06VistaBlue

Hey I hope someone can help me out here. I have a friend of mine that owns an auto 6 banger and he is about ready to trade his car off because he is having a fight with his car everyday. He cannot get his keys out of the ignition after a drive. He has to jerk the steering wheel back and forth and put the shifter in and out of gear several times to get the keys to free up and be able to remove them from the ignition. Has anyone else ever experienced this? He seems to think that his aftermarket wheels and tires have something to do with it, but I have tried to beat it in his head that this is not his problem, and it's something else......like the shifter not going all the way in (P) Park or the sensor on the Park pin isn't working or something dumb like that. Any ideas?

Black Stang 3200492

is it a new one

06VistaBlue

Yeah, it's new one, but I'm not sure if it's an 05' or 06'.

jericho73

I had the same problem...sometimes when you put the shifter into park, the parking brake engages <you can take your foot off the brake> but the shifter doesn't lock into park, and as a safety feature the car won't release your keys unless the shifter is locked into park. When he finds his keys locked into the ignition, tell him to just tap the shifter up all the way into park, he should hear a click when it locks in.

Btw as my car breaks in more this has happened less often.

Black Stang 3200492

some times when i put my car into drive it dosent engage and it will be in neutral unlees i move it allittlle

06VistaBlue

So maybe a sloppy shifter or ???????

28HopUp

When he parks the car, is he chocking the wheels hard to the left or right? My family has had several Ford products that would do the exact same thing if the wheel was turned hard when turning the key off. In our instance, it has more to do with the steering wheel than the shifter.

06VistaBlue

Allright I just got another call from my buddy who's dad is the owner of this mustang. He has switched from the wheels he was running to his factory wheels and now he has no problems. He stated to me that the wheels he HAD on it were factory ford bullet style wheels off of an 01-04 Mustang GT 245/45/17's. I know it sounds crazy but he isn't having the problem now. He's convinced that the computer or some sensor that is built in to monitor things is having some problem with the older wheels.

I haven't asked if the wheels were cut in either direction, but he stated that the button on the auto shifter wouldn't pop out, and that you had to mess with it giggling the shifter a little and putting it back into gear and so forth to get it to pop the button out to let you know it was in Park. He said after it did that you still had to keep screwing with the keys to get them out of the ignition. I'm not sure what's going on, but I want to actually witness the problem till I might describe it better on here or diagnose it myself. Right now I'm relaying what happened to him on a weekend trip. Since he has gotten home he put the factory wheels on it and it hasn't done it. ?????????????????????

StupidTodd

if he got the wheels off an 01-04 mustang and put them on an 05-06, the offset would be different.

if the offsets are wrong, the car may think something's wrong, and the car really isn't in park, hence it won't release the keys... just guessing though

06VistaBlue

Yeah the offset is different, but alot of people have the incorrect offset on their cars. I just don't think that is it, but who knows...