Re: Lock Freeze

[Chris Maresca <ckm@eainet.com>]

When I was living in Maine (north of Bangor, for those who know...), I
used to keep a bottle of rubbing alcohol around.  Dipping my key in it,
and inserting it into the lock usually solved sticky locks.  

It seems that the evaporating alcohol creates heat, which helps in freeing
up lock parts.  I guess it also disolves accumulated gunk in the lock. 
Tested upto -30F.  For lower temperatures, heat up your key with a
lighter, insert into lock.  Tested upto -70F, unfortunatly... 

If you're worried about grease stains in your pants from the lubed lock, I
suggest sowing(sp?) machine oil.  No stains, works great.

Chris
'90 CQ (looking for a dark '91 w/low miles)
'87 RX7 Tii (for sale soon) 

On Tue, 13 Jan 1998, Virtual Bob wrote:

> >> I think the locks on my '86 4kcsq feeze too easily.  Any solution for this?
> 
> >I recently squirted some powdered graphite (cheap & easy @ autoparts
> >stores) into a few locks around here.  Noticed much easier key operation
> >at first but it seems to have faded a bit.  Hard to tell...
> 
> We just hit -1 here (and more chill with wind-chill factor). The two cars
> I've treated with graphite power is squeaking when I tried to lock and
> unlock 'em. Anyone has other ideas?
> 
> >You should try cleaning and lubing your trunk lock mechanism.  Clean
> >with WD-40 or whatever, lube with lithium I guess.  Any better ideas?
> 
> The problem with the above two you mention is they will bring the gunk
> with the key -- which usually goes into the pocket. Not very convenient,
> but good solution on other placeses where messiness is not a concern.
> 
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