wombat7

Hey guys,

Its been raining here for about the last week and today it decided to get really cold instead of raining. I went out to my car and noticed that my door locks keep freezing up. Is there anything I can do to prevent this from happening??

Zero10

I had this issue all winter long. I spray a bit of lock de-icer into them every time they start to freeze up. It will displace the water from the lock, and they will usually behave for a couple weeks. Can you even get a key into them?

Perhaps somebody else has a longer lasting method.

BeerBurner

Usually I will take some silicone spray (with the little red tube) and squirt it into the locks. Then I'll spray it in the "pull" tab on the handle and the latching mechanism. I'll lock-unlock-lock several times to make sure it gets around the key tumbler and then open/shut the door a bunch of times. Also, I'll spray some silicone on a paper towel and run it along the weather stripping. I do that once per winter.

No car I've done this to has ever had frozen locks after the treatment. Although the 944 is garaged, so I don't know if my success with it has to do with my treatment or the fact that it never spends much time below freezing.

BB.

nine-44

Exactly what Beerburner said, we did that INCLUDING the door seals at the dealer I worked for. It works great!

meanmaroon951

wd40 wrks too

father2nate

That used to happen a lot on my car, then I found a permanent solution....
I moved to California.

I know, I'm a smartass.

Techno Duck

I had a Lock De-icer that my ex gave me. It had a lubricant in it also, i think white lithium grease or graphite (something like that, i forget). It worked well at unfreezing the locks and kept it from happening ever again last winter. The real trouble was pulling the door open with the frozen seals! The stuff was great because it lubricated the lock as well, making the action much smoother. It comes in a pressurized can about the size of a lipstick tube. They sell it at Home Depot, usually located at the counter where they try and get you with the impulse buys.

skene

I ended up installing a keyless entry system so I wouldn't have to worry about frozen locks anymore. That and since I never had a key to the passenger side door. Putting that in was the second most useful day I spent working on my car. (first being icesharks light kit)

wombat7

skene... i would love to put a keyless entry system in my car... but i have manual door locks... Thanks for the input guys...

Mighty Shilling

I washed my car today, and it was freezing before I put the pressure washer wand down...

Granite 944

I use the graphite spray lock lubricant also. Like Zero said, you've got to re-spray ever so often in really cold, wet weather. I've had pretty good luck with keeping the door seals from freezing up by wiping a fine film of vasolene on them.

triscadek

It gets better the frozen locks. I've got a leaky hatch seal and possibly water coming in through the battery box.

Rain leaks in, condensation forms on the inside of the glass then you've got ice on the inside and outside of the windshield.

skene

Chad, not a problem. My car had manual locks when I got it too. I got a kit from here which had solinoids to power the locks and a control module for the remote. It took the better part of a weekend to do both the locks and the remote. I didn't even have to use any of the mounting brackets as the solinoids could be screwed directly onto the inside metal panel of the door.

They don't have the kit I picked up anymore, but that's a good thing. For some reason instead of having my parking lights flash when I locked and unlocked my car, it turned them on and kept them on after about a month of use.

Chase72

I'll add to Ken's comment that the Vasolene is a good idea since it is hydrophobic and will keep water away. If you use a regular de-icer, make sure you lube the lock later because some de-icers will strip the lubricant.

Zero10

The de-icer I use actually is a lubricant. I thought all of them were, but never checked into it.