Hatch Lock Broken Options

[evanthebruin]

Hi Everybody, this is my first post.

I picked up a '97 GT a few weeks ago. I love it. It has 170K on the clock but is pretty damn clean and runs well. When I bought the car, everything worked on it but I've run into my first problem. Yesterday I put my key into the hatch lock cylinder and jiggled it around to pop the hatch. The key turned 90 degrees CCW and kinda just didn't feel right. The key came out but now the cylinder is stuck in that position and I can't pop the hatch. I can't pop it from the driver's seat either. When I pull the lever it just feels like it's not catching anything. I'm assuming something's loose in the hatch mechanism or something but I haven't had time to crawl back there and check it out yet. Anybody have this problem before? Thanks for your help.

[evanthebruin]

Finally had time to mess with it today. Crawled in the back and pulled off the cover to see what the eff is going on. In my situation, the driver seat lever doesn't catch anything when I pull it making it useless. The only way I can unlock the hatch is by manually disengaging the latch while I'm in the trunk. Since the lever doesn't engage, I'm thinking that the cylinder is not broken but I've got it in valet mode and I can't get it out. I only have one key and I'm not sure what kind of key it is... The lock worked fine for a week or so... I'm calling a dealer to see if I can get the cylinder replaced or something.