Stupid car tricks.

[siercia]

I love my little car, I really do.

But I wish it handled cold weather better.

For years, it's had this annoying habit of freezing the doors shut when it's cold - moisture gets in the padding that seals to doors edges and them the padding freezes to the doorframe, making it difficult to open the doors at times. Once, for the first time, this winter, the driver's side door froze well enough that I couldn't open it. Thankfully Widget was in the car and was able to push from the outside and between the two of us, we were able to get it open.

This morning, it trotted out a new trick, even more annoying.

I opened the rear driver's side door to put my stuff into the car, and it wouldn't close. Hmmmm.... Something caught in the door? Nope. Try again. Nope. Slam, slam, slam. Nope, nope nope.


Wiiiiiiley!

He comes outside. Slam. Slam slam slam. Nada. Zip! Zero! Zilch.

Siiiiigh.

He ended up getting the heat gun for paint scraping and gently warming up the door mechanism so that it would engage properly when the door got pushed shut. I'd hoped it was fixed, but when I got to the office and had to open the door to get my bag out, it wouldn't shut, again.

sigh.

I love my car, really.

Comments

[siercia]

That seems to be exactly what it's doing here - but when we manually manipulate the latch, it moves right, but when it gets pushed open to go over the car side of the latch, it's getting stuck open and not re-closing.

Fun times, I tell you.

[quezz.livejournal.com]

My doors froze this morning, and I had to become a yogi and slip into the driver's seat through the rear driver side door, which was the only one I could get open.

My car is a stick shift.
With a ski mount between the front seats.
And I am a fat lady.

Lovely. One of my doors didn't shut quite either, but it did enough to let the car run with merely the annoying "Your door's open!" light going off on my dashboard. I still can't get my windows to open and close.

Oh, and I had to wear my boarder gloves today it was so damn cold!

[siercia]

Ha!

The day I have to try and wiggle into the drivers seat from the back, is probably the day I stay wherever the car is until the spring thaw.

[quezz.livejournal.com]

Believe me, I was tempted!

[dchenes.livejournal.com]

Them of us what had to wait for buses this morning weren't having much fun either. Who ordered the Arctic air?

[siercia]

I can't even imagine. I say all the people scurrying to the train station this morning looking very miserable.

[gimmeapony.livejournal.com]

My old Passat used to do that. It would make me homicidal. Seriously, that's got to be one of the most obnoxious and frustrating things ever.

[siercia]

Oh, it really really is. Drives me batshit, playing the "oooh, will my door open today" game.

[quezz.livejournal.com]

I dunno if we know each other, but I had to say: being an ex-wife...I laughed my ass off at that. Call it an off-color sense of humor. :)

[siercia]

*snerk*

[(Anonymous)]

Two words: Silicon Lube.

My 323 doors did this on those rare truly cold NC days. A hearty application of silicon lube helped me. I don't know if it will help you, as cold as it gets up there, but might be worth a try.

And you don't have to use sex lube like I did - they do sell silicon lube at the auto parts store - but the giggle factor of someone finding the sex lube on my floorboard was a plus. Seriously.

[dollraves.livejournal.com]

Gee. Helps if I log in, doesn't it. The silicon lube is my suggestion.

-Linger

[siercia]

I'd guessed it was you, actually.

Wiley agrees with your idea, we've just not gotten around to it yet.

[string-on-desk.livejournal.com]

My car doors used to do this up in Potsdam. Once I had to have the car towed to a garage so it could thaw. Then once it thawed I drove it to school and the doors promptly wouldn't shut once I got out of the car. It was a long day that day.

[siercia]

Oh, having to get the car towed for something like that would make me INSANE.

And then the insult to injury of having the doors refuse to shut? I probably would have set fire to the darn thing.

[rachelmichellek.livejournal.com]

the car talk guys had someone on their show talking about the exact same door- sticking thing just a few weeks ago.

[juliruge.livejournal.com]

it was stone cold, this am.

when i turned over the motor, it made that dying cow sound before springing to life. yikes! not a new battery already!!

[siercia]

Probably not - since even good batteries have trouble with this much cold. That's not a good sound though, no.

[gala.livejournal.com]

I not only had frozen doors this morning (interesting to negotiate while carrying a toddler wearing a dress and tights since mama didn't realize it was going to be that freezing cold out, her backpack, her nap bag, and my purse), but at some point last week the drains got clogged on our roof or doors somewhere causing water to pool behind the driver's seat. Not so bad, except this morning there was frost on the car. On the INSIDE of the windshield.

Let's recap:

*Kidcicle
*Ice on the inside
*Shady driveway
*Convex windshield
*Concave ice scraper

D'oh!

(At least my butt was toasty!)

[siercia]

Oh, FUN!

Yeah, our drains have done that a couple of times. When they've done it, we get water in out cabin lights - the ones over the sun visors and the big one over the mirror.

It's kind of fun driving around with a car that gurgles when you go around corners.