Frozen drivers door lock

UrbanFlow · Post by **UrbanFlow** » Wed Jan 23, 2013 9:53 am

Hello all,

Yesterday was minus 5 in Surrey and my wife almost pulled the drivers door handle off trying to open it.

A neighbour helped her get it open - turns out it wasn't the door seal holding it closed - the lock mechanism had frozen. All is fine now after the car warmed up.

Anyone had this before?
Was considering spraying some Wd-40 in the metal part on the inside of the door.

xl5 · Post by **xl5** » Wed Jan 23, 2013 10:08 am

had this on my range rover, the only proper way to solve it is to take the lock mechanism out and grease it ,but you might be lucky if you just squirt some silicon lubricant in the lock....

CondorX5 · Post by **CondorX5** » Wed Jan 23, 2013 10:08 am

Yes, its common. And its also common to break the door handle off under these conditions, so warn the wife not to be too havey handed with the handle in freezing conditions! I keep a little tin of lock deicer near my front door at home for these occasions, you can also get keyfobs which operate on a battery and defrost the innards of a lock when you insert the blade into a frozen lock -i have one of these on my keys in winter.

Running warm water over the door seal and lock area may work, but you run the risk of water getting into the mechanism and freezing up again down the line.

gchristofi · Post by **gchristofi** » Wed Jan 23, 2013 12:35 pm

I had this issue yesterday too. Luckily I frequent this great forum enough to know not to persuade the door too much with brute force or suffer the consequences of broken internals!!!! Climbing in from the back is a bit embarrassing though!

Does anyone know exactly which bits are freezing or tend to break? It feels as though its well inside the door and not at the latching mechanism. Wondering if there is anything preventative that can be done to avoid future freezings? I reckon best to avoid the hot water defrost as you may pay the price on next freeze.

garethdeb · Post by **garethdeb** » Wed Jan 23, 2013 1:40 pm

Had exactly the same problem yesterday and only -4 here!!
Back doors opened ok tho, don't know why the back doors should be less prone to freezing than the fronts?
Gareth

UrbanFlow · Post by **UrbanFlow** » Thu Jan 24, 2013 4:58 pm

Silicon lubricant you say - good tip - thanks.

Good point on using warm water to defrost. Won't do that!

jaynana · Post by **jaynana** » Thu Jan 24, 2013 5:15 pm

[quote="garethdeb"]
Had exactly the same problem yesterday and only -4 here!!
Back doors opened ok tho, don't know why the back doors should be less prone to freezing than the fronts?
Gareth
[/quote]

what i've read is that there's a cable which should ideally be sealed with a rubber grommet. over time the rubber perishes. after that moisture finds its way into the cable. you can imagine what happens when the water inside the cable freezes..

so its not necessarily every door that freezes.

said that, the door handle cradle itself is a weak joint in teh design. best to lubricate with silicon spray into the door frame in prep for winter i think..

psychosis · Post by **psychosis** » Thu Jan 24, 2013 5:26 pm

Managed to break the carrier on my drivers door on the first day of cold weather. I was being careful as well as I had read about the issue here. £65 for a new one if I recall.

PhilT · Post by **PhilT** » Thu Jan 24, 2013 6:51 pm

I sprayed some neat antifreeze into my doors last week after a freeze up and they've been fine since.

ITBarbie · Post by **ITBarbie** » Thu Jan 24, 2013 8:41 pm

I had this issue last year. I pulled it and got it open but then I couldn't close it. Now I know just to dribble a little warm water on it and be careful. I have used some silicon on the seals but have concerns about corrosion with this. I keep shouting at the family though as they seem to think that if you pull it really hard that will do the trick!

JamieX5 · Post by **JamieX5** » Thu Jan 24, 2013 8:51 pm

[quote="ITBarbie"]
I had this issue last year. I pulled it and got it open but then I couldn't close it. Now I know just to dribble a little warm water on it and be careful. I have used some silicon on the seals but have concerns about corrosion with this. I keep shouting at the family though as they seem to think that if you pull it really hard that will do the trick!
[/quote]

Very embarrassing climbing in through various other doors as I have been finding out recently. Roll on pay day. New carrier £72 from dealer

ITBarbie · Post by **ITBarbie** » Thu Jan 24, 2013 9:10 pm

Ouch

more money

psychosis · Post by **psychosis** » Thu Jan 24, 2013 9:52 pm

I used the key to open the windows so I could open from the inside rather than climbing through other doors

ITBarbie · Post by **ITBarbie** » Thu Jan 24, 2013 10:01 pm

[quote="psychosis"]
I used the key to open the windows so I could open from the inside rather than climbing through other doors

[/quote]

That's a thought but my windows normally freeze as well

Rusty · Post by **Rusty** » Fri Jan 25, 2013 12:39 am

I just phone the car which switches on my Webasto, that warms it all up nicely so that when I go into the garage I'm good to go

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