So I noticed this a few weeks ago, and noticed it again today, It's been doing it the whole time I imagine, I just haven't gotten around to mentioning it. After driving the car, I noticed the key in the ignition is rather warm. If you touch the outside surface area of the ignition cylinder (the area that has the engraving of 'Off' 'Start' "Acc' etc, that is really warm. Not hot enough to burn, but it's at that line where if it got any hotter I wouldn't be able to hold my finger on it. Anyone have any ideas on why this would be happening?

 

is your key light always on?

 

It was during the day, so I can't tell. But would that tiny key light really make that entire outer cylinder that hot to the touch?

 

mine gets pretty warm if i just leave the key in and the door open =\

when electronics get hot, its either normal or because its drawing more amps than it should. theres kind of no in between. start with taking the bulb out of your thing for the key light and check it again. it might help, it might not. its somewhere to start.....

 

This was me driving around for half an hour and finally noticing when I got back and tried to pull the key out. I'm pretty sure I would have noticed if the door wasnt shut all the way, I'm well aware how much the FD likes to be stubborn with the effort required to shut the door.

I don't know what could cause it to draw more amps than normal, its just the ignition cylinder.

 

its not the door itself that triggers that light and even with that, its on a time delay. check to see that your door switches are working properly. theres a little nipple in the door jam. put your dome lights on "door" and push the button. the light should turn off.

 

Well, the key light does not stay on. Unrelated, It was on door, though when I open the door, nothing happens. So I checked the lights, they work fine. Opened passengers door, lights come on. So I look at my door jamb, the switch is broken. Oh well, 11.00 at Atkins. I'm assuming it was probably broken when the car was repainted the factory color.

 

well alright then lol... its definitely unusual that its getting hot like that but at least you found something you didnt know was broken. check your fender liners and see if theyre rubbed through. some of the wires for your starter run through there. highly unlikely but maybe your starter is drawing a small current through the switch. just enough to heat it up but not enough to do anything else. a friend of mine had his starter turn almost red because he rubbed through that harness and some of the wires were touching the chassis. it was on the driver side.

 

Two possibles are conduction of engine bay heat thru the steering column and internal switch resistance. Feel the interior steering column to see if it's the same temp. The switch is inexpensive, fairly easy to replace, and has increasing internal resistance as it ages. I swapped mine out as preventative maintenance. $35 for genuine mazda switch and it can help both your ignition and fuel voltage get a bump if it's in rough shape.

 

Well, I've taken the car for night drives to rule out the possibility of daytime heat. Both times it was significantly cooler. My guess is maybe it was just the heat from the sun soaking into the lock/cylinder which transferred into the key, as it's been relatively cool in comparison now. I still need to look into the ignition switch, I have to sometimes bump the key a bunch of times to get it to start. Relay or ignition switch possibly, both are an easy-ish fix.

 

My MX-6 did that towards the end of my 17 years ownership, I noticed it because I have one of those aftermarket key without the plastic sleeve. It would become slightly warm to touch after a regular commute, it never got hotter than that so I left it alone, but a year or so ago I got a recall letter from Mazda for hot ignition cylinder lol. I never have it replace as it didn’t bother me that much, maybe the FD has similar issue? Although I don’t remember seeing the FD on the recall list.