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Deicing car doors
By adamg on Sun, 01/20/2019 - 6:38pm
Lynne Palizzolo has an urgent request tonight:
Anyone have a foolproof way of getting iced car doors open? Spray de-icers not working. Rather not wait til spring
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Comments
WD40
use the straw and aim it up and down in the locks and door seams
Not good for locks
If you're going to use it on locks, realize that WD-40 is not a lubricant and will dry out and ultimately seize up your locks. After cleaning out any moving parts with WD-40, they need to be lubricated. You can apply bike chain lube to a key and work it in the lock repeatedly, then wipe off excess. This works anytime you feel your locks beginning to get tough.
electric blanket under a tarp or a hair dryer
electric blanket under a tarp or a hair dryer
Heat the key or 91% rubbing alcohol
Heat the metal part of the key with a lighter until it is red hot. Careful. It may take a few tries. If it fails, squirt some 91% rubbing alcohol into the keyhole. It's the active ingredient in windshield and door de-icer but those products are watered down to far less than 91%.
Then you turn the key and ...
Nothing happens other than unlocking the door, because everything else is iced.
Hairdryer is a great idea. Also good: get the hatch open if you have one and crawl into the vehicle and start and run it with the heater cranked and all defrosters on.
Hair dryer or heat gun
if you can safely get an extension cord out to your car.
Who still uses a key to open
Who still uses a key to open a car door?
Civil War reenactors.
Civil War reenactors.
Probably people who can only
Probably people who can only afford cars with keys. Don't be an elitist A-Hole.
Who says she used a key?
Yeah, we have a car with one of those fob things, but even still, I couldn't get three of the four doors or the hatch open tonight - a thick layer of ice will do that (fortunately, the one door that worked, maybe because I had opened it earlier in the day, before the Freeze site in, was the driver's door, so I could get in and get the defrosters going and grab the scraper in the door pocket without worrying about injuring something).
Boy , you got to pre treat
Boy , you got to pre treat the door lock openings with graphite !
Silicone lube
No joke - run it around the gaskets (it won't wreck them) before a storm hits. It will at least keep the gaskets from sticking and tearing.
This is where a remote car
This is where a remote car starter comes in handy and you make sure to always leave the heat on high the night before.
My dad has always kept an
My dad has always kept an extra bottle of windshield wiper fluid around for icy storms. He puts the liquid around the seams of the door and within a few minutes the doors are de-iced enough to open.