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Daninplymouth

What to do with frozen windows?

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Hi it’s starting to get cold here now and my cars are quite prone to freezing up as the temperature drops. This will be my first winter in the GT so wondered if there was anything I could do to make my life easier. I have applied some gummi pfledge to the seals. Is it ok to use cool water to help clear the windows? 

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I always keep an old credit card/store card/clubcard/etc to hand and run it down in between the seal at the top of the metal part of the door and the glass before opening the car... this is to separate the glass from the seal before you open the door, as the window drops slightly on opening. I've found that if you don't do this and the glass sticks, it can take a little while for the windows to work properly.

My best purchase for the winter has been a top car cover that only covers the roof and glass sections, it keeps the frost away from the vitals on a morning...

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I've not had a problem with my 86, however, with previous cars I've used a little grease around the rubber seals.

When trying to quickly defrost my windscreen I will start the engine, blowers on full to the screen, I keep a bottle of water (by the front door, not in the kettle!) in the house, then I just pour it on the windscreen. 99% of the time it clears the frost, then I put the wipers on full. Occasionally I have to refill the bottle (from the cold tap) and do it again. I then quickly wipe the screen down. Only once has it ever re-frozen again. Then I scrape it clear (a light hoar frost) and at this point the blowers are upto the job and I can begin driving.

Although by this point the neighbours are now awake and glaring at me because of the noise of the exhaust!

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BTW, suggest to make into habbit to fold windscreen wipers off the glass when parked in winter.

When there is snow/ice on car/windows, i just start car, turn fans and temps to max & recirculate, rear window heater (not switching on front screen defogger, which fans over front window cold outside or AC air, for it to not fog, which i guess will make longer for car cabin to warm up), and start to brush snow/scrape ice off it, ending with folding wipers back to glass. No issues with them frozing to windows.

I'd be careful with splashing warm or hot water on screen. Though it's more possible in very cold temps, not so much in mild colds, but still, there is chance to crack frozen glass with hot water.

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I use tepid water, seems to work. Unlikely to crack the glass as if the glass was that close to cracking you'd shatter it going over a bump in the road. I wouldn't recommend anything too hot though.

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I'm not a big fan but there are aerosols and spray-bottles of "de-icer" that would do for loosening off the windows against the seals. Good ol' engine heat and scraping can take care of the rest. Might save you when unlocking a car with a dead battery too.

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Rich: cracking - from quick/uneven thermal shrink/expansion, as in when -20C and if you pour boiliing water on glass. Nothing to do with cracks before in it. Of course, with less extreme temperature differences i might be too cautious, but still prefer to not learn bad habbits in general, instead of thinking when they are safe enough and when - not :)

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When it's really cold outside lukewarm water may not just thaw existing snow/ice on glass but rather add extra ice from itself :). Chemical deicers .. never saw need to use them.

Imho simpler/quicker just scrape off ice from windows with plastic scraper, while car/engine warms up. Better not do that on painted surfaces though, using just brush to brush off snow at most, but never saw any problems/scratches scraping off ice from windows. Snow brush/ice scraper is one of things in my "winter toolset" (+jumpstarting wires, towing rope, small shovel) i put in car when winter starts.

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As an example, the MSDS for Starbrite screen de-icer is comprised of methanol and isopropanol. I have no reason to believe that rubber seals will suffer from fleeting exposure to these light alcohols.

My only thought was the initial fun of getting a well-frozen door open before you can even start the engine, or perhaps unsticking some windscreen wipers. Either way, the general consensus is that elbow grease is generally better in all respects - it makes refreezing less likely.

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So far door itself never frozed for me.

Door windows glasses to rubber seals did though. Not to extent to not able to open door though, but enough to fail auto-lower glass as during normal door opening resulting in door controller misdetecting as something in a way and starting to not work/flashing window operating button (thus needing to reset it later even after thawn off completely, by first fully lowering and keeping button pressed for 2-3sec, then fully rising, keeping switch rised for 2-3sec).

Gummipfledge on rubber seals helped for most occasions though.

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3 hours ago, Church said:

Rich: cracking - from quick/uneven thermal shrink/expansion, as in when -20C and if you pour boiliing water on glass. Nothing to do with cracks before in it. Of course, with less extreme temperature differences i might be too cautious, but still prefer to not learn bad habbits in general, instead of thinking when they are safe enough and when - not :)

Cracks don't come from nowhere, if your glass is weakened enough to crack from thermal shock, it's weak enough to crack anyway pretty soon.

Also in the UK we don't get cold enough temps for water to refreeze luckily, but I can see that being a problem in harsher climes.

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I don't see the point defrosting our cars quickly. If its cold enough to freeze, everytime I've got in, it's misted up on the inside so I now deice it with the spray stuff (not the cans) while the car demists itself 

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I've always found using deicer causes the inside of the glass to mist up quicker. I now just leave a bottle of water by the radiator near the front door. In the morning, go out, poor a little on the side window (if it's badly frosted) so I can open  the door cleanly. Then start the engine, turn on heated rear screen, and pour the lukewarm water over the windscreen - then immediately turn the wipers on. All frost/ice cleared instantly, and the water cleared so it won't refreeze. Pour the remaining water on the side and rear windows, sling the empty bottle in the boot and drive off.

I used to do this every day when I was commuting in winter. It would take me at most 2 minutes to be driving away with clear glass all round, whilst I'd see some of my neighbours spending much longer scraping away. 

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49 minutes ago, Conscript said:

I've always found using deicer causes the inside of the glass to mist up quicker. I now just leave a bottle of water by the radiator near the front door. In the morning, go out, poor a little on the side window (if it's badly frosted) so I can open  the door cleanly. Then start the engine, turn on heated rear screen, and pour the lukewarm water over the windscreen - then immediately turn the wipers on. All frost/ice cleared instantly, and the water cleared so it won't refreeze. Pour the remaining water on the side and rear windows, sling the empty bottle in the boot and drive off.

I used to do this every day when I was commuting in winter. It would take me at most 2 minutes to be driving away with clear glass all round, whilst I'd see some of my neighbours spending much longer scraping away. 

Pretty much what I do. The water warms the screen so it doesn't mist so easily.

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Agree with all the suggestions re gummi pfledge and cool/tepid water poured over the outside of the glass for a quick defrost when needed. The only other thing I would suggest for the side windows is to give them a good winter prep of a glass polish (by hand is fine) followed by a glass sealant application (as you would use on the windscreen), as this does lesson the moisture/condensation that collects on the glass overnight and so means there is less to freeze when the temperature drops (so they will freeze and stick far less, although if it is really cold they will anyway of course).

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