Anti theft light on, my steering wheel is locked and car keys will not turn on, not even to pit the windows down.
Asked by Francois9169 Dec 16, 2017 at 12:27 AM about the 2002 Ford Escape XLT FWD
Question type: General
How can I reset the antitheft system?
3 Answers
Yes my battery is OK but I still have the same problems
thats an old post and not much info, but this might help others that can't get their key to turn, if the ignition isn't stuck like so many fords of this era this could help, first think about how the steering lock works, there is a little wheel or sprocket under the steering wheel in the column, or something similar, and usually linkage to lock the shifter, when you park and turn the key to lock, it allows a pin of some kind to go inside the hole or notch to keep wheel from moving, same with transmission shifter, if you had tension on the wheel , maybe turning as you parked, or if you were on an incline, now you have tension on the wheel and shifter, get someone to help with this, get a chock, block of wood, have human or auto push against the vehicle in the direction opposite the incline if that is the case, block the wheels so the tension is off, now go inside and pull as hard as you can on turning the steering wheel, both directions unless you know which way you were turning when you locked it, try turning the key at the same time, if should turn if this was the cause. may sound too simple but look next time your are in a parking lot and see how many cars have their front tires wedged up against the concrete stops or curbs, same with parking parallel, you get against that curb and it could cause a problem.
Under the steering column there was a small removable plastic piece underneath that is a button push hold button it manually override the steering and transmission lock and if you lost your keys jump the starter relay to a relay of the same voltage cut the horn wire strippers in this steering column with a screwdriver insert pliers and Wallah you could even jump the headlight fuse to your ACC fuse which will keep the headlights from blinking while the anti-theft is on the horn will be disabled so no one will hear you good to go