Please post if your ignition has locked!

[KoRnPhReAk]

Mine locked up on me before. I was in L.A. on a little trip. Leave the hotel, put the key in and wouldnt turn. My first thought was WTF. I couldnt believe it! Well none the less, I worked with it and after 45mins of messing with it. I finally got it to turn. Made it back home, took it to the dealer the follwing morning. Got it fixed under warranty. I think ford really needs to do a recall on this problem. No fun when your on vacation and this happens.

[SangriaZx3]

My ignition just locked up @ 18500 miles on a 2003 Zx3, replaced under warranty. Huge pain in the ass! (towed, 2 pats keys, drilled ignition, new ignition, rekeyed door locks)

[Slvr01ZX3]

Mine (01 zx3)has started for the past few weeks give me problems. I need to jab into the ignition to get it to turn. I called my locale dealership, since it's past warranty (47,000 miles), and ESP doesn't cover it, they want $280.00 to fix it. POOH on them. I will just wait for it to Die altogether. WE need a Recall

[gmzx3]

Slvr01ZX3,

Given that your ignition lock is starting to fail now, I would get it replaced (or do it yourself) soon before you can't get the key in and turn it. You need to turn it to get the cylinder release pin to work. If not, you will have to drill it out, get towed, etc. Much better/cheaper to do it before all of this, at YOUR convenience.

Gary

[SCFocus]

Just happened to me! The place I took it to have it repaired (I don't do Ford dealers anymore...too many bad experiences) told me very common on Foci. Cost me a bit over $200 to have the thing replaced.

Tom Gerth
Florence, SC

[I_Race_Boyz]

Well guys I've had the same problem, my 2003 ZX3 just had it's "Ignition Block Cylinder" replaced because the POS locked up on me. Anywaz, they better do something because this junk ain't funny, I almost ripped my steering wheel out! I say we PROTEST!

[turbofordguy]

My 2000 Ford Focus ZX3's ignition locked on me (40,000 miles) right before I was going to go on a road trip, called the Local Ford Dealer they wanted $350.00 to fix it and they said they had been doing about 2 or 3 a week so they had the parts in stock, they could not even work on my car for three days. So I picked up the part for $40.00 from the parts counter, took it home and drilled out the old lock, rekeyed the new tumbler and got it on the road by 1 am for a nice trip to AZ.

[Twilight02ZX3]

Happened to me, and was covered by warrenty. It was the starter switch.

[blackzx3on18s]

Happened to me and I ended up paying $400.

[LemonGT]

I finally did it. I wrote a letter to Ford saying reimburse me or I will take legal action. I told them I am aware of at least 82 other people who have had this same problem. We shall see.

00silverlx
03' ZX3’s sister
1980Focus
1BadEgg
3 Stripes
atomics20
biker16
Black03ZX3
Blis
Blur
Brian K Simpson
Brian Walsh
bumpmaster’s sister
chilsilbull
Claypoolio
cloud9focus
Crankenstein
DarkMagician
Decepitcon Zetec
doogie78
Engien
focalxplosion
Focusboy21
FocusSpeedZX3
focusSvT01
focuSTZ
focuz04
Fordowner
GE-S2
Goobah
Gramps
hedclerk
Hi-Risk
hkygrl zx3
Hocus Focus 2001
illictfocuszts
Jared
Jennifer
jobi
k0nafocus
Krmnnghia
Ledjar
LemonGT
lt7d101
m3th0d
maddawg zx3
monkeyman28
mvalle3
newguy/zx3
northcal_zx3
OofastfocusoO
Peggy_Bundy
PsiSapper
puuurple SVT
red2000zx3
S. on Da 5
S2DOHC
schnack
SickWhip
sit'n'on_chrome
smedly1
so smooth
SoCalFocus
stealdesk
Sublimed
teiresias
tweaker41
Twilight02ZX3
UNSPACY
vinceisfocused
VizualXTracyZX3
yelslowfocus
Tobyboom
sandmann41
Greatdark
KoRnPhReAk
SangriaZx3
Slvr01ZX3
SCFocus
I Race Boyz
trubofordguy
blackzx3on18s

[Crooked Letter]

Add me to your ignition locked list. Furthermore it has cost me $450 due to my local Ford dealer taking 5 hours to do the work. Most of that 450 was in labor. the parts themselves were under 100 total. And it is because of this quality crap that Ford has lost my business and I have a new Civic ordered and arriving in another week or so.

[blzbubba]

'00 ZX3, so far it's happened three times, each time it was fixed at no cost to me.

Whwn it happens, put the key in and whack it really hard. Seriously holy-crap-I'm-gonna-break-somethin' hard.
That has worked for me two of those times, allowing me to drive the car to the dealership at mmy convenience.

[fcsonme]

It does it to my 2000 zx3 as well, ford is not looking to good at all, no to mention all the recalls, and the bad gas milage, ford is not looking to good at all.

[Arkady]

Add me to the list. 60,000 miles in a 2000 LX. Luckily, it was sitting in my parking lot.

[tweaker41]

I just had my second one lock up last week if that counts for anything. Two of them in 20000mi. 58,000 mi on the car.

[Arkady]

Ok, so here's what I did:

First off, I went tothe dealer and picked up a new ignition switch kit. I then had my local lock smith pay a visit. The first thing he did was make a dummy key copy from my key. He then incerted the dummy key into the existing ignition switch and using a large cresent (adjustable) wrench, he tapped the key untill it was all the way in. He then carefully used the wrench to help turn the key. (Note, you don't want to break the key but that's why he used the dummy.)

After he got the key to pop on through and turn he opened up the stering colum cover by taking out the two tourque bolts on the botom side of the cover. The Ig Switch was then easily removed.

After he removed the switch, he took it to his van and took it completely apart. It turned out that one of the little metal tabbs that are lifted by the notches in the key had bent. He ended up removing that tab (which took some work) and just left it out. He put it all back together minus the bad tab and it worked seamlessly.

All that and he only charged me $60. I then took the IG switch kit back to the dealer for a prompt refund.

The bottom line is that after seeing it done, I am sure it can be done by most of us. And if for some reason hte switch is totally borked, you can call a smith and have him/her install the new one. Either way, it's still a lot less expencive than a dealer trip.

[ROTC1983]

Ok, so here's what I did:

First off, I went tothe dealer and picked up a new ignition switch kit. I then had my local lock smith pay a visit. The first thing he did was make a dummy key copy from my key. He then incerted the dummy key into the existing ignition switch and using a large cresent (adjustable) wrench, he tapped the key untill it was all the way in. He then carefully used the wrench to help turn the key. (Note, you don't want to break the key but that's why he used the dummy.)

After he got the key to pop on through and turn he opened up the stering colum cover by taking out the two tourque bolts on the botom side of the cover. The Ig Switch was then easily removed.

After he removed the switch, he took it to his van and took it completely apart. It turned out that one of the little metal tabbs that are lifted by the notches in the key had bent. He ended up removing that tab (which took some work) and just left it out. He put it all back together minus the bad tab and it worked seamlessly.

All that and he only charged me $60. I then took the IG switch kit back to the dealer for a prompt refund.

The bottom line is that after seeing it done, I am sure it can be done by most of us. And if for some reason hte switch is totally borked, you can call a smith and have him/her install the new one. Either way, it's still a lot less expencive than a dealer trip.

Wow, if that can be repeated that would save all of us a lot of us a lot of money...thanks

[Dazed42]

happened to me a few weeks ago, cost over 200 dollars. The dealer told me it was not covered in my extended warrenty. Some BS

[ROTC1983]

happened to me a few weeks ago, cost over 200 dollars. The dealer told me it was not covered in my extended warrenty. Some BS

Sorry for the oftopic post...cool, Dazed, we just moved from Fort Hood almost 2 years ago. Man, I miss my friends there...

[Jared]

so yeah it happened to me for the second time tonight. it's been doing it for a few weeks now, like i'd have to jiggle my key and it would work after a few seconds, but tonight it's finally done for.

so yeahh ummm this would be two times within 6 months or so.

god dammit i don't even have the first repair fully paid off on my credit card

...my car is sitting in a Home Depot parking lot, where it will remain until tomorrow night. with the windows down an inch. (my mom has AAA and has to be present when the car gets towed and she is working tonight...)

funny, this time i can turn the key a tiny bit. last time i couldn't even get the key in all the way.

...i don't know if i should go to the dealer again or try the locksmith route.

[censored] Ford. [censored] them in the ass. never buying another Ford again. if they would acknowledge the [censored] problem and come out with a better part, i would feel better, but it pisses me off to no end that i have to pay for another fix AGAIN with the same god damned faulty part.

[Cable]

I had mine lock up once a while back. I played with it for like a half hour though and it finally worked, no problems since then. Now that I think about it though... for like a a week after it happen my key felt a little strange going in, but it doesn't even do that anymore.

I'm glad to know what to do if it happens again though. I deffinately won't be seeing the dealership, that's for sure. I'd rather give a locksmith my money, he actually works for it. Dealerships just rip you off for it.

[BlackZX321]

You can add me to the list... Happened a while ago but never saw that it happened ot other people

[staindfan]

Throw me on the list too, just happened to me 2 days ago. Here is the link to the thread I started, I didn't know this one was around. 28k on my 01 zx3, whole tumbler assembly was replaced, $247. Same problem as most everyone else, the key would go in but wouldn't budge a hair.

[Jared]

damn mine was like $320.

[TragiC]

Add one more to the list!

Just happend to me

Got the part from ford waiting for the lock smith in the morning.

TragiC