We just had a hell of a winter storm last night and it seems as everyone on my block is outside beating the heck out of their doors trying to get them open, including me. Will a heat gun unthaw them or will the extreme change in temperature do damage to something like a window. Will it cause it to crack or anything? My xB is frozen solid, my wifes Protege 5 is frozen solid, our 240sx thats for sale is frozen solid, and her grandmothers Galant is frozen. We have 4 cars in the drive and none are accessible. HELP ME!!

Thanks guys!

GOOD question..i sure would like to know in case it happens to me.

You have to be careful when you open the doors or the gasket might tear. When I lived up North, we used to pour SLIGHTLY warm water over the door edges to loosen the gasket. You don't want to use HOT water because it might crack the glass (so they say, but who are "they") You have to open the door right after you do it though, 'cause it might freeze back up...

you want to use water that won't freeze but not hot.

Drastic changes in temp will cause class to crack. My windshiled was frosted over (old car, not xB) and I parked it in the sun. The sudden rise in temp cause a crack from one side of the windshiled to another.

But if the water is to cold it could end up freezing (if it's still that cold outside).

You're gonna have to play around with it but it shouldn't be to hard.

What if you used the heat gun to remove most of the ice and then pour warm water to melt and release the seal? Good luck and let me know as I might be heading to New Jersey, and further north.

I don't have that problem living in the desert...Just 120 degree heat for most of the year.

I wouldn't use anything more then a regular hair drier.

Regular heat guns can strip paint if they get to close to it.

also the heatgun would melt the vinyl overlay on the door's window frames.

isn't there a spray at autozone de-icer?

isn't there a spray at autozone de-icer?

that would be the wise solution :wink:
but they are probably still stuck at home cant go to the store :cry:

lol..hahaha my solution..YANK it open...thats what i do..

I'd just pull the bastard.

Heat gun sounds like a bad idea for a couple reasons. First, the vinyl on the door could bubble and look ugly. Second, the glass could crack (this does happen. Ever filled up a fresh-from-the-dishwasher glass with milkshake?)

That's pretty common around here. We use the warm water method. Its best to use a spray bottle like a shampoo bottle to aim the stream, instaed of the dump the bucket of water method. When you get it open, use some silicon or a vinyl interior protectant on the rubber seal. Should prevent it from happening again

i had to lower my window today and it "popped" like it was frozen, i did it to all four windows and same thing..odd..but then they went up and down easy.

two words... CAR COVER!!!

then you can just peel it off... :-)

of course the obvious is COVERED PARKING... but take what you can get...

Second, the glass could crack (this does happen. Ever filled up a fresh-from-the-dishwasher glass with milkshake?)

They don't make TEMPERED glass drinking cups. You're comparing annealed glass to tempered glass. Apples and oranges.

That is not how tempered glass works in regard to thermal stress.

The easiest, AND YES IT IS PERFECTLY SAFE!!!!, is to go in the house and get you a nice big kool-aid pitcher of hot water from the tap, go outisde and pour it over the door edge to break the ice seal. There. You're done.

You're not going to crack the door glass - aside from the idea that you can't CRACK side glass - it just shatters. Windshields crack, not side windows. All the same, you are NOT going to damage the paint, the stickers, the door glass or any other thing around the door seal by pouring hot water from the tap.

You could use a heat gun - but water is 100x faster.

I see heatguns pumping out enough heat into glass all the time, hot enough to make steel glow. Breakage is such a rare occurance you don't even worry about the odds. Hot water from the tap aint gonna go anywhere even remotely close to that.

If you want to keep the front windshield clear, the easiet way is to put wet towels on it in the evening, and then in the morning you can just peel the rock hard frozen towel off the glass - and you have clear glass.

I would be carfull!

My brothers windshield (Accord) cracked the other morning from the defroster! he didnt even have it on full blast, and it cracked right above the defroster!

I would pour room temperature water around the door frame.....

Once again... those darn APPLES AND ORANGES.

Windshield = ANNEALED GLASS
Side Glass = TEMPERED GLASS

two entirely and vastly different type of glass. With wildly different thermal stress tolerances.

It would have to be -100F before even BOILING water will break undamaged TEMPERED glass. - YES, I can back that up if anyone really wants to read some boring ___ thermal stress statistics.

If a defroster blowing warm air cracked a windsheild, you can put money on it that there was preexisting damage that wasn't seen, and the warming of the glass was the last straw so to speak - *crack*. It wasn't the defrosters FAULT per se. (defrosters don't blow HOT... only the speed of the air coming from the vent changes, not the temperature)

ONCE AGAIN, My point is the water that he pours on his doors, may spread over onto the windshield!

You have made you point several times and i get it!

windowtint is SO right. You won't break the side glass with hot water. But what has happened to me with the "dump the bucket" method is, yes I got the door open, but later on that night, the door handle re-froze and the key lock too. So I was right back out there this time with lock de-icer. That car had no key-less entry. That's why it's sometimes better to use a focused spray of HOT water.

use a hair drier, don't use a heat gun that would ruin your paint too

Oh my god this is the first of me hearing this. I am here in cali worried about the rain and here you are with a frozen box :shock: My heart goes out to you, I hope you are able to unfreeze your box. I seriously hope nothing breaks on your ride or your wife's car. Man, this is new to me.