If you want to avoid stress with frozen car doors, grease the door seals regularly, for example with petroleum jelly. Alternatively, silicone spray can also help. The seals should first be thoroughly cleaned with water and detergent.
Why do you do this? The grease keeps the rubber supple. It does not become porous, moisture cannot penetrate. Because it is precisely the moisture that causes the doors to freeze in winter. Special care products are available for door seals in specialist shops or at petrol stations.
Place dehumidifier cushions in the car
What helps against fogged up or icy windows in the interior also helps with frozen doors. So-called dehumidifier cushions remove moisture from the air inside. This prevents condensation from forming and freezing. Of course, no wet shoes, clothing or even open drinks bottles should be left in the car. Moisture spreads everywhere.
Maintaining the door lock
In order for the door lock mechanism to remain supple and to function even in frosty conditions, it should be treated regularly with WD40 grease or graphite. Simply spray the grease or graphite into the door lock. The agents are then distributed over the metal parts.
Household means for door lock and sealing rubbers
If you do not have any lubricating oil, silicone spray or graphite at hand, door locks and sealing rubbers can also be maintained with other products. In the household you can find different things that help well.
For example, you can also use a lip care stick (Labello) to grease sealing rubbers. Conventional Vaseline as used for skin care, tut´s also. Simply lubricate the seals with the grease.
Baby powder also helps with brittle sealing rubbers. The powder contains talcum, which makes the rubber supple again. The disadvantage is that the baby powder has to be applied generously and the treatment has to be repeated more often. Because the effect does not last very long.
Anyone who thinks that salad oils can also help with locks is on the wrong track. On the contrary, the metal parts stick together over time. Here only WD40 or silicone spray helps. The means are not expensive however and the expenditure is worthwhile itself any time.
To protect against icing, it helps to simply mask the door lock with adhesive plaster overnight or for longer parking periods.
Safelock Danger: Caught in a Car
More and more vehicles are equipped with Safelock. What it is and how it works. Read more About 247 locksmiths for more details.
Safelock is a safety lock designed to prevent thieves from entering the car. The system locks all doors, both inside and out, once the driver has got out and pressed the key remote control.
If there are still people in the car, they have a big problem: they cannot open the doors or lower the windows themselves. The vehicle thus becomes a dangerous trap – especially in warm weather. That’s why neither people nor animals should be in the car when Safelock is activated.
Danger inside the car
The Safelock function is designed to make life difficult for a burglar. Even if he smashes a side window, he cannot open a door from the inside and easily use the valuables. It is no longer possible to open the door from the inside, even by pressing the central locking button. A problematic, often life-threatening situation for all those who remain in the car. The safety function can only be deactivated using the car manufacturer’s key or mobile app.
Break the window
It becomes particularly dangerous when a car that has already been heated from the inside is left in the sun for a longer period of time at an outside temperature of 25 degrees Celsius. The interior becomes a sauna and you threaten to suffocate. A tricky situation for older people, which can even be fatal for small children. In such a situation there is usually nothing else but to smash a window.
The side windows are suitable for this, whether in the front or in the back. The windshield cannot be broken at all because of the laminated safety glass and its replacement is expensive. And the rear window is usually too far away.
Preventing the Safelock Danger
After all, it is possible to prevent this danger. In many vehicles, Safelock can be easily deactivated, for example by pressing the “Lock” button on the car key twice. The car is only locked from the outside, but can be opened normally from the inside.
Deactivation varies depending on the make. In VW, for example, pressing the lock button on the remote control twice is enough to deactivate the Safelock function. It is worth taking a look at the car’s operating manual. If nothing is specified, a brand representative can help.
