I managed to fix my ignition this evening much to my own surprise and it wasn’t even that hard! It now turns as smooth as the day it was new.
My steering wheel cowling is already removed to be sent off for de-stickying. Removing it is the hardest part of the job. Once removed you can see the “ignition tumbler holder” (the tumbler is the bit that your key goes into and rotates when you turn it). Here’s a photo with the ignition tumbler holder boxed:
In the above picture the visible wire is the signal wire for the RFID reader that allows the immobilizer to sense the RFID chip in the key. The reader is the black ring that goes around the tumbler holder. This is not the ignition wire.
Here’s another photo that is taken from the footwell pointing up and towards the back of the car. The arrow points out a gap that is visible with a thick wiring harness coming out of it. This is the ignition wiring. Again, ignore the smaller cable tied RFID sensor wire.
Here’s another angle where you can see the size of the window. You can see the back of the steering wheel too:
While shining a light into this window and turning the key I could see the back of a part rotating. Gaps were visible when acc is off and when turned to the start position.
Next grab your can of graphite lubricant with a straw attached. I picked this up to try lubricating via the key which did not help with this particular problem:
Prevent the car from starting by disconnecting the battery with the shutoff switch in the trunk.
Insert the straw attached to your can into the window pointing the straw toward the parts that move, turn and hold the key in start. While holding the key in position spray the can a few times. Start slowly, you don’t need to put much in. It is important to hold the can upright or only propellant will spray, without any lubricant. At this point I put the can down and turned the key from off to start and back 5-10 times. It was a little easier but still quite grindy when moving between positions. Next, turn the key all the way to off and repeat the lubrication steps. Here’s a photo showing direction of spray.
It was at this point when I moved the key to start and back another five times or so that the action went buttery smooth and the spring is able to position the key correctly to allow accessories and the “forgotten key” beep to function correctly.
Thanks
@RJ237 for the initial suggestion of trying a graphite lubricant.
I did a ton of research into the parts to come up with a plan to potentially fix this without any hassle like re-keying, immobilizer reprogramming and other things. The ignition switch is not manufactured anymore and no one has any new parts (though an unused one sold on eBay this year!). It was made by TRW and shared with an Alpha Romeo 166 (manual transmission), and Lancia Kappa. There a few used parts available on eBay from Eastern Europe for a lot less (€20-90) than used parts from Maserati breakers and Eurospares ($250-450). You need a working key to be able to remove the tumbler from the tumbler holder. Maserati part number is 82484559, OEM part number 60624943. I was originally planning on buying one of these so that I could fiddle with one to figure out how it could be reconditioned as the used parts are older and probably have been used more than my own.
