So this afternoon I got into my car and was pleasantly surprised that the ignition cylinder does not turn. It got to about half way between lock and ACC and quit. No amount of wiggling helped. I towed the car home and got even more good news: I would be unable to easily eject the cylinder without turning the key at least as far as ACC! Fortunately, I had a power drill and a spare steering column, so I took out that cylinder, drilled out the pin in the car, and installed the new cylinder. The key in that cylinder obviously has a different chip, so the only way to start the car was by taking out the transponder from the old key, holding it near the cylinder, wrapping the replacement key in aluminum foil (to prevent a "wrong" code from registering), and turning it like that. Is there anything preventative I can do with the replacement cylinder to prevent this from happening in the future? Or should I just stick with what I have and use the replacement cylinder? Also, is there a procedure for disassembling and fixing the cylinder I took out? Will it ever work with the pin drilled down? Alternatively, do they sell replacement cylinders cheap? I only saw $100+ dollar ones. I found this: Ignition Switch Lock Cylinder Assembly w/ 2 Keys For Toyota Camry Solara Avalon | eBay Looks about identical, though my car is not listed presumably due to the lack of a transponder.
No? Should I just stick with the replacement cylinder then? Any way to prevent this problem from happening again?
It looks like the Prius keys come with an interlock: More Information for STANDARD MOTOR PRODUCTS US577L Which explains the price. I bet the part is "incompatible" because they assume you will replace the interlock, too.
