iced shut doors....

alright, my xj and now my gf's zj seem to have similar probs and i was wondering if you could help....when it gets to damn cold out the doors will freeze shut, i guess there is water finding its way between the door seal and the inside edge of the door and then icing the two together...i usually just give a slight yank on the xj and it will pop right open...very little ice...however the zj seems to collect a hell of a lot of water...when i forced it open the other day i found a sheet of ice in the form of a "T" (one inch tall and one inch wide basically wedged in between and on top of the rubber door seal and the door (along the top, front side of the door), yet it was not visible from the outside...unless i pried at the edge of the door and looked down...any ideas on how to combat this would be nreally nice cuz i dont wanna have to drive twenty minutes again to yank open a unlocked zj's doors..
..thanks.
.maier

oh and i guess cuz the lil lady doesnt wanna stand out in the cold that long again either...

silicone spray on the weatherstripping. If you don't have any, you can use armorall too, but you'll have to do it more often.

silicone huh? thats too easy.....it has to be more complicated....JK..spray silicone it is..thanks...
Maier

Silicone 2 or 3 times a year for sure, keep a can by the door and if it's really been freezing and melting and freezing I do it more..sure beats the heck out of the wife dragging me out of a warm bed to go after the door with a heat gun cause she's got an early morning...

I was told to use vasoline.
Anyone think of any issues with that?
I like the spray idea.

Spray "Pledge" furniture cleaner on the weather stripping and your done with iced up doors. I work at Avis rental cars and the cars come out of the wash rack and instant freeze up before we started spraying them with Pledge.
The warmest it has got to here in the last 20 days is 24F.

XJ4PLAY said:

I was told to use vasoline.
Anyone think of any issues with that?
I like the spray idea.

Click to expand...

It will get all over everything. JIM.

Ive never had a problem using silicone spray or silicone grease. Ive heard that vaseline on the door seals will deteriorate them, jeep recommends silicone.

You can use:
PAM cooking spray...spray on a rag n wipe down seals
Vasilone ditto
Armorall ditto
For door locks...50/50 mix of alcohol/water(rubbing alcohol not drinkin alcohol)

...or you can do what I did when mine froze shut. I crawled in through the back hatch and strecthed forward to start the Jeep w/heater on High. Ten or fifteen minutes later when I went back out it was thawed enough to open.

In retrospect, a little silicon on the seals probably goes a long ways.

lol, just call into work and tell them you cant come for a couple hours because you're having vehicle problems. =) it'll work a few times before they catch on!

silicone-weatherstripping,.... lock de-icer-locks,.... "HEET" (or equiv.)-glass, and is good for deicing forzen door latches, the large amount of spray gets in places where lock deicer can't reach

Another vote for silicone spray.