Cleaning my ignition lock cylinder

[Michael Sackstein]

Hey Eric,

I have a question regarding how to properly clean an ignition lock cylinder. So basically I was heading out to do an errand in my 2014 Honda CR-V EX and I inadvertently dropped the car key in a soiled dirt area that was adjacent to where I was parked in my driveway at the time, and unbeknownst to me there was some dirt that had stuck to the key after I picked it up. So I put the key in the ignition not noticing there was dirt that had stuck on the key, and consequently I wound up jamming dirt into the ignition lock cylinder. I was not happy about this, but I guess accidents happen. So I actually hopped in my brother’s car which happens to be my former 2006 Honda Pilot EX-L to go do my errand, and while I was at the hardware store I picked up a bottle of gas air dust cleaner that you typically see in offices to clean dust out of hard to reach areas like keyboards computers, and stuff like that. The people at the hardware store also gave me a couple of other suggestions in addition to the gas air duster. One of which was putting a vacuum hose to the ignition lock cylinder and seeing what I could suck out, in addition to using a small paper clip to dig some of the dirt out. The final suggestion was to do what you did with Barbara Waterman’s van and use some WD-40 in there to dissolve some of the dirt inside there. I tried all those methods and so far so good. I do sort of notice a slightly different feel when I turn, insert and remove the key. It’s not really a problem at the moment, but I’m wondering if it will go away over time or if it’s something that I should be concerned about? Any other suggestions would be helpful.

Topic

[Rob]

removel the cylinder… it prity easy and then you can see all teh tumblers and get a very good cleaning of it from inside… I would disconnect the battory and put block on the tires,, and lock the e brake to proven the car from moving…. and take the cover off the stearing wheel… there should be a button on the bottem press that and turn the key… you should be able to take out the cylinder… just becarefull if your car has a chip key… becuase it will have a coil around the key whole

you can then also take the cylinder to the lock smith and they might beable to take the tumblers out and clean inside of it

[Author]

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