Cleaning door lock, Thank you r_towle Options

[smontanaro]

From the Baby it's Cold Outside thread:

Fix the door.

Any suggestions about potential cause/solution? I've been meaning to post about this problem, but as the snow has flown here in Chicago, my car is in for the winter, so I didn't worry about it too much. My right side door has always been a bit recalcitrant. Now I can't get it to close at all. I can manually flip the little horsehoe thingie (latch?) and get it to release with the inside or outside handle, but it won't engage the post on the door jamb. I think everything is in adjustment. When I messed with it a bit a couple years ago I couldn't get anything to move around anyway.

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Start a thread, show pics of your door closed, the gap etc.
I dont use litheum grease anymore...it gets to dirty.
Old grease can turn into stone when its really cold...almost the consitancy of frozen peanut butter...
Remove the latch and clean out all the old grease...then lube it.
I use teflon lubricant I get at the bicycle store.....its magic.
Its called Tri-Flow
Rich

I finally got around to taking a look at this today. (Crappy weather, bad shoulder, work, general lack of motivation, I have a ton of excuses available.) It was mid-30s. I took out the door lock and removed the outer door handle for good measure. Sure enough, the pivots in the lock were pretty gummy. Took both parts inside and worked over the lock assembly with degreaser for a couple hours until everything was moving freely. I lubed it (used a little Finish Line Wet bike chain oil instead of lithium grease - we'll see how that works). I put it all back together and the door closed just fine. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) I'll check it again tomorrow after it's had a chance to cool off completely. It's supposed to be below 30 tonight. Hopefully that's cold enough to check I've actually solved the problem.

Thank you, Rich... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

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