Useful tips from the author of Healthy Food Near Me on how to prepare a car for the cold and quickly deal with its “defrost”:
The door creaked
Doors in the cold must be lubricated, and in advance. Experienced drivers in winter have a can of WD-40 defrost liquid on hand (and not in the trunk). But don’t confuse it with grease. It will help the frozen castle to open, but that’s all. After that, it would be nice to lubricate it so that the lock subsequently works well and does not rust. An easy way is to dip the key in engine oil (do you have at least a liter canister for topping up?) and turn it several times in the well. If there is a small butter dish with a sharp spout, it’s very good.
If the car is started by a button, and there is no key on the alarm console, look for it more carefully, it is often hidden inside the key fob to be used in such emergencies. Sometimes, with keyless access, the keyhole is not visible on the door handle, but in reality it also exists, it is just covered. In the instructions for the car, all this is written and shown in the diagram.
thin layer
Another freezing place is the rubber seals between the doors and the body. In wet weather or after a car wash, they get wet, and during frosts they seize. Yes, so much so that men sometimes break off door handles. Or, worse, they try to hook something on the edge of the door – with a scraper, a bank card or the same key – and they cripple the body iron. You don’t have to do that! To begin with, it is better to try to open another door and get into the salon through it, and then open the driver’s door from the inside. So that the seals do not freeze, it is enough just to occasionally wipe them dry with a cloth. But the ideal option is to use silicone sprays, the rubber parts will stay intact and elastic longer.
Choose a can with a long tube for easy application. The same spray needs to be treated from time to time along the bottom edge of the door windows. This is necessary so that ice does not form there, preventing the windows from lowering. Just keep in mind that silicone grease is not easy to wash off, so a narrow strip of a couple of centimeters is enough. Do not immediately press the power window button, do not smear the liquid all over the glass. Treat all doorways with this spray and do not forget about the lid or tailgate!
ice-free period
There are special defrosters for quick defrosting of the car and deicing of windows and side mirrors. They are sold in the same cans as regular home glass cleaners, but they serve a different purpose. They should not freeze or even turn into a gel in the cold, but, on the contrary, quickly melt the frost and ice on the glass. So that you do not freeze your hands and do not scratch the car, wielding a scraper.
A half-liter jar of such a product can cost 250 – 300 rubles, but not all of them can cope with our frosts. It is better to consult with the sellers in the store and find out from friends which of the defrosters they trust. Otherwise, at the most inopportune moment, it may turn out that there will be useless colored ice in the jar.
Take care of the wipers
Laziness and haste are a deadly threat to windshield wipers. Well, this is a thin design, it is only needed to wash the washer fluid from the glass. But not for stripping off ice or dried mud of various origins. If the wiper brush works for you instead of a scraper, get ready to change it quickly.
Some have a bad habit of not touching the wipers with their hands at all, forcing them to fight snowdrifts and ice on the windshield on their own. This is a direct road to burning a fuse or even a motor. Another way to harm the car is to force the wipers to play on the dry, dirty glass when the washer is frozen or over. Rubber bands wear out, glass scratches, but visibility does not improve much, and accidents occur because of this.