Caravan Wont Start

[Dave98SVT]

The ignition in my parent's caravan seems to be locked. You can't turn the key back to acc. or forward to start. My mom turned it off with the steering wheel at a half turn; I think this is the problem but the wheel is locked in place. Does anyone know of a way to fix this?

 

[AliasJerk]

turn the wheel left while trying to turn the ignition. that will unlock it.

back in the day my mom had an old caravan, when I was like 8. I turned the steering wheel so it would lock while the car was off, it took my mom like 10 minutes to unlock it.

 

[96MystiqueGS]

Something similar happened to my mother in her old car. She turned the car off but the key refused to come out or turn again. Turns out some thing about the pins or tumblers were loose (as I was told by a locksmith). I wound up forcing it to turn while jerking the wheel back and forth out of desperation and it worked. Never had trouble with it again.

 

[Tony2005]

The ignition in my parent's caravan seems to be locked. You can't turn the key back to acc. or forward to start. My mom turned it off with the steering wheel at a half turn; I think this is the problem but the wheel is locked in place. Does anyone know of a way to fix this?

Before you do any of the above excellent suggestions, make sure that you step on the brake and push the gear all the way to Park (once more for good measure). The Chrysler gears are notorious for not going in to Park properly and then not being able to get the key out especially after the steering is locked.

 

[Dave98SVT]

Turns out it wasn't the steering wheel lock. This morning the van started however it's still experiencing the same starting problem. It only starts about 5% of the time. Anyone have an idea of whats wrong if it's not the steering lock or the parking gear?