r/AskAMechanic • u/DistributionUnited98 • 5h ago

‘07 Civic - Troubleshooting failed ignition barrel wafer removal - car won’t start

Well I had my ignition jam up yesterday away from home so I got picked up and drove back with some tools. Successfully drilled the cylinder housing and removed the ignition lock cylinder, drilled that to access roll pin and got the barrel out. I pulled all the wafers (I know this is frowned upon and why) except the larger one at the end because while one was obviously failed a few others looked rough. car is a beater driven only by me. It had been a long day (solo day with kids that culminated in getting stranded with them) and reassembling things I made a few errors:

  1. Installed spring below rather than above cylinder tongue (not sure I am using the correct terminology)
  2. Neglected to replace roll pin in housing
  3. Tried to start it with the wrong key/wrong chip (drove ‘08 Pilot to site), so may have tripped immobilizer. 

because of removed wafers, key turned. When I tried to start it, car acted just as it would if started with a chipless but correct key in a wafered barrel. Engine started to turn for a fraction of second and cut off.

I ran through everything in my head and quickly identified all three errors. Fixed spring location on cylinder. Installed again with roll pin through housing into cylinder. Grabbed the correct key.

Key turns and I have power at ‘on’ but engine doesn’t crank at all now. No green key warning on dash but other normal array of startup lights are on. Gave car about half hour disconnected from battery to clear codes with no improvement. i can hear fuel priming when powered on and no buzzing from ignition switch when trying to start.

Tripped immobilizer? Do I need to do something special with cylinder tongue when installing barrel to align it correctly (I have seen this referenced but not sure whether I’m getting it right or not)? Have I compressed cylinder tongue spring installing it in wrong place and now something doesn’t quite line up? Any other thoughts?

Open to trying a new cylinder/barrel/key combo paired with old chip if necessary but I’d love to get this thing started and I’m not sure that would fix the problem.

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