As above this is a quick fix, the water only needs to be warmish.

As far as handbrake is concerned I'd be interested in Stan's pro view about parking in gear with the handbrake off and the front wheels facing into the kerb - when I was in New England [admittedly a long time ago] the latter was mandatory on a slope.

as I have had painful experience in the past... don't stop using the handbrake... I did, and it seized in the off position!

Grit lorry just driven past my house...the council around here generally wait until it's too late so drive carefully and leave those handbrakes off!
Forecast suggests snow by Wednesday, so god only knows why they decided to grit today...probably after a bit of Christmas over-time

From previous experience, no amount of waiting in the car, whilst it warms seems to help. (Maybe if the weather is just below, but anything colder and it all stay frozen solid).

The best prevention is to leave the handbrake off. If you can't, then new cables will help, and covering the end rubber bushes with a weather barrier solution will normally work.

Don't be tempted to start the car, and leave it 'warming up'. It's an offence to leave a car with the engine running. Plus, it'll be easier for someone to take the opportunity and it's gone!

Think I may have to just get up earlier and...


...steal the wife's car and live with the consequences!

I did that yesterday and it worked fine, defrosted the car, moved it to get the other one out, put the car back in the drive then had to do the water thing again to lock the car

Tempting fate here, but I've never had the handdbrake freeze in 5 winters.

Very frosty this morning I used my new club membership card to scrape the ice off the inside of the windscreen!! Handbrake was fine

My handbrake was frozen this morning

"Tempting fate here, but I've never had the handdbrake freeze in 5 winters."


Ahhh!


But the 6th is always the one to watch out for...

Guess who's handbrake has actually frozen off

That was after it was sat outside and running for 30mins and after a 10 mile drive!

Hand brake fine, door locks fine, handles fine. Doors opened fine. Was minus 7 last night too.

Vaseline on all moving parts and oil in the locks (plus new cables).

Handbrake left off in winter as a habit for me!!

frozen solid this morning i will NOT be leaving it on again

It's no fun lying under the car in subzero conditions with a hairdryer. One morning of that last year prompted me to order the new cables!

my hand brake also frozen on solid. i decided that to day was a good time to put some anti freeze in after finding it half frozen!!!

Thats all I have to say on that matter

I DESERVED THAT... been running water only while bedding in new shells, found rad tolaly solid this morning. opps. to make it worse had to get down town this morning at 8 for new tyres, tracking, drop links and yes some anti-freeze. interesting trip thanks to stuck on rears and iced up roads."when its slideing james is smileing!!!"

God I love my coupe!!!

Woke up about seven o'clock this morning feelin great after a good nights kip,left for work to find my windows were covered in ice!no worries tho I'll just open the car go into the glove box and get my scraper out.only to find iv had serious lock and central locking failure!!!!

So went back into my house got some warm water and poured it over the locks job done,now I'm running about five minutes behind schedule,that's ok tho!

Now I get in the car start the engine sounds abit rattly I'm sure purely because it was minus five last nite I'm sure!so put it in reverse and try to drive away and the front end is just spinning on the snow,strange!so then I find my handbrake has frozen on!!brilliant!

Go back into the flat to boil the kettle to try and release it and this seemed to have worked ok.now I'm a good 15 minutes behind schedule and I still need petrol!I think we know where this is going.

So I get to the petrol satation try and open the cap that's frozen greeeaaaaat times!!a simple phone call to the manager,why are you late?I'm driving a fiat coupe in the British winter!!

Anyway the reason why I'm writing this pretty boring pointless story is to let you all know even tho I turned up a good 45 minutes late for work,I don't think Id have it any other way honestly!!the sound of the five pot the sexy looks and the sheer power of my coupe make up for all of these minor stupid characteristics of the coupe!!!!!!and I'd sooner get into my 20v turbo than step into say a Toyota prius knowing that it's going to open first thing of a cold morning!!long live the coupe!!!!!!!

AMEN to that, i totally agree

great post

Good luck for tomorrow with all that water you poured on.

And just to think...all of them problems could have been prevented (possibly, well hopefully, well...who am I kidding)

Great post, we have all been there, the weather was a factor in my filling the car ever 2 weeks instead of just dropping £20 in, Its cold on them forecourts and I didn't want to beat the fuel cap up...again

i normally pour water on and the following day i just repeat the same thing, it only takes seconds, not had a problem yet door or locks wise. saying that im just about to go defrost the coop so i have probley just temted fait.And also i did get froze inside my car a few days ago so thinking about it i should stop the water pouring, whoops.

got home last night and the remote locking wouldn't work.
Left handbrake off and went to bed, got into work this am and the remote locking had fixed itself.........

You see guys you wouldn't get these joyfull characteristics on any other car!!I love it that's another thing the coupe I believe is a very intelligent car!!one day you can have a problem and the next day it fixes itself!!amazing car!!!

A chap at work had problems with his handbrake freezing and guess what car he has...... A vauxhall astra!

Would the problem be - my handbrake won't freeze so I have no excuse not to drive the wretched thing?

LOL this is why my coupe is tucked up in the garage for the winter!!!

My handbrake has been frozen for the last 2 days. It says in the FAQ you can put hot water on the cables - but where are they & how do you get at them with hot water?

I freed mine up (admittedly on an Alfa but probably the same) by pulling the handbrake up & down 100x or so.
It didn't break free, but did start taking up the slack in the cable over a few minutes.

I guess it hasn't done anything for the life of the cable.