| Yes, I know, it's not so icy now but when the snow hit between Xmas and New Year my car resembled Fort Knox! Lock de-icers had little effect and I had to resort to a hairdryer on an extension lead which finally melted the lock after about 45 minutes and a lot of colourful language! My '5 was the only car in my road that had this problem. Is this an Achilles Heel on the '5 (if so, I don't remember people discussing it before), and does anyone have any bright ideas on prevention/speedier ways of thawing a lock?! (1/01) |
| I took a nice hot cup of tea out with me when I went to de-ice my Roadster in the freezing conditions. Stirring the tea with the key before opening the lock did the trick. (1/01) |
| I find that drizzling 3-in-1 on the key then inserting in a few times, this not only makes the lock mechanism smoothas (my domain name) a very smooth thing but also protects the lock against freezing. Doesn't stop the windows from freezing to the window rubbers though. Had to do this when my boot lock started feeling really rough. (1/01) |
| I can also recommend using graphite from a pencil to lubricate the lock. Just rub the key along a pencil's lead and insert and turn it a few times. Less messy that WD40 and certainly lasts. Won't thaw a frozen lock, though. (1/01) |
| Prevention. Using hot water to de-ice only means they're even more likely to ice up later on. WD40 helps, using the little straw nozzle. I've not tried it, but spray-on copper grease would be even better applied in the same way. (1/01) |
| So you shouldn't just pi*s on them then? (1/01) |
| you need to replace the water which is inside your lock, hence it freezes, I use 3 in one oil, but any "water displacement" treatment will do. (1/01) |
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Hmm...I wouldn't use Copper "grease". I'm not at all sure there is such stuff - copper assembly compounds are sold as "Copper Ease" and "Copa-slip" to name but two, and they're anti-seize assembly compounds, not grease. The thing you need, IMHO, is Teflon spray grease. Available in the cycle section at Halfords. And for unfreezing a lock, warm the key in a match flame - mind you don't melt the plastic though, and you'd be better off not using a "transmitter" key. (1/01) |
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Last winter I used to get this alot, I used to dip my key in v.warm water. In Autumn my lock started to get hard to turn and made a noise like metal scraping metal, so I put it down to getting too much water in the lock. Since then I've sprayed WD40 into the lock using the straw thing and have had no problems this winter. (1/01) |