Frozen Lock Hints For This Morning Before Trying AAA ?

Hi Bob

I would try a hair dryer. The lock linkage could be frozen. Try heating the lock cylinder and then heat the entire area between the cylinder and the door latch. Good luck.

Try the de-icing fluid. It often doesn't work, since it can't get into the right places, but sometimes it does and it's cheap.

Another solution is to warm the car up in a garage, then hit it with graphite to keep it from happening again. If you can't get the ignition lock to move, this is probably not going to happen, but for door locks it's worth trying.

--scott

"Robert11" wrote in news:xKGdnSpj1q3dwUnYnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@comcast.com:

Heat up your key with a blowtorch (use oven mitts to hold the key's head).

You have to get it good and hot or the heat won't soak in deeply enough to melt the ice.

Heat key, insert, attempt to turn, repeat several times. The lock will usually come loose.

If the lock fails to release even after repeated attempts, try the door on the other side of the car.

Can you open the hatch or trunk? If so go in that way. I have never had a hatch freese shut like that. And by the time I get to my destination, it has thawed so I can open the door regular.

Make a key way heater. You need a piece of BARE aluminum wire that will slide into the key way snug. Don't force it in you just want good contact with the barrel inside. Make it long enough that you can heat the other end with a butane torch or a lighter. The aluminum will conduct the heat into the lock barrel and melt out any ice in a less than a minute. Once it is thawed you can use some powdered graphite to keep it freed up. DO NOT USE ANT TYPE OF OIL. All that will do is collect dirt and grit and seize the tumblers.

Copper has about twice the thermal conductivity of aluminum, and it's probably easier to get some scrap copper wire.

"Steve W." wrote in news:er5vph$pv0$ snipped-for-privacy@aioe.org:

Only if the weather flap spring has broken and the weather flap is hanging open.

If your weather flap is still closing properly (and even if it's not, actually), oils are the very best thing. Something very light, like gun oil, sewing machine oil or 3-in-1.

If you're in Eastern Canada, aerosols like Krown T-30 or Rust Check are the very best there is.

The light aerosols are best because they make sure you lube the weather flap spring.

Use oils often and copiously, applying liberally enough so it spills out the keyhole.

The only drawback to using oils in your locks is when the temperature gets to -0F or below. Oils will become very thick, and the key must be turned slowly, so as to give the barrel time to turn.

Automotive locks with intact weather flaps are pretty well sealed and will not collect grit like houshold locks.

No, actually none of these are true. It may get the lock open now, but it will just cause trouble in the long run.

--scott

No. For any type of lock (except mortice locks, which have probably never been used on a car), use oils NEVER. Dust adsorbs onto oil.

The only lubricant you should use in a lock is graphite powder (either dry dust blown into the lock, or these days more usually in an aerosol can with a highly volatile carrier such as isopropyl alcohol).

This is not a subject for debate.

snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote in news:1172016346.274386.26120 @j27g2000cwj.googlegroups.com:

Only if it can get in in the first place. In an automotive lock with a dust flap, WATER is your enemy, not dust.

Of course, if you put just a tiny dribble of oil in the lock then leave it for ten years, you _might_ eventually have gumming problems as dust mixes with oil, but in the same span of time you'd have corrosion problems with plain graphite (or no lube at all) leading to seized and frozen locks.

For any lock subject to water, graphite is a mug's game.

It most certainly is.

Every time you push your key into the lock with any sort of moisture around, you push some water into the lock. Graphite does _ZERO_ to protect against the corrosive effects of water.

Oils all the way, baby.

Maybe you want to ask a locksmith. I can tell you the answer- NO OIL. Take a look at the approved lubricants for locks. They ALL use powdered graphite with an evaporative base. ANY oil will attract dust.

"Steve W." wrote in news:erg825$qlf$ snipped-for-privacy@aioe.org:

As a lifetime Rust-Belt car owner, long-time jouster with seized/frozen locks and dueller with broken weather flaps, I skewer your locksmiths on the shafts of worn keys. Locksmiths spend 99% of their time on mechanisms that never see weather.

Oil is the best for moisture-afflicted locks. The lighter the better, of course. And Krown T30/Rust Check - copiously and regularly used - are the very best of all, bar none.

Graphite is GREAT - provided a lock is never subject to WATER.

If you intend to intimidate me with "consensus", it will not work; consensus is equal to the phrase "generally agreed falsehood".

When it rains,regardless of the temperature,winter or summer,my key will not go all the way in so I can turn the key to unlock the the lock on the drivers side door of my 1978 Dodge van.I have to unlock the passenger side door and reach across to the drivers side door handle or pull up the lock thingy to unlock the drivers side door.I have tried WD-40 before,but that doesn't work.I also have a spare key I had made at a Wal Mart store and that doesn't work either for unlocking the lock.Once the drivers side door lock dries out real good,my keys work ok.No problems with the ignition switch (same key) and the other side door and the rear door lock.

......Larry