Hey, I work on locks for a living! Not a locksmith though - a manufacturer.

The best thing that you can do for that cylinder is graphite.

Take the thing out of the steering column (eerily simple!), hose it out with brake cleaner to get all of the goop that you put into it out of there, and dump some graphite into it after it dries.

If it is worn, then you are probably hosed. It is possible that your key is really worn? Perhaps talking to your Toyota dealer and getting a fresh key would do the trick?

Just some ideas. I really don't know all that much about the cylinder in there - just general lock cylinder knowledge. If it is anything like a regular lock cylinder on a door to a house/building, you REALLY don't want the pins to come out!

The general idea behind these is this....

The part that the key goes into (the plug) rotates in the housing (duh!). There are 2 pins in each "hole" inside - judging by my Toyota key - a 5 pin cylinder. The 2 pins are stacked in top of each other with a spring on the top - pushing them down. When you insert the key, the pin shear line lines up with the cylinder housing, and the plug - allowing it to rotate.

As you can see, having the pins fly out would be a little messy! You can put them back together, but you have to figure out which one goes where.

Of course, if the lock in the Toyota ignition is different than a normal lock cylinder, then forget everything I just said ;-)

CAZ