Key stuck in ignition

Hi All,

I own a nice gen1 Prius.
A couple of months ago I could not get the key out of the ignition.
With the help of a guy from the road assistance we found that pulling a plug from some kind of coil or sensor solved the issue.

What I think is going on is that the car does not sense anymore that the transmission is not in park and thus does not allow the key to come out of the ignition. Some thing you would like to have working on the car right?

I am trying to figure out what could be the problem.
I have noticed, that I can pull the shift lever easily from shift to shift without pressing the button on the lever. This could be a reason, but just as well could be just another issue.

It could also be a sensor or a coil which is defected.
Therefor I thought let's see of there are other people who have dealt with this problem and might know the solution.

Regards

Bart

 

I have looked at the steering column, when pressing the button on the lever it will does do something near the steering wheel itself.

Anyone ever changed just the lever or just the coil?
I do see people changing the whole steering column, that would get the job done, but seems a bit expensive to me.

 

The other day I read that it could also be that something plastic just broke off (sorry don't know the words for it).
So yesterday a friend and I looked at the steering column, as a car mechanic he found indeed that some small plastic lever broke off.

For now we think this could also be the reason that I can pull the shift lever to any shift I want, without the use of the button on the lever. This might also be the reason why it does not register the position it's in.

Will let you know if I know more.

 

Here is a picture of the broken off plastic, or at least that what’s left of it



As you can see the handle to unleash the key is to the left. Yesterday I found out this handle doesn’t work either. So I guess fixing this would do the trick.

 

here are two pics
This is the first pic, you'd expact more levers here. These should respond to the shift lever.
As we understand there should fit something in rectangular notch at the right middle which could pull or push it in the right position.



Just behind this notch, you can see a rond pin (or something like it).
This pushes a small lever, but right now it does not do much.



So now I need some Toyota manual (I downloaded several from Toyota but could not find this in there) to see how it should look like and how it should work.

 

Awesome! Though it looks the same. Except for the small gap at the top right.
What happens if you pull the lever? Does it change the position of these white parts?

And if you press the handle at the left?