I went to start my '98 4runner this afternoon and when I turned the key, the engine started to turn over and then something in the ignition snapped. The engine doesn't start and the key now turns clockwise with no resistance, almost like a spring or whatever is in there broke. Now the steering wheel is unlocked but I can't start the car and I can't even turn on the electricity to close my sunroof. Has this happened to anyone else? I don't know anything about ignitions but it feels like a spring snapped.

Also, I need to get the car into my garage before it rains into the sunroof. Anyone have any ideas about how I could start the car without an ignition? It's an automatic so I can't pop the clutch.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

Your ignition lock is obviously toast and needs to be replaced. You'd need to hotwire your truck to start it....Not recommended. I'd just tow it to the dealer and have them put in a new ignition lock.

 

that's what I figured. thanks for the help.

 

hypothetically, how could you hotwire the car?

haha, Only joking. Kind of. It'd be good to know for the reason of knowing, who knows when it'd come in handy....

 

I ended up buying a new ignition lock at autozone but that wasn't the problem. It turns out the piece in the ignition housing that attaches to the ignition lock busted off. It's almost like a key that fits into the back of the ignition lock and when you turn your key, it turns this piece. How this happened I have no idea; I must be a hard key turner or something. Anyway, you can't just replace this part, you need to replace the whole housing/assembly. The only place I could find the part was at the dealer and it was about $200. There were only 20 in the entire country so this thing must not break very often. I have to wait for them to ship the part but it looks like it will be a pain in the a** to replace. It's very tight in there and the two bolts that attach the housing to the steering column have heads that break off when you tighten them to a certain torque level. I guess I'll need to drill the old ones out. If anyone has some advice on how to do that without stripping the threads that would be great. Do they make a special tool?

I'll update this post after I finish and hopefully it'll help some people out. I haven't been able to find anything on the internet about the ignition housing; it appears the ignition lock or switch are what typically need replacing. At least I won't have a separate key for my ignition now!

 

Wow, no, I definately haven't seen that very often.
Good to know what the solution actually was.

 

if you haven't figure out how to move it yet, your 98 should (my 99 does) have a small tab on the center console, forward of Drive/N/R thing (may be covered with small black cover)... anyway, this thing releases the shifter, and allows you to shift into Neutral without a key, could be useful to get into garage.

Hope you get this all figured out, I would not want to have to do it

 

he could roll it it the garage but couldnt hotwire it because of the programed key correct? when i got my 4runner i got 1 programmed key and like 5 valet keys... still trying to figure out why there was so many...