2012 Ford F-150. Ignition won’t turn to start – HELP !!!

Over the last few months I’ve had a slight problem where I’ve put my Key into the ignition and the key would not turn. A few slight wiggles and it would turn just fine. I should have started looking into the issue then, but I did not. You Guessed it, The issue has now turned MUCH worse. This morning it took me over 10 Minutes to get the key to turn. I tried everything I could think of. I even went in the house and got the spare key to try. A week or so ago when I had a problem I finally got it to turn if I wiggled the key at the same time as wiggling the shift lever. It finally worked. Rather or not it had anything to do with the wiggling of the shift lever or not I have no idea. That trick did not work this morning. Don’t ask me why but I finally tried locking the doors and tried it again. Sure enough, this time the key turned. Once again I’m doubting the locking of the doors had anything to do with it. It does seem like after driving it for awhile and turning it off, it turns just fine. Seems to happen the worst after sitting for awhile in the cold. One other thing, the whole ignition system where the key goes into does seem to be a little loose and moves around more than I think it should or remember it doing. My guess is I’m going to have to put in a whole new ignition to solve. Just hoping someone has a few ideas before I end up going that route. Right now I just hope I can get it started to get home after work to take a better look at it.

Does it have a steering wheel lock that locks the wheel when you turn it off? I had an issue with one of our vehicles when we were in Bemidji and a buddy needed to take his wife home because she was stupid drunk and he couldnt start it. I sat in the seat and sure enough no go. I grabbed the steering wheel and turning it slightly and it popped right off. Might be something to try. These were GM vehicles so not sure if Ford has that or not.

I had this happen on an F150 as well. I rubbed a little WD40 on the key and worked it in and out a few times and haven’t had a problem since.

Thumper those fords had an issue with some bolts loosening in the colum and it would make the shifter really loose feeling and could cause issues with the key. They also had issues with the cylinders sometimes. I know I am too far south to help but you need to get it to the shop before a tow is required.

Michael Johnson wrote:

I had this happen on an F150 as well. I rubbed a little WD40 on the key and worked it in and out a few times and haven’t had a problem since.

Yes some lube on the key can work. Had a dodge mini van had an ignition cylinder lock up and was able to get it to go with a dab of dawn dish soap on it shoved the key in there and wacked the key with a hammer inward lightly and it worked fine after that.

CaptainMusky wrote:

Does it have a steering wheel lock that locks the wheel when you turn it off? I had an issue with one of our vehicles when we were in Bemidji and a buddy needed to take his wife home because she was stupid drunk and he couldnt start it. I sat in the seat and sure enough no go. I grabbed the steering wheel and turning it slightly and it popped right off. Might be something to try. These were GM vehicles so not sure if Ford has that or not.

It does have the steering wheel lock you are talking about. I have had it where I had to turn the wheel hard to the right when locked to get the ignition to yurn and unlock the steering. In this case it seems the steering is i=unlocking as I insert the key. Then again, I’m not sure if the steering is even locked prior to inserting the key. I will have to check that next time I get in.

Of course this has to happen during a cold snap. I have rather limited space in my garage at this time. I may have to move a few things and pull it in and fire up the torpedo heater to take a better look at it when I get home tonight.

Blow out the ign. key slot with compressed air.
Then spray a little bit of wd40 on the key and work the lock.

If this does not solve it you may be looking at a new tumbler to solve it.

My Toyota has a bypass button I can push that allows me to shift into neutral to start the car. If it’s the shift linkage and not the lock cylinder, putting it in neutral should allow you to start it. However, I suspect that your lock cylinder is failing. You can replace it with a new one of a different key, of have a locksmith rebuild the old one. My Camry failed in December. I just replaced the cylinder for less than $50 and now carry two keys. One for the door, and one for the ignition.

I have a 2015 F150 and have the same key issue once in a a while.
I always need to turn the wheel just a fraction to the left to get the ignition to unlock and the key to turn.
I gotta believe you are seeing the same thing.

Will be curious to hear what you find out tonight.

haleysgold wrote:

I have a 2015 F150 and have the same key issue once in a a while.
I always need to turn the wheel just a fraction to the left to get the ignition to unlock and the key to turn.
I gotta believe you are seeing the same thing.

Will be curious to hear what you find out tonight.

Mine is happening without the wheel being locked. I have had the other issue you are talking about as well. I’m going to start by spraying WD40 into the key cylinder first and see if that helps or solves the problem.

Doesn’t your wheel “lock” as soon as you turn the ignition off?
That’s how mine works so assumed yours was the same. I don’t have an option to lock the wheel, it just does it every time I turn the ignition off.

So if can’t turn the key, you just turn the wheel a bit to unlock the ignition and then I can turn the key. I don’t have to turn the wheel every time I start it, just when it interferes with turning the key.
Actually, I don’t I understand why that happens…just does.

I’ll be waiting to hear if the lube in the ignition helps.

haleysgold wrote:

Doesn’t your wheel “lock” as soon as you turn the ignition off?

That’s funny. Right now I can not even think how or when steering wheel locks. I’m fairly sure the last few times I’ve had the issue the wheel was not locked. I remember turning the wheel to make sure that was not the cause of the problem and it turned. When I leave work in a Hr. or so I’m going to check the steering wheel 1st to see if its locked before I even put the key in. Maybe that’s part of the issue, maybe the wheel is not locking after turning the truck off like it should.

It’s a safety feature on those Fords to keep you broken down at home, instead of on the road at some unknown location. I’d recommend buying a Hemi. (someone had to right?)

Ya I thought about getting a new truck lately. Then I looked at the prices of used ones and decided that was not going to happen right now.
I read the other days that ” 90% of Hemi’s are still on the road, The other 10% made it home from the dealership ”

My old Ford did the same thing. I had to wiggle the wheel and the key simultaneously to make some sort of magic to happen.
As big werm mentioned, I found a easy fix and bought a hemi.

Lightly lube the key as mentioned and try that.
I’ve also seen where excessive wear on the key caused issues. Another possibility, especially if the truck has high mileage.
Try your spare key if you have one.

Yep – steering wheel lock. Wiggle.

grubson wrote:

Lightly lube the key as mentioned and try that.
I’ve also seen where excessive wear on the key caused issues. Another possibility, especially if the truck has high mileage.
Try your spare key if you have one.

Already ruled out key issue. Spare key with little use has the same problem.

Try spraying the ignition switch tumblers with WD-40. If no change, it needs either a new ignition switch, or the linkage to the switch is loose/bad. Best to park it until fixed or it WILL strand you somewhere soon from your description.

Good luck.

Update. After several people mentioned to try spraying the tumbler with WD40 that is what I did when I got home from work last night. After talking with our mechanic expert Sheldon AKA Iowaboy. I sprayed a fair amount into the tumbler and worked the key back and forth a fair amount. I let it sit overnight and when I went out this morning it turned like butter the 1st try. Side note: I did manage to mess up my auto start program by turning the key back and forth. After a few minutes on line I got that figured out. Somehow I had put it into valet mode, Funny thing is I did not even know it had a valet mode
So for now it seems like the problem may be solved. Only time will tell how long the WD40 solution will last.

My son had this on his car. For $50-60 we replaced the whole key cartridge in about 30 minutes (had to get behind the dashboard). The only issue now is that he has one key for the ignition and the old key for the trunk. If this problem pops up again, it wasnt too bad to swap out the whole enchilada.

He also had a lock bypass where you insert a screwdriver into a slot near the shift and it unlocked the steering wheel. It allowed a little more wiggle room to get the old key to turn before we did the long term fix.