seeking way to thaw frozen car doors quickly?

Question

89 Nissan Sentra , neither back doors open, now having trouble with front doors , not opening or closing in the cold. Need to put 3 year old grandson in back seat at 10 pm . It is cold , need doors to work. Any ideas? Thank you.
LIL"M"

Answer 1

Lockease is a good answer. Also, WD-40 works well for this, as do many other solvents that displace moisture, and leave behind a lubricant. You need to open the door, and on the rear edge of the door is the mechanism that latches the door to the car body (rear of the door opening.) Spray into as much of the mechanism as you can reach (use the plastic straw that comes with the can.) Also, spray a bit into each key lock hole from the outside (careful, depress nozzle just barely, as it will squirt back out at you, and can stain your clothes.) This should help. However, I have found over the years, that a lot of the problem is that the several locking rods inside the door get dry, and slightly corroded. When this happens, any moisture in the air will freeze onto the rods, and make them unable to move. Once this happens, none of the mechanisms that lock or unlock the doors will work correctly. If spraying what you can reach does not cure your troubles, you will have to remove the interior door trim panels, and spray all the locking rods inside the door. A body shop is likely to be the fastest, cheapest, and most qualified to do this kind of maintainence, if you aren't comfortable doing it yourself. I hope this helps.

Answer 2

Take your door lock key. Heat it up with lighter (or bronz-o-burner). Hold it with a pliers. When it is fairly hot, put it in the key hole and let the heat spread (few seconds). If that doesn't work, try again. I saw a mechanic do this and it worked well. Afterward, squirt some lub like wd40 (WATER DISPLACEMENT formula 40). It will keep water off the lock mechanism for the next freeze. Good Luck.

Answer 3

Lock ease @ auto parts or hardware

Answer 4

Battery powered blow dryer. Set it on high.