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YACT: Best way to de ice locks?

L

Leper Messiah

Banned
This happened to me on monday, and it took almost an hour before I got the damn thing open. Anyone have a nice quick solution for when this happens. I would park it in a garage, but in my apartment complex there are more tenants than garages...
 
Toss some water in the microwave for a minute or two (until it is boiling/steaming), grab a turkey baster or pipette, suck up some hot water, blast it all over your lock and inside it too. Or you can just de-ice the surface of the lock by splashing hot water on it. Should only take two or three minutes to do; not sure what the heck you were doing for an hour.
 
BTW, alcohol works too. Grab some rubbing, denatured, or hell, even some baccardi 151 and inject the lock with it. 😀
 
Originally posted by: jpeyton
Toss some water in the microwave for a minute or two (until it is boiling/steaming), grab a turkey baster or pipette, suck up some hot water, blast it all over your lock and inside it too. Or you can just de-ice the surface of the lock by splashing hot water on it. Should only take two or three minutes to do; not sure what the heck you were doing for an hour.
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I dunno. It was weird. I could turn the key one way, but not the other. I tried the water thing, didn't help. Tried to heat up my key with a lighter, but it was too windy. Ended up getting some windshield washer fluid and pouring some down inbetween the door and the window, hopeing that would loosen up the crap in there and torqued the key with a wrench until it finally broke the ice.
 
alcohol. works instantly.

you can buy little bottles of rubbing alcohol with a key shaped injector for this purpose, up here at least.. "lock de-icer". like $1.
 
Yeah, iced up locks suck. Especially if it's that freezing rain kinda stuff that just puts a layer of ice over the whole car. 🙁

 
Originally posted by: Crazyfool
Yeah, iced up locks suck. Especially if it's that freezing rain kinda stuff that just puts a layer of ice over the whole car. 🙁
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Worse. It was raining for a couple of hours. Then it sleeted for a couple more hours. Then it snowed for like 6 hours. The next night I try and go out for some taco bell and I can't get into my car! I'm freezing my ass off out there trying to figure out why my key doesn't work...next morning I went out there and spent a good hour on it...
 
Do not under any circumstance pour hot water in your locks, it will freeze once again and then you will be in real trouble, take a hair dryer and thoroughly dry the locks out, go to your local auto parts store and purchase a tube of graphite lube, liberally spray each lock (open the little door), then run the key through them.
In the future you might do what I do, when I know it is going to rain and then freeze over night, I take a small piece of electrical tape and cover the lock face.
 
Originally posted by: crustyoldman
Do not under any circumstance pour hot water in your locks, it will freeze once again and then you will be in real trouble, take a hair dryer and thoroughly dry the locks out, go to your local auto parts store and purchase a tube of graphite lube, liberally spray each lock (open the little door), then run the key through them.
In the future you might do what I do, when I know it is going to rain and then freeze over night, I take a small piece of electrical tape and cover the lock face.
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The nearest power outlet is....roughly 300 feet away from my car...I'll try the graphite thing though...
 
Go over a a friends house and use an outlet over there, you must remove the water from those locks before lubing them with graphite.
 
Originally posted by: crustyoldman
Go over a a friends house and use an outlet over there, you must remove the water from those locks before lubing them with graphite.
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LMAO. How is he supposed to bring the car to a friends house?
 
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