Ignition switch replacement….

[datsundrew]

I thought I’d write something up on here after my latest issue on Chad, my A2.
So……go back 2 weeks and I was 400miles away from home doing a bathroom for a friend, his house has a sloped driveway, after pulling off the driveway, it stalled, I restarted and it was ok. This happened a couple of times, so I made a continuous effort to give it more revs, which seemed to work (bad driving skills!!)
The day I left after 3 weeks, fully loaded with tools and kit, it stalled several time in a row, and it was then I realised it wasn’t stalling at all but the power to the ignition was cutting out. The ignition would switch on , but at at the point just before the starter position on the key the power would shut off!
Lots of fiddling and got it started and headed home the 400 miles, driving as far as I could on the fuel I had and the capacity of my bladder!!
I got as far a Gloucester services, stopped for a break and prepared myself for a non start and a wait for breakdown recovery, got in the car and it started no problem, then to get fuel and another start, all good.
Once home, I ordered a new switch and didn’t use the car for the week, the switch arrived, but I needed the car yesterday, pulled off the drive and it died, and this time no fiddling would get it going…….lucky or what!?
I set about pulling the wheel off, the plastic around the column to get to the switch, with the bits removed which is fairly easy, I could see the switch at the back of the ignition lock but couldn’t fig out how to remove it….

 

[datsundrew]

I did some research on line and couldn’t find anything relevant, and everything I found related to removing the whole barrel and switch, it was fairly obvious that the switch just somehow pushes into the back of the ignition lock. In trying to remove it I completely mashed up the old one until just the tabs on the side were left, these seemed to be held in with 2 pins that were painted red?
No matter how much poking at these ‘pins’ I couldn’t get the plastic ‘ears’ that held the switch in to move, In desperation, before removing the whole thing. I decided to use a small blow torch to melt the plastic bit out, to then figure out how to remove this ‘pin’
It turns out that the ‘pin’ is actually a small screw, and the red bit is some sort of seal to cover the screw slot, it’s hard, doesn’t come off with a screwdriver, but show it some heat and it melts to reveal the screw!! Weird!!
Once I figured this out, undoing the screws, removing the old tabs, and the new switch fitted and screws tightened.
I didn’t bother looking for some weird hard wax type substance to finish the job, so just put it back together, now it’s done I have realised that the old switch had very little ‘feel’ to it, where the new one has a positive off-on-start position.

 

[datsundrew]

So, in short, my advice is if your car gets these symptoms, don’t delay! Get a switch, mine was a Mayle from eBay for £9 , and get it fitted! I hope this helps someone in the future when they hit google for how to do it.

 

[datsundrew]

Forgot to add, when the switch failed outside my house, the car had a meltdown with this warning and bleeping!!
VCDS came up with something about lack of power to brake system, which I cleared. These cars can be very weird!

 

[Chris Warren]

Mate, I have a. Spare steering column with a switch and keyblade attached!