Goss’ Garage
by Pat Goss

OUT IN THE COLD


A little sleet, snow, or rain plus a thermometer hugging the freezing mark and you might be outside your car wishing you could get inside. You’re literally frozen out because your doors are frozen solid. Not good, must get to work, but what to do? Not what many drivers do! The ubiquitous pan of hot water poured over the door to thaw things out could turn a bad situation into a very bad situation. Hot water and cold glass are not happy partners. Cracked glass? Spectacularly possible! More water to freeze? There’s an absolute!

Rather than waiting till you’re frozen-out, a couple low-cost products used now will help prevent frozen doors and door locks. Graphite lock-lube applied twice a year to every lock on your car and house will lubricate them and prevent water intrusion. The premise is elementary; if water doesn’t get into locks, the locks can’t freeze. Graphite also makes locks work more smoothly and last longer. But, never use a lubricant not specifically designed for locks. Generic lubes often wash away the protective graphite, which almost guarantees moisture intrusion, frozen locks and more wear.

Here’s another frustration! Your locks aren’t frozen but the doors themselves are frozen shut. Pulling, tugging, and prying does nothing toward opening the doors, they won’t budge. There’s a flaw in the typical approach, which involves a mighty yank on the door handle. If logic and finesse won’t open the door surely brute force will. Wrong! Mighty force on the door handle does not move the door; it just delivers a sickening pop. It’s the kind of noise that creates instant dread. There’s no way this can be good! Unfortunately, brute force applied to parts designed to withstand moderate force tends to break parts like door handles, rubber weather-strip, or some spectacularly costly little part inside the door.

The problem? Nothing more exotic than the door’s weather-strip being stubbornly frozen to the car’s body. Once this happens warm, not hot, water, a warm garage or spring thaw may be your only salvation.

Luckily, prevention is painless. Spray the rubber around the doors with silicone, which is readily available in auto parts stores. It’s a good idea to spray silicone on all the weather-stripping surrounding car doors four times every year. Silicone is so slippery it prevents ice that forms on the weather-stripping from sticking to the car’s body. Your doors open easily when your neighbor’s are frozen solid.

Don’t use hot water on frozen windshields and wiper blades either. Clear a frozen windshield and free-up stuck wipers by applying spray de-icer to the windshield and wiper blades. Using de-icer before turning your wipers on also prevents blades from being shredded as they’re ripped out of the ice.

Finally, don’t allow the engine to idle for a long time with the defroster set on high to clear the windshield. With intense heat on the inside and ice on the outside a small, unobtrusive stone chip may become a big, obnoxious crack. Ditto for hot water.

None of this does any good after you’re frozen out but twenty minutes and ten dollars now, will reward you when the snow flies.