Frozen Door Locks
 

We're having a spell of cold weather in Ireland at the moment. But it seems my door locks are freezing over. I can unlock and open the door but when I try to close it, it just bounces back out again. The door lock - or latch - isn't catching.

The cure I've found is to direct a hot air stream into the door latch mechanism using a hair dryer. After a few seconds it unfreezes whatever was frozen and off I go.

By the way when I say cold spell, I mean temperatures down to perhaps -4 C. I'm surprised the door locks are freezing at that temperature.

Unfortunately, you are not alone with this problem. Been there, and am on my way back there. Am leaving for Idaho in 10 days and, having lived there for 6 years, I know my door locks will have the same problem. My experience has been to let the car warm up, which will gradually free up the locks. I do admit to holding the door closed while driving, and checking if it will finally lock at every traffic light.

Ha ha ! It's very tempting isn't it ? To drive off holding the door shut because you need to be somewhere !

Try taking it out cleaning it and greasing it with grease.

Spray some antifreeze into the door latch mechanism before you park it for over night.:thumbup:

My E32 sedan has a door like that. It's the rear driver's side, and it won't latch when it's below about 35F. I can make it latch by pushing it closed gently, and then bumping my hip against it. That holds it in place, giving the (slow) latch time to trip. I keep meaning to replace the mechanism, just havn't gotten around to it.

We had an older Jeep Grand Cherokee that did that too, but it had to be colder 0F or below for it to act up.

The mechanism where the outside handle cable attaches to the lock is exposed to moisture inside the door cavity and can freeze up or just corrode and jam even in warm weather (my locks were sticking in summertime). Lube up the rusty area in the pic below.
Full post here.
http://www.xoutpost.com/attachments/...x-pics-011.jpg