manual starter?

Hi

I have a 2003 Micra (52 reg) and the ignition is playing up. It's getting harder and harder to turn the key (whether I use the actual key, or the electronic smart key makes no difference). Yesterday I parked outside a local shop and spent half an hour trying to start but no luck! I simply can't turn the ignition. I gave up and came home! And jiggling the steering wheel doesn't help. I'll go back in a while and try again....

So my question: do I need to spend the £500 or whatever at Nissan to fix this, or could I get away with having a local auto-electrician remove/disable the ignition barrel and put in a push-button starter and switch (somewhere hidden from view) - the main issue I think being disabling the steering lock.

Thanks for any comments ...

ps I'm not very DIY oriented as far as cars go!
 

Enuo

Glorified Electrician
Hi

I have a 2003 Micra (52 reg) and the ignition is playing up. It's getting harder and harder to turn the key (whether I use the actual key, or the electronic smart key makes no difference). Yesterday I parked outside a local shop and spent half an hour trying to start but no luck! I simply can't turn the ignition. I gave up and came home! And jiggling the steering wheel doesn't help. I'll go back in a while and try again....

So my question: do I need to spend the £500 or whatever at Nissan to fix this, or could I get away with having a local auto-electrician remove/disable the ignition barrel and put in a push-button starter and switch (somewhere hidden from view) - the main issue I think being disabling the steering lock.

Thanks for any comments ...

ps I'm not very DIY oriented as far as cars go!
Jen will tell you I think, but there was a thread a few days ago about using graphite powder poured into the ignition barrel to lubricate and loosen it up?
 
Yep...here's the thread ^_^ http://www.micra.org.uk/threads/micra-keyless-go-steering-ignition-lock-jams.38758/
I randomly came across it on Friday LOL

my dad made some Graphite powder by using a posh glass nail file on one of my 9B Artists pure Graphite sticks :p
if you do this, don;t use an ordinary emery board or sandpaper, you don't really want to risk anything other than the graphite powder getting in the lock

He put a bit in the ignition, after taking off that twisty kn0b thing, put the key in, wiggled it a bout a bit, and put some more in there for good measure...more wiggling of the key
My mum's not had a single, pain in the arse, Jam up since ;)
...she has the keyless entry

acording to posters in that thread, and another I found made around the same time, it took a few days to get right into the whole lock system...might not work right away, but it did on my mum's SVE ;)..even though it's only been 2 days

ETA: Other threads from 2009/2010 ;)
http://www.micra.org.uk/threads/k12-ignition-barrel-steering-lock-start-problem.38786/#post-407834
http://www.micra.org.uk/threads/k12-start-ignition-barrel-problem.32067/#post-407432
it's strange as I had done searches before and never found any of these :rolleyes:
 
only took me 2 tires to get my mums going today....last week took me 7...I think a little more wiggling and it'll be perfect :p

I hope it works for you too Snake ;)
 
I put some graphite powder in the keyhole a week ago, and it seems to be working. It just takes a couple of jiggles to turn the ignition past the steering lock. It's not like new, but it's certainly tolerable. It seems to work better at the moment using the smart key than inserting the actual key.

However - the jury's still out and it's not so clear that it's the graphite powder - the weather has cooled down significantly and the problem did seem to depend on the temperature. (Today it's about 15C, last week it was more like 25C.) So to be sure I'd have to hope we get a few more hot days this summer.

S-n-F

ps I did put quite a bit of powder in - so much that at one point it was hard to get the key in the lock! I scraped some out and it was fine. But it seems to have all worked its way in now - I wonder where the powder goes!
 
yeah, give it a couple more weeks, see how it's settling...
I think we need to put more in my mum's...it got Jammed again for what seemed like ages the other day LOL
 
Well ... I gave up in the end and gave Nissan all my money!

The lock did improve somewhat, but I think that was mostly because the weather got cooler, and I never felt it was reliable enough. Cars are sometimes needed in an emergency ...
so I went along to the local Nissan garage. £100 to diagnose what I told them, £350 for the ignition barrel, and another £100 for them to fit it. Ouch!

Thanks for your help ...

J
 
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