Fixed my ignition switch by removing a few wafers
We've had three locks go bad on our 2003 Honda Element, first the two door locks and now the ignition. Our Honda dealer wants over $600 to replace just the ignition lock. My strategy is to add the electronic remote entry for the doors as previously suggested here (around $120, looks easy to install) and remove the front wafers from that ignition lock. (That might void some theft insurance policies.)
I successfully pulled the ignition lock assembly and handed it over to a locksmith who did the deed for $20. I might have removed the wafers myself, except I wasn't quite sure how to open it. First step is to punch a pin through a shaft, but without sufficient clearance behind for the pin to come fully through. Locksmith said he just punched the pin as far as he could, then ripped the pin out of there with a pair of pliers. From that point on it should be about the same as dealing with the door locks.
Only tools I needed were some phillips screwdrivers and a lot of nerve.
The bottom piece of plastic around the steering column is held in place by three phillips screws up from below, the machine screw to the rear is tricky to get started when reassembling. The top piece of plastic just snaps off.
Once the plastic around the steering column is removed, the black plastic housing around the ignition keyhole is exposed. There are five phillips screws to remove from that housing, one large screw and four same sized small screws.
Turn the steering wheel to provide nearly direct access to remove the large phillips screw that is easily seen from the driving position.
Remove two small phillips screws from lower front of the black plastic housing.
Remove the philips screw that enters from the direction of the fuel guage, need a short screwdriver less than 3.5" long for this.
Unplug the wiring harness from the two green connectors toward the rear, you must first push in on the tab on one side of the connector to release it. (Connectors are keyed differently, there's only one way to put them back together.) Push the wiring aside to remove a phillips screw from underneath the black plastic housing, you will need to crawl in there and look up from a position near the accelerator pedal to see this one.
Slide the black plastic piece free out along the direction that the key would enter.
Slide out a second black plastic piece, leave it dangling by the two wires. Try not to lose the small metal roller pin that (I believe) goes into a round hole in the lower front part of the metal piece now exposed and holds the lock assembly in place. I didn't notice it at first, and it fell out on my shoes when I inspected the second black plastic piece. The roller pin is probably there only to retain the lock core during assembly, it's a very loose fit. I was not able to unplug the two wire connector from this second black plastic piece, bunged up the connector some by trying.
Pull the lock core straight out, being careful not to lose the fairly large spring at the far end that is helping you pull it out. From there, I took the lock core to be serviced by a locksmith.
Other than locks and stress cracks in windshields, we've had fairly good luck with the Element. Just be mindful of clearance, a high rock can easily do a couple thousand Honda dealer dollars of damage to all that sheet metal and plastic under there.
Thanks to Locksmith for getting this thread going with such informative posts. I suspect his procedure will work fine if any bad wafers are simply removed rather than replaced.
