Are the doors frozen? The answer to how to open a car door, if it is - Yes

Most often, this happens at the most inopportune moment, for example, when you are late for work, a meeting, a train station, etc. Opening a frozen car door is not so easy, also because an experienced driver knows very well about the possible consequences of such an unpleasant phenomenon , for example, a door can be opened by force, but this will not leave its mark on the door itself, its lock and rubber seals. Today I bring to your attention several effective, proven ways to open a car door if it is frozen.

First way Unlock the "frozen central lock" - the trick! As a rule, not all doors grab equally; some of them will be more pliable in any case. So don’t hang your nose, but rather check how things are going with the other doors. Do not forget that the trunk, after all, is also a kind of door; sometimes with its help it is possible to open the door of a car that is frozen. Through the trunk you can climb into the cabin, turn on the enhanced heating of the cabin and - voila, after about 20 minutes the door will thaw and let you in or out. It is not necessary to wait for complete defrosting, if you are in a hurry, the most important thing is to get inside, and the rest is a matter of time, while you are going to a meeting and work, the door will unlock itself.

Second way opening a car door when the doors are frozen is chemistry. With the help of modern technologies, scientists managed to create a mixture that solves the problem of frozen doors; it is called “liquid key” or anti-icing lubricant, if in scientific terms. Opening a frozen door using this method is perhaps the easiest way, unless, of course, you have this very “liquid key”... One of the most common mistakes made by motorists is that they store this very anti-icing lubricant in the glove compartment... This is almost the same thing as slam the door and leave the key inside the car. In winter, a bottle with a “liquid key” should be at hand (in a purse, pocket, garage, anywhere but inside the car), it would be even better if you have several bottles, then you can leave one in the car, and another at home, then you won’t have to rack your brains about what to do if your car doors are frozen...

Third way- simple and primitive. This method is the only thing you can do if you don’t have a “liquid key” on hand, all the doors are hopelessly frozen, and you only have keys and smoking devices (lighter, matches, etc.) at hand. As you may have guessed, we are talking about heating the key through direct fire. For those who decided that they need to heat the ignition switch with a lighter, I answer - no, warm it up, and not too much, you need the key itself. The ignition key should not be kept on the fire for long, 5-10 seconds (depending on the type of key itself), the principle is this: heat it up, then quickly install it in the keyhole, wait 1-2 minutes, try turning it, if it doesn’t help, repeat the procedure. As a rule, after 3-4 such attempts it is possible to open the car door.

Attention! Be careful not to melt the plastic key body or chip if you have an immobilizer installed.

An ordinary women's hair dryer can be an excellent assistant in this matter. Direct a flow of moderately hot air into the frozen well.

Attention! Under no circumstances try to melt the ice with water by pouring boiling water over the doors! This is a bad idea, of course it will help solve the issue, but it will add new problems to you, for example, after you open the door, the hot drops will cool down and block the lock again, only this time it will not be frost or condensation, but real ice! In addition, we should also take into account the laws of physics, each of us knows what happens to a cold body that is splashed with boiling water... The same thing happens to the paintwork, microcracks appear on it, through which moisture penetrates from outside and during interaction over time forms pockets of corrosion with the body. Read this article about how to care for your paintwork.

It happens that it is not the door lock that freezes, but the doors themselves, that is, after washing or rain, moisture gets on the seal and after the temperature drops, usually at night, the doors “freeze to death” to the doorway. The solution to this issue is very similar to the previous ones and requires similar methods of struggle.

• First of all, you need to carefully clean the ice crust around the door, if there is any, while doing this you need to be extremely careful, careless scraping can remove not only the crust, but also your paintwork.
• Tap the perimeter of the door with your hand, the impact will crack the crust on the seal and the frozen door will open. You need to open it gradually so as not to damage the rubber seal.
• Use an anti-freeze agent (I also recently wrote about how to choose an anti-freeze agent...) It contains additives that effectively fight ice, treat the doorway with it, and after a while you will be able to open the car door.
• Use a hairdryer. Just like with the lock, a hair dryer can help you solve the problem by directing a blast of hot, warm air onto the frozen areas. Don't overdo it to avoid damaging the paint with excessive heat.

Prevention is always better than cure!

Timely implementation of preventive measures will allow you to avoid the troubles described above. Your arsenal must include:

• Anti-icing agents for treating doors, seals, hinges and keyholes.
• Low temperature resistant silicone grease.
• Before leaving your car overnight, do not be lazy, remove all the snow from its roof, as well as water, if any, this will minimize the likelihood of the doors freezing and all the ensuing consequences.
• After winter washing, it is quite easy to remove ice from the seal; to do this, just open all the doors for a few minutes in the cold and allow the moisture to turn into ice. After this, it is enough to slam the door several times for the ice to crack and crumble. After that, he can safely close the doors and go home.

That’s all for me, thank you for your attention, I hope the article was useful to you and you won’t have a problem with how to open a car door if, God forbid, it’s frozen.

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