Frozen Doors

[quiksilver9531]

Why is that every damn winter my locks and doors freeze..well in icy weather like last night when the temps dropped to like 10 degrees...today in the morning to go to work i had to climb thru my hatch into my passenger seat was able to pop up the lock and then had to shoulder my door with my weight...now what would you do to keep the locks from freezing shut? Also another problem I'm having is my car not warming up..today was extremely cold about 10 degree weather...if i let my car idle then it will go up to 180 ( I have an auto meter temp gauge) but if I start driving it will drop down to like 150 i dont get it...and if i use my heat the temp drops and then i lose heat and thats not cool..so my question is..is my t stat stuck open because it takes forever to reach 180 on cold days....

 

[willys1]

Why is that every damn winter my locks and doors freeze..well in icy weather like last night when the temps dropped to like 10 degrees...today in the morning to go to work i had to climb thru my hatch into my passenger seat was able to pop up the lock and then had to shoulder my door with my weight...now what would you do to keep the locks from freezing shut? Also another problem I'm having is my car not warming up..today was extremely cold about 10 degree weather...if i let my car idle then it will go up to 180 ( I have an auto meter temp gauge) but if I start driving it will drop down to like 150 i dont get it...and if i use my heat the temp drops and then i lose heat and thats not cool..so my question is..is my t stat stuck open because it takes forever to reach 180 on cold days....

Today was just brutlely cold!!! LOL,,crawled through the hatch,,LOL,,,,how long did you drive it for?

 

[jerry beach]

Today was just brutlely cold!!! LOL,,crawled through the hatch,,LOL,,,,how long did you drive it for?

You just laugh at the guy and offer no help what so ever.

Are your door belt moldings in bad shape. Moisture is prolly getting in there and freezing the locks in place. Try pulling the door panel and lubing that stuff up with some white lithium grease. Use graphite in the lock cylinders. I would change the stat for a 190* or something. I really like the Mr. Gasket stat I have now. Temp is rock steady at 172*, mine is a 180* and is clearly off. I dont care as it no longer fluctuates or loses water out of my small overflow. Another trick is putting a piece of cardboard in front of the radiator. Dont cover it all up, it will overheat. I have never done this myself so I cant recommend it, but I see how it can work.

 

[willys1]

You just laugh at the guy and offer no help what so ever.

Are your door belt moldings in bad shape. Moisture is prolly getting in there and freezing the locks in place. Try pulling the door panel and lubing that stuff up with some white lithium grease. Use graphite in the lock cylinders. I would change the stat for a 190* or something. I really like the Mr. Gasket stat I have now. Temp is rock steady at 172*, mine is a 180* and is clearly off. I dont care as it no longer fluctuates or loses water out of my small overflow. Another trick is putting a piece of cardboard in front of the radiator. Dont cover it all up, it will overheat. I have never done this myself so I cant recommend it, but I see how it can work.

I asked him for more info(how long did you drive it for),,hey,,I just pictured it in my head and it looked pretty funny,,there was no punn intended so relax.

 

[gearhead81a]

on an extremely cold day, your car likely will not reach normal operating temp. especially any car with a low temp t-stat. if you want a cheap and effective way to help your car stay warm, stick a peice of cardboard in front of your radiator. i call it the redneck thermostat. as far as the lock cylinder, take some of the rain-x de-icer windshield washer solution, stick it on your key(if you can get it in) maybe on a warmer day, and work the lock back and forth a few times. this will keep your lock cylinders defrosted and will help lubricate them as well.

 

[5.0 Nostalgia]

It takes a while for the car to reach operating temperature when you let the car idle. It will warm up quicker driving it easy. How long do you let it warm up before leaving? I usually wait 10 minutes if I have not driven the car in a while and then go. Even then the car is not up to 180. As you drive it warms up. If I am driving on the highway it will sometimes go down to like 165. So I don't think there is too much to worry about. I also have the Auto Meter gauge.

 

[wesl56]

you mean like ice gets over the key hole? lol sorry i live in FL, i cant imagine that happening

maybe try using a hairdryer?

 

[Michael Yount]

As the years go by, the lubricants on latches and locks and the linkages that join things become quite thick when it gets cold. The ideal solution is to pull the panel, clean all of them well, and then use the proper lubricant for them. As mentioned earlier by Jerry - graphite (powdered) only in the locks. Go to your local parts store and look for a quality silicon based (NOT Armor All) dressing for rubber seals. Liberally applying this to all the rubber door/hatch seals will seal water out and keep the rubber seals from freezing to the metal.

Any car ought to be able to run within 5F degrees of the t'stat temp. If it's running much colder in the winter - it's because the t'stat isn't doing it's job properly. My wife's BMW runs right at 192F no matter whether it's 10F or 100F outside. Put a quality t'stat in and it should maintain temp. And once you've started the car, let it settle into a reasonable idle (that ought to happen in 30 seconds or so), then ease it into gear and head out. It warms up MUCH quicker driving it than idling. The beauty of efi is you can do that. I try to keep revs below 2K, smooth easy shifts, smooth easy braking, and smooth easy turns of the wheel until things warm up a bit.

 

[jerry beach]

I asked him for more info(how long did you drive it for),,hey,,I just pictured it in my head and it looked pretty funny,,there was no punn intended so relax.

I am relaxed, just having fun too. Wanted to see if I could rile you up a bit. Feel free to do the same to me in the future. I can tell you are a good guy. I just like messing with people, its not personal I do it to everyone I meet.




Great info as usual Mike. We recently got an 04 stang, V6 auto for my fiance to drive daily. I found that same info on rubber treatments in the owners manual. The rubber just rots off them here in FL and I was looking for ways to keep the new stuff in top shape. I have some Remington Dry Lube in an aerosol can I use for lock cylinders. I use the same stuff on my Glocks. It dries before your eyes and has a plastic straw to really shoot it in there. Great stuff IMO. I can now see how the rubber would freeze to the body if left untreated. Down here we dont worry about that.

Mike, I noticed you avoided the cardboard in front of the rad, I guess you frown on that idea.

 

[ms93gt]

Dude me too! I live in Jersey also and the other night it snowed alittle bit and in the morning before school I had to have my mom drive me to school because I couldn't get into my car. My actuator always freezes up and now the key hole is frozen and both door hinges. I hate it! I was told to spray wd-40 into the key hole to lubricate the door lock but now it freezes up, lol. Someone help us

 

[Michael Yount]

Well - wd40 is NOT what you want to spray in there; it seems like a good idea, and helps keep things lubed when it's warm, but it's rather thick when it's cold. Ideally, you'd clean all that out once it's a bit warmer -- perhaps a hair dryer could be used in a garage to heat the lock up, then I'd try to douche all that wd40 out with brake cleaner - then evaporate the brake cleaner with the hair dryer. Once you've got the locks clean and dry - then spray in your graphite powder. DO NOT spray the graphite powder in with wd40 all over everything - that will make a helluva mess.

 

[Michael Yount]

Down to 10-15F or so, things are reasonably ok. Once the temps start to dip below that 5F or lower - amazing things start happening to oil, lubes, plastic interior bits and seals. Have to take it really easy on stuff. Oh - check your tire pressure guys - it really drops with temps.

 

[Michael Yount]

Jerry - the problem with blocking part of the radiator is it's easy to forget it's in there, and then have a bit of a warm spell that puts you into an overheat situation before you can remember why in the heck it's happening. With a properly operating cooling system, it shouldn't be necessary.

I have blocked off part of my oil cooler coil before - but finally realized I didn't need to. It just takes it a bit longer to come up to temp (about 210F) when it's chilly out - especially if I cold crank, and then hop straight on the Interstate where it gets a lot of cold airflow over it.

I like to do whatever I can to insure the longevity of the car. Mine sits in an enclosed, but unheated detached garage. So it seems to stay about 10-15F warmer than the outside air - assuming at least one of the cars gets driven every day -- the heat you bring into the garage helps provide that temp. difference. In the summer, when I pull into the garage I always pop the hood to help the engine cool off as quickly as possible. In the winter, when temps drop below about 25F, if I know I'm gonna be driving the car the next morning, I put one of those small space heaters (the kind for inside your house that only put out air at about 120F) on my work stool right in front of the car's radiator. That blowing across the fins of the radiator keeps the coolant around 70F even when it's 10F outside, and that heat gets pulled through the block by convection. No real cold starts if I can avoid them.

'Course we could all move to FL like Jerry, and then we'd be having overheating conversations instead of this one.

 

[quiksilver9531]

yea it was brutal out yesterday at least today is warmer....my key hole wasnt frozen it is when i put my key in there i couldnt turn it so I had to do what i did last year and climb thru the hatch..haha..might be funny but it works..and about my heat I have a 180 T stat in there now..but it seems if I drive it no matter how long in that kind of cold it wont go above 150..if i let it idle then it will warm up to 180..I have an electric fan so I would think it would warm up even faster..I think im just gonna put a 190 back in there for the winter...have slighthy warm heat doesnt do it for me in that kind of cold...and I think I need to replace my weather stripping around the door..when my doors closed i can see gaps and see outside..and i can feel cold air coming in..any one else have the problem of when using your washer fluid it freezes on your windshield..lol happen to me a few times yesterday

 

[krafty]

I wish I could get my car started. It is -6 degrees today with about a -35 windchill(North Dakota). I am ready to move south

 

[jaackal]

hot water works too if you dump it over the door by the key hole...just DONT put it on the glass, because the hot water and cold glass could cause the glass to crack

 

[crazypete]

Tire silicone. Like black magic or tire wet. Blast all the seals and get it into all the door locks. Very fluid so it gets in all the nooks and crannies but forms a nice layer of slippery silicone when the solvent evaporates.

Ice cannot freeze onto the surface because it's too slippery for it to bond to the metal. Any ice you see, you can just brush away. It's better than armor-all (it's still silicone but doesnt get thick like armor-all does)

I winterize the car by blasting it down with this stuff (paiunt, glass, hinges, everything, including exhaust and underside) until it's dripping then working it into the paint like wax. It's fun to walk out to the snow covered car, nudge the door and watch the snow just fall off and then not even bothering to wipe the car off, just boom down the street, hit the brakes and whoosh, all the snow is in front of you. 3 years of driving around in this glop and the car white with salt and no rust (well it came with some but there has been no additional rust since I siliconed it!). Seals it up nice.

Have fun all you winter stangers!