Credit: DBear

This is my description of the “slop” cause of a no-start no-crank condition. I’m putting it here to get it all in one place, so I have an easy thread to link back to.

The symptoms: You turn the key and the starter doesn’t turn over, but the dash lights all go on. (If the dash lights don’t go on, you probably aren’t getting power to the ignition switch, so you should look somewhere else.) I found that if I turned the key enough times, usually I could get it to start. But sometimes it took 10 or 15 tries.

The problem: If you replace your ignition switch, you’ll see that it has a T-shaped slot in the face. (Here’s a good how-to on replacing your ignition switch:

It’s a pretty simple process.) If you look inside the steering column, you’ll see a corresponding T-shaped piece of metal. When you turn the key, the metal piece turns the ignition switch and the starter wire gets juice. But over time, a little slop develops between the piece in the key cylinder and the slot in the switch, and the switch won’t quiiiiiite turn all the way to engage the starter.

This isn’t going to be the case every time you have a no-start no-crank condition. It may well be that your starter is bad or your battery isn’t sufficiently charged. This assumes you’ve already ruled those out as causes. You can check for the problem by taking the ignition switch out of the column (keeping it connected) and using a screwdriver in the slot to start the car. If it starts every time, you probably have the slop problem. However, since the problem is usually intermittent, it may take you a while to decide that it really does start every time with the screwdriver. In the meantime, you’ve made it ridiculously easy for your friendly neighborhood car thief. And you don’t want to use the screwdriver too many times or you may deform the slot. If you have the ignition switch out in the first place, you might as well fix it and put it back in.

The obvious fix, and the one a dealer would no doubt insist on, is to replace the key cylinder. You can do that, but it’s a bit of a PITA the first time you do it, and an unnecessary expense. The alternative is just to shim up the slot in the ignition switch to eliminate the slop.

I first tried a piece of electrical tape down in the side of the slot. Here’s what that looked like.

(The circled piece is electrical tape, even though it looks gray.) That worked fine for a while, but eventually the tape worked its way out, probably after a number of hot days. Others have used multiple pieces of duck tape, which might hold longer. But I finally ended up cutting a little piece of coke can to a shape that will fit in the side of the slot, and then super gluing it in. (The shim goes into the side of the slot, not the bottom.) If you look at how I put the tape in, you should get the idea. So far that’s worked beautifully.

Incidentally, this isn’t a matter of a bad ignition switch. When it first happened, I replaced my ignition switch with a new OEM, and it didn’t help. The problem is a result of the piece in the cylinder lock not pushing the ignition switch far enough over to engage the starter. If that’s what’s happening, a new ignition switch is unlikely to make a difference.

Credit: Rick Eggers