UPDATE on Key Won’t Turn problem

I’m updating this thread so that if anyone else has this same problem, hopefully this will be of some help. 3 days after the first incident, it happened again. This time it was Sunday evening after church, car parked on level pavement, wheels straight ahead, column not locked, weather was warm (about 70 degrees F) and humid. Tried for 2 hours, jiggle steering wheel (until the lock caught and stopped it from moving very much), jiggle shifter, got some WD-40 and lubed key cylinder, took little panel off under steering column and pushed release button (instructions are in owner’s manual), moved column up and down, nothing worked. Decided to leave HHectoR at church and try Monday AM. Again, no luck. Called 1-800-CHEV-USA and asked for advice, they said if none of the things I tried so far worked then must be towed. Rollback truck arrived ½ hour later. Guy said “I get calls on this sort of thing all the time”. I said well, how are you going to get my car on the truck? It won’t roll because the key won’t turn to unlock the trans or the column. He says “no problem, I’ll just do what I always do…beat the hell out of the key switch until it turns. They always do”. So he starts pounding with his fist all over the column and switch. After about ½ hour I said well you’re going to have to just take it as is, he said “no, I ‘m not going to drag the car across the parking lot to get it on truck”. So I told him about this forum, and how some of the posts suggest it could be an issue with the shift interlock. He starts beating the crap out of that too. He’s a BIG guy and about the time I think its going to do some permanent damage it frees up and the key turns. So I told him heck I’ll just drive it to the dealer. He wrote down the VIN and left…I assume GM pays him for the call.

So I get to the local dealer and tell the SA what happened. Told him that it took a really big guy 30 minutes of pounding on various parts to get my car started, and asked if there’s any way they can make it easier since my wife is only 5 feet tall and weighs 95 pounds she may not have the muscle to start her car! He says well, that wrecker guy sure messed up. Now that the key is turning, we have no way of figuring out what’s wrong. “Those idiots need to learn to leave em alone and just haul em in here”. I explained what the wrecker driver told me about not wanting to drag the car. SA says leave car running, we’ll take you back to your other car and call you when we figure something out. I told him about reading on the ‘net many accounts of this type of thing happening to HHR’s and Cobalts.

3 hours later SA calls and says it’s fixed. He says they couldn’t duplicate the problem in the shop but after hearing my story of what happened, he and the tech “think” it needed a new key cylinder. Said they feel “pretty good” about the repair. RO says:

E7200 ignition lock cylinder replacement
1 25848845 cylinder
1 15824471 key

No charge of course since it’s still under warranty. Both keys work smoothly. There is a tiny bit more effort required to pull the key out of the cylinder than there was before.

I will update this post again if something else happens…Still like the car but still not convinced that the problem won’t ever happen again. Well at least Chevy’s road-side assistance is available…but later that day when their automated phone system called to survey me on the service, I gave them a low score. Hopefully they will call back to follow up so I can explain what the SA said about how the driver should not have freed up the key.

 

I don't believe that the shift interlock will prevent you from moving the key to the run position; it prevents you from removing the key. I think your dealer replaced the likely culprit.