Question for the day!
Anyone else finding they are unable to exit their Cooper?

Entered car via drivers door only to find the door wouldn't open on arriving at work. Pull interior latch once...twice...nothing...pull latch third, fourth,...time - nothing. Reached across and opened passenger door and crawled out. Went around to drivers door and opened it right up but after closing again - nothing - so resorted to new plan "B" for exiting (MINI may want to add to their "unofficial motorers guide&quot.

Did have freezing rain and snow over night so windows were also frozen tight until almost to work when they finally freed up. The exiting issue is of concern as this is the second time in two weeks (once on passenger door - today on drivers door). MINI had 20-30 minutes of warmup time in drive before starting out.

Don't quite know how I would react if both doors were to freeze up at the same time. Doubt this is an excuse anyone else has used yet - "hello - yes, actually I'm almost to work - could you send maintenance out to the parking lot - I can't get out of my car - it's the only MINI in the lot with someone still in it."

 

Yep, There's several threads started about this already.
Seems this year's terrible winter is doing a job on the MINI.

Page 2 of MINI Talk has a small thread and it has a post that gives reference to the best frozen door thread : Door Freezing Updated with Pics

 

I wonder if there's anything we can spray into the lock cylinder that will help to prevent this. Anyone know if this is a preventable problem?

 

I had this happen last week. Of course, it was my fault - I washed the car in 12F temperature! The water froze in the mechanism before it had time to drip away. i could open the door from the outside handle just fine, but the inside half-circle wouldn't budge. Not wanting to be stupid and break anything, I just rolled the window down and opened the door from the outside handle :smile:

Later that day, I parked the car in my heated garage for about 20 minutes, and the ice melted away from the mechanism, leaving the inside handle free and functioning. YAY!

Moral of the story - Don't wash car in very cold weather

 

I have a really lame fix for this at the moment. In the spring I will be taking the door panels off and figuring this problem out. Meanwhile, I have this window de-icing spray that I squirt into the doors, aimed at the latch mechanisms. I do this with the windows down, It sounds bad, but the latches free right up. It lasts for quite a while. Like I said, it's only a temporary fix, until the weather warms up enough to get a better look.

 

Ryephile...DOH! (about washing the car in sub-freezing weather) Let that be a lesson to all AR MINI owners.

Of course, I get the same problem just from the general road gook and atmospheric moisture...plus whatever water ALWAYs lives inside my doors year-round ('cause lord knows I seldom wash my car in the summer, let alone winter )

Mike, your de-icing spray fix would seem to indicate that the frozen stuff IS NOT the bowden (sp?) cable identified over in the other door freeze thread. I'd doubt that spraying stuff down the window slot would have much effect on moisture inside a cable sleve. Which goes to my contention all along that there's lots of stuff in there that freezes and that's there's no simple or single fix for this problem.

 

To be honest, I don't know why it works, but for me it does. I would guess that this stuff goes the same place any water or moisture goes. I spray it in there with the window down, so I think I get good coverage. What is strange is that I brought it in for service and all they did was lube the mechanism. A few days later, the microswitch inside the door failed and my interrior lights would not go off. They replaced the door handle and now it is sticking (freezing) again. Only a few more weeks of bad weather and then I will find a solution, hopefully.

 

>>Ryephile...DOH! (about washing the car in sub-freezing weather) Let that be a lesson to all AR MINI owners.
>>
>>Of course, I get the same problem just from the general road gook and atmospheric moisture...plus whatever water ALWAYs lives inside my doors year-round ('cause lord knows I seldom wash my car in the summer, let alone winter )
>>
>>Mike, your de-icing spray fix would seem to indicate that the frozen stuff IS NOT the bowden (sp?) cable identified over in the other door freeze thread. I'd doubt that spraying stuff down the window slot would have much effect on moisture inside a cable sleve. Which goes to my contention all along that there's lots of stuff in there that freezes and that's there's no simple or single fix for this problem.

When I opened my door to get at the snapped cable, after the door had been freezing for several days, I found absolutely no moisture inside the door including down at the bottom. It must all stay inside the mechanism.

 

>>I had this happen last week. Of course, it was my fault - I washed the car in 12F temperature! The water froze in the mechanism before it had time to drip away. i could open the door from the outside handle just fine, but the inside half-circle wouldn't budge. Not wanting to be stupid and break anything, I just rolled the window down and opened the door from the outside handle :smile:
>>
>>Later that day, I parked the car in my heated garage for about 20 minutes, and the ice melted away from the mechanism, leaving the inside handle free and functioning. YAY!
>>
>>Moral of the story - Don't wash car in very cold weather

I washed the car when it was six degrees out. The water froze into a shell as it went over the car. I had the sprayer in one hand and the ice scraper in the other. I was careful to avoid the door handles and have not had any freezing problems since I got my cable replaced. I got the dirt off but almost got frostbite.

 

>>Yep, There's several threads started about this already.
>>Seems this year's terrible winter is doing a job on the MINI.
>>
>>Page 2 of MINI Talk has a small thread and it has a post that gives reference to the best frozen door thread : Door Freezing Updated with Pics

It would be great if the mods could consolidate all the frozen door topics back into the first one.

 

I'm with MINI USA. I think we can help you but we'll need a little information from you first. Would you please call us at 866 ASK.MINI and mention Reference # 200404101861 so that we can help you more efficiently.