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<p>The lady at Sam’s Club asked me why my Sam’s Club card no longer has my photo on it. I had used the car to scrape the windshield once and the outer plastic layer of the card peeled off.</p>
<p>Our SoCal girl is spending the winter in MN with a car. As she told me the other day, “Mom, did you know that you have to scrape the ice off of headlights in MN?!”</p>
<p>BCEagle - I almost had to resort to that yesterday, and was wondering how it would work. D2’s car was parked right behind mine (which was in the garage), and I needed to move it to get out to an appointment. None of her car doors would open; it wasn’t a matter of the key in the lock; it was a door frozen shut. I kept chipping away around the frame of the door until I got some movement, and would chip away again. Had it taken me much longer, I was going to pursue the hairdryer option. Luckily we already have extension cords outside for the Christmas decorations. But yes, I heard of a story yesterdaay where someone snapped off their door handle when trying to open the driver’s side door.</p>
<p>Our garage door wouldn’t open in the morning for my husband; it, too was frozen shut (first time ever). By the time I was ready to leave, it was able to open a little, stop, open a little more, stop, etc. until it opened all the way.</p>
<p>Thank you all for the terrific advice! 
I will go to WalMart soon and buy an ice scraper.</p>
<p>We have just moved to MN from hot tropic Asia, my stupid brother tried to lick snow off our car when we were little - not a good thing.</p>
<p>Winterizing your car:</p>
<p>• Lubricate your door locks using a graphite based spray (lock de-icer). Do not use WD-40 type sprays. These lubricants will freeze. Spray into the door locks and twist your key in the lock several times to work in the lubricant.
• Your door is sticking because the weatherstripping needs lubrication. Buy an aerosol can of silicon based spray. Your door has a rubber seal around its outer edges. Your car’s door opening also has a rubber seal. Spray the silicon lubricant generously over both rubber seals. Use a rag to remove any excess lube. Silicon spray repels moisture from the door seals. It’s the moisture that makes the doors stick.
• Your door hinges also need lubrication. Use a spray can of white (lithium) grease. Open and close the door several times to work in the grease.
• Go to an auto parts store and have your battery/alternator checked to see if your car’s charging circuit is in good working order. Your ten year old car may need a new battery to handle the stress of cold weather starting. Auto parts stores offer this service for free (in order to sell you a new battery).
• Buy a set of good jumper cables. They should be at lease 12 gage (wire thickness). Lower numbers are better. Longer lengths are better. Sometimes you can’t get front bumper to bumper close to jump your car with another car.
• Get a good air pressure gage for your tires. Every ten degree drop in temperature lowers your tire’s pressure one pound. Keep your tires properly inflated per your owner’s manual.
• Be sure your tires have enough tread depth to cope with rain, snow and ice.
• Get a good ice scraper/snow brush. Windshield de-icer spray works ok with ice, but you’ll still need a scraper.
• Be sure you have road service through your auto insurance.
• A good way of keeping ice and snow off your windshield is to cover it with some plastic sheeting. Some windshield sun shades are made to be used outside of the vehicle. They cover the windshield and have flaps that tuck inside the front doors to keep them tight and secure. Buy two for both the front and rear glass. Or you can use big industrial/garbage size bags on a roll. Unroll the bags across your windshield and tuck them into the doors to keep them stretched across the glass.
• If the weather’s bad, you don’t need a Taco Grande at 1:00 am.</p>
<p>I bought electric ice scrapers for everyone for Christmas! They plug into the car’s power outlet and will heat up. My H keeps his car at the top of the driveway next to the road. I hope he will enjoy this little toy!</p>
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<p>After all that serious advice, I laughed aloud at this one. =)</p>
<p>People have already given really good advice. I’ll just reiterate that a good ice-scraper/snow-brusher will save you a lot of misery. My mother once took the ice scraper out of my car without telling me, resulting in my spending an hour outside my friends’ apartment at 3am using a spoon and textbook cover to try and get a half inch of ice off the car so I could get home! They make ice scrapers built into warm waterproof mittens, and they’re worth it–you can get a basic scraper for $1 at the grocery store, but you’ll end up cold, wet, miserable, and it takes forever! [Amazon.com:</a> Ultimate Ice Scraper Mitt: Automotive](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Hoppy-Ultimate-Ice-Scraper-Mitt/dp/B0007ZAJF4]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/Hoppy-Ultimate-Ice-Scraper-Mitt/dp/B0007ZAJF4)</p>
<p>Also remember while you’re scraping that your car’s under there. It’s often very hard to get ice off the side-view mirrors without breaking them, but they’re annoying to replace.</p>
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<p>My door was sticking because we’d had rain, freezing ice, then a temperature drop of 20 degrees the night before. Literally, the car was covered in ice, not just the door. And I hate chipping ice off of the car, as opposed to just the windows. Am always afraid I’m going to scrape the paint.</p>
<p>BTW - if AAA only came out for cases of car problems that weren’t the fault of the car’s driver, then they’d be awfully bored. USE THEM! That’s what your parents pay the membership fees for. Really, I’d be more upset if my kid should have called AAA, but didn’t. Would make me wonder how dire a situation would get before they’d call them, when the purpose of the membership is to help out stranded motorists.</p>
<p>And I’m guessing this roommate isn’t the one with celiac’s disease? I can’t imagine that Taco Bell has anything on their menu she could have.</p>
<p>We use AAA for the guidebooks. We’ve never needed road assistance since getting the Toyota in 2000. When we did need it in the 1990s, it could take one to four hours to get help. They typical help day was really, really cold or really, really bad weather and there would be loads of other AAA customers need road service as well. I have my car serviced at the dealer and they take care of all of the prep stuff from season to season.</p>
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<p>No, this was a different roommate. :)</p>
<p>Old car cassettes work great as ice scrapers. If your car is ten years old there’s a chance that you might find one under the seat or somewhere.</p>
<p>The temp will never get lower at SSU than it has this week, so if your car started up this week it will probably continue to do so, unless the battery gets low. Just make sure that you drive the car enough to charge up the battery occasionally. You shouldn’t need to run the car for more than a few seconds before starting to drive.</p>
<p>In northern california, the biggest cold challenge you will face is battery failure. If your battery is more than 3 years old, have it checked. Make sure you are using the car a couple of times a week and you should be fine.</p>
<p>As for ice scraping, while credit cards work, you can mess up the magnetic stripe on the back using them in this manner (I’ve done it). Since that incident, I have used other cards which don’t have the strip (Health insurance card in my case). Don’t scrape the side of the car, instead slip the card into the slot and work your way down - less likely to damage paint. </p>
<p>In addition to cassettes, CDs also work - but not iPods :)</p>
<p>[url=<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3UGhRjPry4]BlondeStar[/url”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3UGhRjPry4]BlondeStar[/url</a>]</p>
<p>Ha ha ha! I’m sorry but as I wandered out to get the mail in -30 degree weather this thread made me laugh! he he! Your battery should really be ok…ours has never failed in the cold here. Buy a cheap scraper from the Dollar Store and keep under your seat. Good luck with the cold weather!!! ;)</p>
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<p>In the Northern Hemisphere–fill you gas tank and drive South!</p>
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I’ve used this technique many times including in Erie, Pa once when the car was being assaulted by horizontal freezing H2O. I couldn’t believe people lived there of their own free will.</p>
<p>Before heading out to the mountains to ski I’ve tried to buy an ice scraper around here and it’s about impossible. I’ve had to wait and stop at stores close to the ski area to buy one and then I sometimes forget to put it in the car before the next time I head there.</p>
<p>We live in Florida. We have frost on the windows a couple of times a year. I have had great luck using a spatula on the windows. (Not the rubbermaid kind, but the pancake turner kind!)</p>