Ignition stuck on

Hello all,

I have a 1999.5 TDI. All of a sudden the ignition power is stuck on. I have tried lubing the hole for the key and that made no difference. I pulled the S164 and S180 fuses to see if that would help and no luck. (My searches online said the fan relay might be stuck so I thought if I pulled those fuses that would eliminate that) The key seems to rotate just fine, but has no effect. When I try to start it, it just does nothing even though the key goes to the start position just fine.

I did pull the battery terminal so it doesn't kill my battery.

Thanks for your help!

I had the same problem happen, and it turned out to be the "ignition lock housing". This is the central piece that the key cylinder and electrical ignition switch are mounted in; it also physically locks the steering wheel when the key is out.

Your problem could also be the ignition switch itself or the key cylinder, but you'll have to tear into it to find out for sure. The ignition switch is held in this housing by a couple of painted-over set screws; chip away the red paint and unscrew them a couple turns.

I'll second the electrical switch is bad, not hard to change, maybe an hour.
Hardest part is removing lower steering column cover.

If it's the ignition locking housing that's a whole another ball game, I kinda doubt it though from your explanation.
You'll know if that's bad when you take the ignition switch out.
If a sliver metal blade about an in to inch and a half comes out of the switch, then you'll need a new housing, 2 anti theft bolts, Dremel and some patience .

I pulled the electrical switch and used a flathead on it. The car turned off and started fine. There was a broken 1" blade inside the housing. So it looks like it is the ignition lock housing. (The harder part to replace) Thanks for all your help.

Glad you found it. It's not too bad to do the ignition lock housing. Hardest part is to cut slots into the anti theft bolts.
I had to use a hacksaw blade by hand at my sons college to do his.
If you have a dremel will go,faster.
It's pretty straight forward just takes time.
When you put the new anti theft bolts in you torque it till the bolt head snaps off.
Any question feel free to pm me.
Parts cost about 150-200 bucks.

I got my lock from VW.
With the repair shop discount it was under $75.00 iIrc.
Took a few days, had to come from Germany.
It was keyed for my car keys, did not have to play musical keys.

You won't have to play musical keys as you reuse you existing tumbler set in the new housing assy.

they usually break when someone tries to restart after stalling without returning the key to the off position first, vw switches lockout the start position everytime the key switch is turned to "start" and back to "on" ... ham fisted mechanics and inexperienced operators often force the switch till it breaks

The car did stall out due to vacuum issues and then I restarted it. Maybe that was how the ignition assembly got broken. It is fixed now. Thanks for the help. It was a major PITA getting the anti-theft bolts off. I used a dremel and a bunch of time.