related to the 'non.start'

Idea:

When you get the gearshift lever moving..

Does the dash display correspond with the lever position?

If thats 'wrong' it could point to the issue

 

[Rodney66]

Did you find a fix for your problem im havin same issue