Door Latches Freezing- 1996 Cutlass 2 Door

[bluecalais79]

Ok, first below freezing morning after it rained over night, the drivers side door froze and I was not able to get in from the outside. I had to go in through the passengers side and push open the drivers side door. Of note, the passengers side stuck a bit as well and I'm sure there will come a time (soon) when both doors will be stuck/frozen from the outside. Does anyone know of perhaps a spray or a good lubricant that may combat this?

 

I remember my 1991 Calais having this issue, it got so bad that sometimes I had to crawl through the pass through from the trunk to get into the car. I can do this again with this car if needed but it's not what I prefer to be doing on a cold day.

 

Any suggestions would be appreciated, thanks. The photo is from the 1994 I had but the door pull is the same style.

[vipmiller803]

I haven't resorted to going through the trunk yet thank goodness... Usually one side will be more frozen than the other based on sun exposure and wind direction, so I try not to mess with a stuck one too much. Remember our handles are made of pot metal and will certainly break with moderate force. They are a known weak point. The most I have done is sort of body slam the door to get the ice to break. Usually works. You could grab a can of de-icer too and leave it in the trunk. They use a combination of alcohols that will melt water down to 40ish below.

[Imp558]

Has anyone tried dismantling them and coating everything with white grease? Might be a good step on the to-do list when replacing them.

[vipmiller803]

I've had to replace mine. It broke on a nice day with me barely pulling on it, before it unlatched the door. The handle itself only has one hinge and it's pretty low friction, it's just the mechanism inside as well as the force it takes to open the massive door that get to them over time.

[jimmyfloyd]

Look online to see if there is something you can put on the seals of the doors to keep them from freezing. I remember i looked into it when the windows on my Volvo were freezing to the weather strip because the windows need to go down for the door to open (frameless) 

[Imp558]

If it's the seals I wipe them with silicone spray. It's not something we want on paint though since it makes touching paint up difficult so I spray it on a rag. Straight silicone spray is also pretty awesome on plastic and rubber under the hood, not ridiculous gloss but a nice sheen.

[oldmangrimes]

This post is a good reminder for me to add "pre-treat door seals with silicone spray" as part of my winterizing routine.    I've had problems the last couple years with ice sealing my doors shut.    I've got one garage space and three cars, so two of them get covered with ice a few times every year.  All three cars are getting old, and the door seals are letting more moisture in which makes them freeze shut more.   And with my vert, climbing in through the trunk isn't a option if it's not the lucky car in the garage that night.

 

 I've tried all the tricks (chemical de-icer, covering with tarp, cardboard on the windshield, lube door seals, alcohol, hair dryer, heat gun, ice scraper, etc.) and they all work a little but I haven't found a quick and easy magic solution.   A warning, when I used a heat gun on my BMW last winter it melted part of the plastic trim around the window seal.   I also broke the window mechanism when I tried to roll down the window to help knock the partially melted ice off.   This year I'll try to be more patient when de-icing.     

[mfewtrail]

The factory recommended dielectric grease(silicone) on the door weatherstripping. A very light coat should be sufficient.

[94 olds vert]

It doesn't hurt to spray the latch and linkage ends with silicone.

Edited November 11, 2017 by 94 olds vert

[bluecalais79]

Thanks all, I will give the silicone spray a try. Fortunately these door latches are still available for sale if it comes to that. Man, this is starting to give me fits now, both doors are doing it consistently, I'm really dreading morning frost these days. I was looking for an excuse to justify laying this car up for the winter & not use it, looks like the car itself is taking care of that for me. If I can't get into it, looks like it'll be covered this winter. Not a bad thing at all, when you think about it, the car is turning out to be too nice of a ride to ruin with winter salt.

[bluecalais79]

As a follow up, thanks for the idea on the silicone spray. It worked great on the drivers side door. Not so much success for the passengers side but that's not an overall concern. And now it's under a cover till next April when I'll give them another spray. I'll miss driving it but I won't miss RUINING it if I were to expose it to the salt/chemicals.

[Imp558]

It works well but if you ever have body or paint done the body guys will need to know about it so they can take extra care to clean everything they need to spray. Some body guys don't even like having the stuff in the same state as them, lol.

[Mark 1997 Cutlass Coupe]

My 97 Coupe did the same thing, but only on really icy days. I took my wife's hair dryer out to the car and defrosted it that way. It took a little longer than a heat gun, but nothing melted. I also carry a spare driver and passenger side door handle in the trunk at all times, just in case. If one breaks, I replace it immediately. We all know about Murphy's law!

[bluecalais79]

Say, where can I get one of those spare door handles, they still available?

[Galaxie500XL]

Dorman makes a replacement door handle, they work pretty well, but most of us were disappointed with the paint quality. The only one I bought needed a bit of persuasion to fit the curve of the door.

[bluecalais79]

Yup, love those re-pops. So far the lube worked on the drivers side it works like new, but, it looks like I won't be opening either one for quite some time.........

[bluecalais79]

And the photo shows why. I'm going to need dynamite to get that car cover off, it's frozen on there quite well.

[j_mezz]

Has anyone put a solenoid in to pop the door?  I know it's been mentioned in some of the many door handle threads but I have yet to see it actually done on a W. 

 

My handles have irritated me for the last time, as soon as it gets warm I'm gonna start tinkering.

[Nas Escobar]

I've had the idea but never went through with it. I always thought we would end up doing that once they stopped making the handle.

[Imp558]

Oh that's a good idea. I wanted to do them on my old Skylark and my best friend asked me what my plan was for when the battery went dead. I figured one of those little weatherproof boxes underneath in the back with wires rolled up in it that I could pop with another car's battery.

[j_mezz]

I'm thinking about mounting a pushbutton in the keyhole to activate, and for the 'what it the battery's dead' question I'm thinking about an external hood release via cable.  If I come up with anything good I'll start a how to thread.

[Imp558]

Or eliminate the primarily hood latch and do hood locks and retain the secondary.

[Imp558]

 

Here's a mad ass thought, why are we waiting for our insanely rare door handles to break at all? These popper springs are an easy install and the door would pop open as soon as the handle releases so there wouldn't be any pulling on it.

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B005J8VM28

 

 

[j_mezz]

Well, at least in my case, freezing closed isn't the only thing going on.  Whenever the temperature changes significantly I think the rods change shape to the point that the handle doesn't release untill I readjust the handle.  But, I think the poppers will go in along with the release solenoid.