Due to severe frosts, a lot of problems with the car can arise, related to the engine, battery, pads, door lock ... Thank God, there are such troubles. But how to defrost the car lock or its doors so as not to cause any damage to the car? This will be discussed further.
Most often, drivers are faced with the problem of "freezing" after the car has spent the whole night in the cold. It just won't start, no matter how hard you try. The reason for this is a decrease in battery power at low air temperatures. The consequence is the inability of the battery to turn the starter at a sufficient speed. Therefore, when you turn the ignition key, the engine will not start.
How to avoid freezing the battery
If your car's engine increasingly does not want to start in the cold, you should seriously think about a garage. By driving your car into a brick garage overnight, you will forget about such a problem. If you do not have this opportunity, start thoroughly warming up your car overnight. Then it will be more or less normal to start up in the morning.
There is another way- remove the battery and bring it to a warm room at night, and reinstall it in the morning. Of course, this method is quite time consuming, but it will allow you to easily start the car engine. Remember, this method should only be used if you know how to remove and install the battery correctly.
You can also turn on the low beam for ten to fifteen seconds to warm up the electrolyte in the battery. Then the car should start, but this only helps when the frost is not too severe. Another option is to wrap the battery in a warm cloth and leave it there overnight. Thanks to this trick, the unit will not freeze so much and will allow the engine to start.
Video about using the battery in winter:
Important nuances
It is very important to consider some points when "defrosting" the car. When trying to start the car, you cannot turn the starter for a long time. It takes 10 seconds to understand if the engine will start. It is not worth delaying this process, because, firstly, it is harmful to the car, and secondly, it is useless. Those who have "mechanics" are recommended to start the engine with the clutch depressed. This will greatly facilitate the work of the starter. If the engine can be started, do not rush to release the pedal - do it as slowly as possible.
In cases where the engine won't start, give your car a rest, no need to torment it. Please try again after a few minutes. If all else fails, the car needs to be towed to the garage, because it simply cannot work at low temperatures. Please note that the car may not refuse to start because of the battery. For example, the reason may lie in polluted or broken ones. Or in mineral engine oil, which freezes in extreme cold. One more tip - do not put the car on the handbrake in winter, otherwise the pads will freeze.
Defrosting the door lock
If the lock on the car door is frozen, there are several ways to solve this problem. Remember that it is very important not to use force, as in extreme cold, plastic and metal are more fragile and can be broken. To begin with, calm down and try to soberly assess the situation. Decide how to defrost the vehicle, taking into account the air temperature.
Determine what the weather is like outside. If the frost is not strong, you can warm it up by simply putting your hand on it for a few minutes. To prevent your hand from getting frozen to the car, use a thin cloth. The castle will warm up pretty quickly.
What to do in severe frost
If the frost is severe, then you should use matches or a lighter. Use them to heat the key, then insert it into the lock... This will warm it up from the inside. Repeat the procedure several times, then try to turn the key. If there are no matches, you can ask a neighbor from his car.
Another option suitable for severe frosts is to use alcohol. As a last resort, you can take vodka. Pour liquid into the lock using a syringe. You can pour hot water into a plastic bottle and attach it to the door lock. You cannot pour boiling water on the door!
Special means for defrosting
Now specialized stores sell products intended for defrosting car locks. Such liquids allow you to quickly warm up the locks. Your best bet is to buy WD-40 grease - it also dries up excess moisture.
If the door won't open
It may happen that despite defrosting the locks, the car door will not open. This means that the seal is frozen. How to defrost a car door in such a situation?
First of all, you do not need to pull the door under any circumstances, as this can break the seal. Better to push the door from the outside at several points. Then the ice that has formed under the compactor will crack. The door will eventually open.
Before starting the engine
If you managed to defrost your car, do not rush to get under way right away. Before starting the motor, free the brushes and check if there is ice on them. This must be done because when starting the engine, you can inadvertently touch the lever by turning on the wipers. This can result in a short circuit and blown fuse (or brush motor).
In order for the engine to warm up as quickly as possible, you do not need to turn on the stove. Remove snow from the bonnet. It is not worth removing from the roof while the frost is severe. When the snow starts to melt, you can save on.
If suddenly the glass does not go down or the mirror is not adjusted, do not panic. When the cabin warms up, everything will work. If it doesn't work, don't worry either. The oil will heat up, and the automatic transmission will return to normal.
Preparing the car for parking
In order to prevent the car from freezing while parked, follow a few simple rules. Having arrived at the required place, turn off the stove in advance and open all the windows. Let the car stand in the parking lot with the doors open to completely cool down inside. Shake off snow and moisture from rugs immediately.
Glasses should not be tightly closed. Leaving a small gap of one to two millimeters, you allow excess moisture to escape from the cabin. Then ice will not form on the windows of the car. Don't worry about safety - such tiny cracks won't be visible from the outside of the car.
We warm up the glass washer reservoir
Finally, we will tell you how to warm up the windscreen washer reservoir. Freezing is also a common problem. Here are some professional recommendations:
- If the ice has not completely filled the cavity of the tank, you can fill it with warm defrosting liquid, vodka or alcohol (proportion 1: 3 or 1: 5).
- If the liquid in the tank runs out during the trip, you can fill it with a mixture of cold water and cheap vodka (then the washer will not freeze).
- If the ice has filled the entire cavity, you can drill a hole in the ice and fill it with a special liquid, or put the car in a covered parking lot (it is advisable to start it during the defrosting process).
- Insert the boiler into the tank, partially immersing it in melted water ("drown" it in ice with short-term inclusions).
- Warm up the interior in order to achieve evaporation of the liquid.
Video on how to defrost a car:
As you can see, there are many ways to safely "defrost" a car and its parts. However, we advise everyone who does not want to waste their time on such procedures in the morning to pre-treat the gum seals and locks with WD grease. Then you can easily open your car. Better yet, take care of a warm garage for your "iron horse". This will avoid many unnecessary problems.
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The cold season cannot be called easy for a motorist. Either the engine refuses to start in cold weather, or the central locking is frozen. If everything is more or less clear with the first problem, and in most cases the malfunction lies in a discharged battery, then with the second it is not so simple.
The video shows the reasons why the castle froze:
Central locking design
If your central lock is frozen, then in order to fix it, you need to know what this structure consists of. It includes the following nodes:
- executive mechanisms;
- control block;
- sensors.
It is the actuators that most often freeze in the central lock. This is not surprising, because they are most susceptible to the influence of the external environment. Sensors can also fail, but in most cases they are easier to replace than repair.
Why does it freeze
There can be more than enough reasons why the central locking does not work during the cold season. For example, the wiring is out of order or one of the control chips has burned out, but in most cases everything is much simpler. Just moisture gets into the locks and the mechanism is blocked.
If you have already dealt with a similar problem, you may have noticed that the central lock freezes in the car just after washing. Of course, this shouldn't happen. But let's be honest, at domestic car washes they often hack when drying. Because of this, the moisture does not completely evaporate and what happens happens.
Attention! Usually, to freeze the central locking, it is not enough to drive through the frost once. This requires that the car stay on the street all night.
Of course, ideally, the car should be left in the garage every night. This is especially true in the cold time of the day, but this is not available to everyone. In addition, moisture can get inside the locks not only as a result of washing. Rain and snow have the same effect.
Possible actions
It is very important to understand what to do when the central locking is frozen. In some cases, a business meeting, a date, or a trip to the hospital depends on the speed of decisions made. Fortunately, there are a number of tried and tested methods that have proven their worth over and over again.
The castle is frozen, what to do
So, let's imagine a situation that the central locking is frozen and the doors do not open. First of all, you need to try to warm up the mechanism. In most cases, problems are observed precisely in the drive of the device or the larva.
Attention! If you are in a hurry, try all other doors first. If you succumb to at least one, then you can get inside.
When checking the doors, do not forget about the trunk and tailgate, which all station wagons have. By the way, it is most convenient to warm up the central lock, which is frozen from the inside.
A cigarette lighter can also come in handy in this situation. True, for this you have to ask another driver for it. After you receive this accessory, just attach it to the well. A few minutes is more than enough to get rid of the ice and open the central lock, which is frozen.
There is another proven method. You need to take the key and heat it up with a lighter. In doing so, you must be extremely careful. Since the high temperature can easily damage the handle body.
To enhance the effect, tap lightly around the castle with something not very heavy. The main thing is not to put too much pressure when turning. This can damage both the key and the lock.
Great if you have access to an outlet. Then you can use a hairdryer. He can easily cope with the fact that the central locking is frozen. It is enough to direct the stream of warm air to the target in order to achieve the desired.
One of the most reliable folk methods is the method with a ball or a plastic bottle, in order to carry it out, you need to perform only three steps:
- find a solid rubber ball;
- fill it with hot water;
- attach to the lock.
According to the assurances of most motorists, this will allow you to cope with the central locking that is frozen, quickly and with a high probability of success. If you don't have a rubber ball in your house, then you will find a plastic bottle anyway.
In some cases, the only option to bring back to life the central locking that is frozen is to put the car in a warm garage for 7-8 hours. This is the only possible recovery method if limit switches are frozen in the structure.
Prophylaxis
Now you know what to do when the central locking is frozen. But it's better not to bring it to such a point. In addition, there are quite a few preventive procedures that, having a relatively low complexity, provide a reliable result.
First, let's turn to automotive experts who have proven their skills more than once. According to their recommendations, so that the central locking does not freeze, it is enough to take a regular syringe before the onset of cold weather, and with its help pour a little "Tosol" into each keyhole. This is an old, tried and tested method that has proven its worth over and over again.
The fact is that "Antifreeze" does not give in to freezing. As a result, even in the most severe frost, the door will not be blocked. This is more than a rational solution, which is also the least expensive.
That being said, you must use exemplary care during application. Even a small drop can cause significant damage to the coating of the machine. If this happens, then it must be erased immediately.
If your central lock is frozen, do not despair and look for another type of transport. There are many methods that will allow you to restore the device's performance in the shortest possible time, and with improvised means. Of course, in the worst case, a warm room is indispensable. But even so, everything should be in order in 7-8 hours.
Another video how to warm up the central locking in the car:
If the driver's door is frozen and does not want to open, you can try to open the other doors one by one. In rare cases, they will all be blocked, usually it is the passenger seats that make it possible to get inside the cabin. Most often this is the most "unclaimed" door, so you can start with it. If you manage to open at least one door, it's a matter of time - to warm up the car and free all the others. When you turn on the stove, you can also get rid of the problem with frozen windows.
Method number 2:
Most often, it is not the lock mechanism itself that freezes, but the rubber seal. Moisture can get between it, which acts as a "glue". When opening, do not pull the door towards you, because you can just rip off the seal. The method of pressing the door tightly (with all possible forces and stops) works better. This can break the frozen ice, making it easier to open the door.
Method number 3:
In particularly difficult cases open a frozen car door warm water will help. To do this, do not use boiling water (you can damage the seal, and the coating itself). It is not necessary to spill the lock, but the gaps between the doors and the car body.
The best alternative to water would be specialty anti-icing mixtures available from the store. This will significantly shorten the opening of the machine. Instead, a glass washer fluid that contains ethyl alcohol is also suitable. It is better to buy a suitable product in the form of a spray and with a thin nozzle. When leaving the car, do not forget it in the cabin, because this will make the purchase pointless.
Method number 4:
Warming up with warm air is not always possible, but this method can also be used if necessary. For this, a building or home hair dryer is suitable, preferably with air supply temperature control. You should not choose too powerful a mode, because such processing can damage the paintwork.
Alternatively, you can warm up the lock with a hose connected to the exhaust pipe of another machine. You can also use a container of hot water kept near the lock. You can warm up the key with a lighter and then insert the lock. You cannot directly heat the castle with an open fire, because this will damage the coating.
Method number 5:
If it is the door lock that is jammed, you can open it using pure alcohol. Lubricants, especially those based on kerosene, are not recommended. In the future, the residues of the substance will absorb moisture, which will lead to the appearance of stable problems with opening the door.
Method number 6:
Buying a special defrost keychain will help avoid problems with regular freezing of the castle. The design has a thin probe that is inserted into the hole in the lock. It heats up to 150-200 degrees and allows you to warm up the lock from the inside. You can buy such a miracle device in specialized stores or on sites on the Internet.
Prevention methods
In order to protect yourself from unnecessary hassle in the future, it is better to prepare in advance for the winter season. The main ways to prevent the situation if the doors in the car are frozen, what to do for this is discussed below.
Preventive actions:
- Do not wash your car on the eve of a cold snap. If necessary, it is better to use the services of professional equipment, in which the car is also dried.
- Provide the "iron horse" at least a temporary shelter in case of frost in the garage or covered parking. Regular problematic door openings will inevitably affect the condition of your car and lead to rapid wear of the lock mechanisms.
- Do not allow moisture to enter the door seal. If this happens, it is better to give it time to dry or wipe the rubber with a rag.
- A special silicone spray will help prevent the door seal from freezing. For this, processing is carried out several times per season. If the doors begin to open with force, the spray should be reapplied.
- Most often, the doors freeze due to the temperature difference between the street and the warm interior. It is quite easy to avoid this. When leaving the car, it is worth opening all the doors for a while. After the temperature inside the cabin equals the ambient temperature, the car is no longer threatened with freezing.
- To protect the castle, it is worth purchasing a special winter lubricant. Regular use will help avoid opening problems.
Unfreezing a car door lock in frost is a painstaking task. This usually happens at the most inopportune moment and with a catastrophic lack of time. Our useful tips will help you quickly cope with the problem, as well as prevent freezing of mechanisms in the future. Armed with the right tools at hand, you can quickly get into the car, while not injuring the closing mechanism.
In winter, a nuisance often occurs with cars - freezing locks. In the presence of this problem, the door does not open, and if it was possible to open it and get into the passenger compartment, then after that the closing mechanism does not work and the door cannot be slammed. What to do and which method to choose - read on.
A lighter is not your only assistant in this situation.
How to defrost car locks?
There are several ways to open a frozen door without causing damage to your vehicle. If you have a central locking, first try to open it with a key: it may not open from the alarm button due to a dead battery. Check if other doors open - you might be able to open one of them and the rest from the inside. If the key also does not open the lock, then you need to proceed with the following steps:
- If there is a slight frost outside, up to -2 degrees Celsius, then, perhaps, the doors are slightly frozen, and a lighter or matches will help to open the lock. It is enough to slightly warm the key and insert it into the lock, but do not use excessive force if the key still does not turn.
- If the frost is more severe (-10 ... -15 degrees), then a kettle with boiling water will help. With a quick spray of the lock, take a water-repellent silicone grease or WD40, insert the spray tube into the lock, and spread the lubricant inside it. If this is not done, the liquid will freeze inside the lock and you will not be able to open it again. The moisture-repellent liquid will clean the lock from water, and after 5-6 seconds it will open.
- If it is severe frost outside (-25… -30 degrees), then boiling water will not help. It makes sense to use a syringe filled with rubbing alcohol. Insert the mouth of the syringe into the lock and spray the alcohol inside. This substance will melt the ice and evaporate, clearing the ice build-up from the castle. You can use an anti-freeze to clean the windows of the car, but this method has disadvantages, since such liquids are diluted with water, and it is difficult to expel them from the lock.
- There are special “liquid key” aerosols that need to be sprayed into the lock.
What not to do
The following phenomena should be avoided when opening a frozen castle:
- Do not fill the lock with gasoline or other gasoline based flammable liquids.
- The key must not be turned by force. If you break it, the door cannot be opened at all.
What to do to keep the locks from freezing in the car
Preventive measures are required to prevent locks from freezing again.
First of all, make sure that there is no moisture in the lock. Before use, you need to wipe the key to keep it dry, and lubricate the keyhole itself with a water-repellent silicone grease. If the door seals are frozen, you can defrost them with a hair dryer. It is undesirable to water with boiling water, as the rubber parts may crack; it is recommended to lubricate them with a special anti-icing lubricant.
You can lubricate the keyholes with WD40, there will be no harm if you also lubricate the inside of the lock, which slams the door.
On a note
1.If there is no alcohol or special liquids on hand to defrost the machine, use WD40 or a glass cleaner from ice. However, it is better not to use such a tool for a central lock, as it will damage the lock.
2.If the locks are frozen, do not rush to disassemble them. A household hairdryer is suitable for heating and drying.
3. Locks are often treated not only with special agents, but also with glycerin.
4. A silicone-based spray helps a lot: it can both defrost locks and prevent them from freezing. To increase the effectiveness of such a spray, you will need to add graphite dust to it. To do this, use a simple pencil, only the dust should be fine, so as not to clog the lock with dirt inside.
5. Before manipulating the lock, carefully examine the larva: it may be covered with ice. Such ice is chipped off with a screwdriver or knife. In rare cases, the ignition lock freezes. In this case, use the same WD40 and a hair dryer, which will help defrost the lock.
6. You can also gently heat the structure of the lock, but this should be done slowly so as not to damage the plastic. The ignition switch contains contacts that can ignite, so the use of open fire in this case is unacceptable.
Possible difficulties
Some difficulties can arise with locks. If you defrost the lock, and the key still does not turn, or the lock seems to open, but the door still cannot be opened, then, most likely, the rubber band of the door has frozen to the body. With a little effort, such a door can be opened, but you should not pull the lock handle. It is required to carefully pry the door with the same screwdriver or a narrow piece of wood so as not to damage the varnish. The lock may not close: this is due to the ingress of moisture on the internal mechanism. If you manage to open the door, lubricate the hinge and the closing mechanism of the lock with silicone grease. It will not hurt to grease and rubber bands on the doors.
A kettle with hot water does not help in all cases, because the locks can freeze from the inside. Then it is better to use a syringe filled with alcohol or hot water. You cannot use boiling water, otherwise the syringe will melt.
Another surprise may be frozen buttons that open the lock from the inside. If you managed to open at least one door, you will need to turn on the stove in the car, and after 10 minutes the locks will open, but do not wait until they freeze again. Lubricate them with a moisture-proof lubricant.
Find out how the professionals beat the ice on the doors
Conclusion
With proper preventive maintenance, car locks will not let you down at an unexpected moment and you will not have problems with them in the winter. If the castle is still frozen, be patient and deal with it as described above, avoid using hot water, as it freezes again. Do not use brute force as there is a risk of tearing off the door handle.
The frosty winter is a special time for car owners who continue to regularly operate their vehicle. Leaving a car in an open parking lot, it is difficult to predict what will happen to it overnight, and what tests it will be subjected to in terms of the weather. One of the problems that a car owner risks facing in a cold winter is door freezing. Within the framework of the article, we propose to figure out what to do if the car doors are frozen, as well as how to avoid such troubles even in the most severe frost.
What to do if the car door is frozen?
Before dealing with ways to help open a frozen car door, you need to understand why it freezes. Rubber seals and the door lock itself freeze for a simple reason - water gets into them, which turns into ice in severe frost. The more water gets in, and the more cold it is outside, the more difficult it is for the owner of the car to open the door.
You should not immediately resort to radical measures to defrost the lock or car door seals, we recommend checking not only the passenger doors, but also the trunk. It is possible that they froze less strongly, and it will not be difficult to open them. Once in the salon, it remains to turn on the stove so that the car warms up and the doors thaw. However, if the doors are frozen evenly hard, there are several ways you need to remember how to defrost them.
The lock in the car is frozen, what should I do?
If you cannot open the car due to a frozen lock, do not panic and try with all your might to turn the key or insert it as hard as possible. Motorists have long come up with several surefire ways that help open a frozen castle in just a few minutes.
Use automotive chemicals
Every car enthusiast has a huge amount of automotive chemicals in the garage, at home and in the car itself. You need to find a bottle that contains an alcohol-based product. There are specialized means to open a frozen car lock, which are called "Liquid Key". If you don't have any automotive chemicals at hand, find any other liquid with a high alcohol content. A variety of lotions, hand hygiene products, vodka, or alcohol will work.
Having taken possession of an alcohol-containing liquid, it is necessary to acquire a medical syringe or some kind of similar. After that, the found alcohol-based liquid must be poured into the lock, wait 5-10 minutes and again try to open the door.
The main disadvantage of this method to open a frozen lock is the lack of automotive chemicals from the owner of the car. It is possible that she may be all inside the car, but it is not possible to open it, and I do not want to run to the store for vodka or other alcohol-containing product.
Use a dedicated device
The problem of frozen locks has been haunting car owners for years. Especially for such cases, a device has been developed, which is called "Locks defroster". It is an ordinary keychain that can be hung on the keys. In this case, if necessary, a probe that can heat up to 150-200 degrees Celsius is removed from the keychain. The hot probe remains inserted into the car door lock, and after a couple of minutes it can be safely opened with the key. Naturally, not every motorist has such a useful device, the cost of which is low.
Open a frozen lock with a hot key
The most accessible, simple and common way to open a car door if its lock is frozen is to use a key like a "Locks defrost". This requires a car door key and a lighter. Heat the key for 10-15 seconds, and then insert it into the lock for 1-2 minutes. Next, try to open the door. If it fails, repeat the above procedure. Slowly melting the ice in the castle, sooner or later the owner will be able to open his car.
Attention: When heating the key, make sure that its plastic elements do not burn. This is especially true when the key contains the required information for the immobilizer or other electronics.
Naturally, with proper ingenuity, you can find a number of other ways to open a frozen car lock, but we recommend using the options described above. You should not try to clear the ice in the castle by inserting sticks into it or heating the castle itself with a lighter - this can seriously damage it.
The car door is frozen, how to open it?
A frozen car door is a problem as common as a frozen lock. It is enough to allow moisture to enter the seal during the cold season and leave the car for several hours in the cold to freeze the door "tightly". It is not uncommon for the doors to freeze after washing due to the driver's carelessness or illiteracy.
If the door is frozen, proceed as follows:
- Find a brush or other handy tool to remove ice and snow from the edges of the doors. If you use a brush, the chance of damage to the paintwork is almost minimal, but special care should be taken when wielding a screwdriver, wrench or knife.
- Pull the door towards you, and if it does not move, then push it down and lightly tap the edges. After that, try again to pull the door towards you. Repeat the procedure several times until the door opens.
Do not forget, if one door is too cold, you can try to open another or the trunk. In addition, various alcohol-containing liquids will help open a frozen door, which can be used to coat the edges of the door and seals. Warming up a frozen door with a hair dryer has a good effect, but not everyone can connect a household appliance to the network at the parking lot.
Attention: In no case should the frozen doors be poured with boiling water - this is fraught with damage to the paintwork. Also, do not use extreme force when trying to open it - this can damage the door itself or the handle from it. It is also not a good idea to try to tear off the frozen seal from the door using coins, knives, keys and other objects that can damage the materials.
How to lubricate the doors so that they do not freeze even in the most severe frost?
Every morning, struggling with opening a frozen door is not the best solution for a car owner who values his time. The occurrence of such problems can be avoided by lubricating the interior of the door lock with WD-40 or specialized fluids, which are produced to protect against icing of seals, hinges, wells and other car parts, before long-term parking of the car.
Another important tip that will help protect the doors from icing during long-term parking. After the car engine has been turned off, it is necessary to open all the doors so that warm air flows out of the passenger compartment onto the street, and the temperatures inside and outside the car are practically equal. This will avoid the formation of condensation on the doors inside the passenger compartment, which may freeze during long periods of stay. It is worth noting that after washing, it is imperative to do this procedure so that the water on the seals turns into ice, and then it crumbles when the doors are closed.
