Park in a garage?.... just kidding.... you can pick up a keychain at most auto parts stores that is a battery operated heater. It will have a retractable metal piece that heats up when you press a button. You use that to melt the ice by slowly inserting it into the door locks. I used to have to use this when I had an old pickup in college. There are also small cans of de-icer that work, but not well and it will refreeze.
i am personally not with that leave your doors unlocked nonsense. for one with your doors unlocked that means your doors can also be removed with an allen wrench. also by locking my doors and disabling my interior lock switch it makes for one hell of a time doing getting inside the cockpit
UNLESS YOU HAVE SOMETHING THEY REALLY,REALLY WANT MOST PETTY CAR BURLARS ARE JUST LOOKING FOR "TARGETS OF OPPORTUNITY" IF YOUR DOORS ARE UNLOCKED THEY JUST DIG AND TAKE......IF YOUR CAR IS LOCKED, THEY WILL MOST LIKELY JUST MOVE ON THE NEXT CAR.
THAT'S JUST MY 2 :wavey:CENTS
if someone is looking to get your seats, or some other hardware, they will probably take the whole jeep...
but for the most part its someone hoping you keep cash, a gun, bass speakers, etc....
luckily i live on an army base and we dont have problems with car theft...
i did have an old beater ranger that the door locks were inop in about 3 years ago, and someone stole my change out of the ash tray. the cd player which was hanging halfway out already (el cheapo) was untouched.
so... being that this ranger was so crappy.. cant stress the crappyness enough.. i filled the ashtray back up with change, including some quarters, but i added a little secret sauce...
a mix of wd40 and vinegar.
took about 3 days for the guy to try stealing the change, and realize it stank bad.. so he threw it all down in the floor.
it was worth the cleanup! (floors were rubberized anyways)
Friend of mine lives downtown in a loft, her Honda was stolen which was locked.. however, there were two jeeps to the right and one to the left... all of which had soft tops...
My drivers side lock was frozen one morning so i just unlocked the passenger side no-prod, hoped over the shifter, and jiggled the interior lock switch untill it unstuck itself
I have never had a frozen lock but then around Oct of EVERY year I give each lock a good 5 second squirt of lock ease liquid graphite in a spray can. Stick the plastic tube on the can and stick it in the lock.
Was just searching for this exact topic. My locks freeze constantly. Not so bad that a little wiggling and twisting hasn't gotten me in, but then it's a only a matter of time before I weaken and break the key.
I've used de-icer before and found that once it freezes back up, it seems to be way worse than when I hadn't used it. Cautious about using it as it's already been like living at the north pole here for a while and winter JUST started!
Steel locks do not freeze, only water that has found its way inside the lock can freeze. As Muskegonjohn suggested above, flush your locks out with WD-40 which will get rid of any moisture.
And I side with those recommending against locking the doors on a soft-top equipped Jeep. I STRONGLY recommend leaving them unlocked when a soft top is present. Instead, just make sure to never leave anything inside that is not securely locked up inside something secure like a Tuffy console, Tuffy console liner, or Tuffy glove box. Locking the doors will just encourage a thief to slash your top or windows to look around inside for something easy to steal.
Many years ago before I bought my TJ, I had a very cool Triumph TR-6 sports car that of course had a soft top. Well, the top got slashed one night so some ***hat could look around inside to find nothing of value worth stealing. Both the Long Beach Calif. cop who took the theft report and the soft top shop that installed my new top both gave me the same advice I gave above. If you don't want your top slashed again, don't leave anything of value inside and never ever (!) lock your doors.
Lock 'em if you have a hard top, just not if you have a soft top.
Spray oil in the locks, petroleum jelly on the door seals. Neither sticks now when it freezes.
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