Pontiac Repair: steering and ignition locked, steering wheel lock, pontiac sunfire

Question
QUESTION: 97 Pontiac sunfire 2.2......... cant get steering wheel or ignition to unlock. tried moving back and forth while turning key, tried rocking car back and forth. has a diagnosis of multiple misfires. can the ignition switch be causing all these problems?

ANSWER: Hi Shanon:

sounds like you have multiple issue here. An ignition switch can cause the lock issue and steering wheel lock. It can also be cause by a bad shifter The shifter has 2 switched in it for a lock control and also to get it out of gear. So thatcould be either problem with out seeing it I can't say for sure what the issue is. As for the misfire code 9 out of 10 times on that engine misfires are caused by a bad spark plug wire set.  Good luck :)


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QUESTION: Forgot to meantion that it will shift into all gears without using break.... someone meantioned it might not have been put into park completly.

Answer
That would tent to make me think there is an ignition switch issue because it not powering up int interlock But again with out seeing it It's hard to say for sure. What you can go is turn the key to run and check the fuses in the fuse box and see if indeed they are all powered up fully. Use a 12 Volt test light and the lamp should light with the same intensity on all of the fuses if not you have a leg in the ignition switch that is dead or has high resistance in it.