Hello everyone, looking for advice.

Recently 2005 RR HSE developed an ignition key lock problem - the first time it happened when car was left outside with 10F-20F night temperatures outside. I did some reading and it is not a steering column problem - if I disconnect the negative feed of the battery, and connect it again, I can turn the key but I don't want to do it all the time. If I remove the key with 50% chance it will be locked or not, so I now leave the key in the ignition all the time, which obviously is not a solution.

My question is - how do I fix the situation permanently or semi-permanently? I don't want to take the car to the dealer because I know that they will tell me it is a steering column problem with $5000 repair tag.

P.S. I live in Reno and unfortunately there are no reliable LR/RR specialists around.

Thanks in advnace