C4Thompson

Good evening,

I have a very frustrating issue with a 2007 Audi A4 Cabriolet. I drove it to work without issue. When I tried to start the car after work, I stuck the key in the ignition, turned it to start the car and it just kept rotating. The key would not come out of the cylinder. I left it there overnight. I was able to get the key out of the cylinder the next day by wiggling and pulling on the key. The strange thing was that the cylinder was wanting to pull out of the steering column with the key before I was able to get the key out. I took the steering column apart and found that the cylinder was not inserted all of the way in to the rest of the ignition switch housing. I stuck the key back into the cylinder, oriented the lugs in the end of the cylinder(opposite the end that the key goes in) so that they would line up with the slots in the housing, depressed the latch that retains the cylinder in to the housing, and inserted it back in to the housing. It lined up with everything well enough to insert all the way in to the housing, but now the key will not turn. It will come out of the ignition freely. After crying for a while, I found the article on pelican parts that covers removing the ignition switch. I got to the part where you remove the shifter interlock from the back of the ignition switch housing, and got stuck. The interlock will not come out. I assume that this is because I can't turn the key.

I am in a position where I can continue disassembling the steering column, remove the steering wheel, and replace the entire ignition switch assembly. The problem with this is that it still sounds like I will need to take the car to the dealership to have a new key programmed. This isn't the end of the world if the new ignition switch/key will allow me to get the automatic transmission out of park so that I can winch the car on to my trailer. If it does not, then I'm in no better of a position than I am in now. So, my question is should I focus my efforts on replacing the ignition or figuring out a way to manually override the shifter lock so that I can get the transmission out of park? Or is there something that I'm missing all together? I am not familiar with Audi's, so if there is any information that you may need to answer, please let me know. Thank you in advance.

Also, the nearest Audi dealership is 100+ miles away. I really, really, REALLY do not want to foot the bill to have the car towed when the only thing keeping me from transporting it myself is the fact that I can't get the car out of park. I have a trailer and everything to haul it myself, just don't want to screw up diffs or transmission dragging the car on to it.