Scottish Elises

Does anybody know a full proof way of stopping your doors freezing up in cold weather?

I've had my TT since may and due to the cold weather over the past week, I've struggled with the doors! After some de-icing, I'm able to get the door open, get in and get the engine started up, but the door wont close! Nothing to do with the seals around the door, they're fine....its something to do with the door mechanism itself, or perhaps even the door sensor. There must be a frozen element in behind the door panel that is stopping the door catching and locking shut, given that I've de-iced all visible elements of the door latch. Only way I can get it shut is to pour warm water over the door panel to heat it up, but obviously this is just a temporary fix since this water then refreezes!!

Any ideas??

If it wasn't under warranty i'd take the door panel off, dry everything up and re lubricate, but i dont really want to start taking panels off at this stage....tempted to take it to audi and have them do it! Annoyed that a car designed in Germany cant handle a week of -3deg temperatures!

I miss my garage

I assume the Hairdryer's in the glovebox, so not an option?

*snigger* come on chaps, this is technical... Nobody got any serious options? *snigger*

You used to get those gas powered key shaped heaters that you stick in the lock. Don't know if they are still around though.

wuld have thought it would be mositure related.

Grease everything .

Sure there was a product specifically for this but cant for the life of me remember what is was..........

What year is your TT Craig?

Ian has had no problem with his.

tut

My A6 had the same problem, it's caused by some plonker (before I bought it) spraying oil/grease into the lock mechanism, which then attracts dust and grit, which then bungs the lock up and it won't latch closed because the lock doesn't work fast enough (because it's all bunged up with sh1te) . . . in the interim try closing the door very slowly (as it finally closes) and pull it closed rather than just slamming it, if that doesnt work try a very light teflon spray like GT85 and rinse the mechanism out as best you car (as at this stage you have no choice) which can get them working again for a while . . . sadly in my experience the only solution is to replace the lock (3 cars so far - all the same issue) and don't fill it with crap again . . . this is, certainly in every Audi I have done this in, non trivial and will probably mean removing the whole window frame and door handle . . . simple enough, but not a 1 spanner job . . . finally gave up with my car and replaced the lock (120quid) as it was taking 15 minutes to get the door to latch . . .

. . . the lock part is made in . . . France . . . say no more . . .

Fd

ETA :

The old lock was in the garage . . .

If you open the door and look into the lock from the end face of the door . . . you will probably see something that looks like this



where it should look like this



The hook like thing inside the lock not returning to it's correct 'open' position (per the second image) is the giveaway . . .

Have been having exactly this same issue on my A6 Avant, sitting gloating about how good the quattro is in the snow, only to be laughed at when it is taking me 10 minutes any time someone gets in the passenger seat to shut the door.

Oddly enough this morning my passenger decided to hold the door as we set off, and by the time we got where we were going, it had shut properly on its own....

Fd, thanks for the input here!

Dave

I had to help someone get in to an A4 a couple of days ago, after they used hot water to de - ice which then found it's way into the lock and froze.

Just guessing, but might be something to do with the low temperatures causing the parts to tighten up a bit. Maybe the additional accuracy of the German spec is a disadvantage when it comes to this - but you would expect that to be taken care of in the -50deg testing.

Could it be anything to do with central locking and the condition of the other locks - ie not specifically the door that you've got open?

Interestingly I was just discussing how the drivers door on the A4 always opens but the others are often stuck on the seal - this may be due to the extra wear that the drivers door sees.

Kerry

My Seat boot managed to freeze open this morning as I opened it to scrape the inside of the rear window.

Last year, using the VX through the winter, I looked into doing something to the locks to stop them freezing, and graphite powder seemed to come up a lot.

Basically, it is a fine powder that is used to lubricate locks, and as it is powder, doesn't freeze apparently.

Chris

tut wrote:What year is your TT Craig?

Ian has had no problem with his.

tut

Its a 58 plate tut.

As kerryxeg says, I'd expect a German car tested to much colder temps than we're experiencing just to be able to handle it....

I've stopped using the driver door now, as I've found that the passenger door hasn't been freezing up, and using warm water to de-ice the door isn't a particularly clever idea in the long term! Car is due a service pretty soon so I'll get them to clean out the door lock as per fd's advice.....cant be having this everytime the temperature gets low seeing as we live in Scotland!!

Pour 2 litres of warm water all over the door in the morning. Yea ok the water sits in there and freezes again, but you just repeat the process, big deal, you have to do that without the water anyways! it's the easiest to find most harmless de-icer of all, and what folk who live in places much colder than here use.

But it always gets a bad press... because no one makes any money from it!

You could get an automatic starter that way you can warm the car up from the comfort of your living room.

I did as suggested, rather than constantly slamming the door, I simply leant against it for a minute or so, walked away and it had shut itself. No need for anymore abuse, it seems to happen only when the car is very cold or not used in a while. The door shuts properly 100% of the time, when the car has been used and is warm!