key won't turn

OK, I am admittedly woefully uneducated when it comes to cars, so maybe someone can take pity on me and help me. I have a 1993 Toyota Corsa (same as a Tercel, but I live in Japan and that's what they call it). It's been running just fine, but starting this morning I've been having trouble getting the key to turn. It's not that the car won't start, but that I can't get the key to turn into the right position. This morning once I fiddled with it long enough, it finally did start turning (3 different times), but when I just now got in the car to go to lunch, I coudln't get it to turn at all, no matter how hard I tried.

What could the problem be? Is this going to be something major, or as simple as replacing one part, or what? I have a callous on my finger from trying so hard to get the key to turn! Help!

Cheryl

You might want to try and spray some graphite lubricant down into the keyhole in the ignition switch. Also, it could have to do with how worn the teeth are in your key as well, so if your key is severely worn, you should get a new one.

Might be that pulling hard on your steering wheel in one direction or the other would free it up. Try it if it happens again.

that happened once on my 00 avalon

no clue what the hell it was and it hasnt happened again since

how often did it happen to u

I have a similiar problem with my 84 celica and the problem was that the key was going in too far and so it wasn't pushing the correct parts of the ignition. So you could try what I do and push it in not all the way and fiddle with it and see if you have a similiar problem.

atctually this happened to my solara a few weeks ago

the problem was that i turned the wheel too far and thurned off the car then causing it to lock up

u need to try and move the wheel while turning the key to fix it

always let got of the wheel before turning off the car

With most cars, all you have to do its turn the wheel one way or the other while trying to turn the key as Brian said above. If that doesn't work, my next guess would have to be the key itself.

dont bring back old threads especially if your not contributing anything this one was 9 months old