Wish I'd remembered to leave it off last night.

Took me 75 minutes to defrost it with copious amounts of warm water thrown into the wheel arch, and two pans of scalding water directly under the pipe.

Thanks goodness for the FAQ.

hmmmm good post - i'll be back in 5 mins...

If you can grab the missus' hair drier and aim it at the lowest section of the handbrake cable you can have it defrosted in 2 mins flat

just got in the coop to go to my parents

frozen solid

too cold to mess around unfreezing it

back in house

telly on

Thank goodness I read this well before it got too cold to freeze up. I just leave mine in gear now, and completely forgot to the other night and left it in neutral.

Mine was frozen solid this morning. Stayed in car with heater on full and occasionsll slowly rocked back and forwards to try and release. Gave up and called friend to get a lift He ariived at which point tried one last time driving slowly forward and it it released!!

Currently left in gear and handbrake off to avoid a recurrence ....

I have to be out at 6:45am tomorrow, so I thought I'd just check the car was OK

It wasn't

It didn't start, so I had to put the battery on charge for a couple of hours

Once it started, it wouldn't move, so I spent an hour under the car with a hair dryer against the cables and a small hammer to tap the caliper lever back

Now parked against a brick and in reverse, with a woolly glove over the handbrake lever as a reminder not to use it while I'm commuting tomorrow

The joys of Italian motoring.....

Too cold to go out and check...

I will just be late for work!!

Never had this problem, same cable on since I bought it 5 years ago. I believe it was blessed by the handbrake Gods

...Goes out and checks

Good ole girl, handbrake off a little shove and she moves!

Bloody cold out there

Mine was frozen this morning... but I've been leaving it off and in gear for a few days now

...and it was in my garage overnight, but still frozen pretty solid!

Just read this thread and checked my car....it's a 50/50 result...my son's just called me...his 16v is frozen solid.....fortunately my 20vt free and rolling...

Just been out to the turbo and spent a very cold half an hour pumping wd40 into all the locks adnd hinges and using graphite rubber lubricant on all the door and boot seals....

Front wheels chocked and handbrake off ready for the morning.....thank goodness for this forum!

That's why you did a coupe convoy in a Punto tonight!

Am I the only person who's never had a handbrake freeze on?

Me too and probably will do until around April

My handbrake was frozen in the off position this morning

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v605/theresa0666/?action=view&current=MOV00608.mp4

Video of mine from 2 or 3 years ago, when I had to drive 2 and a half miles home with a frozen handbrake

I don't finish work until midnight, the car was digging down at the back, realised the handbrake was frozen on, tried defrosting it, but gave up and just wanted to get home

Nothing frozen for me - the baby is in the garage staying nice and toasty

I don't mean to rub it in...honest!

Guess who forgot to pass on the "frozen handbrake" warning to Ms RK's little girl when I gave her my Sprinty Apparently she was able to get a lift into work.

To be fair I never had the problem, as I rarely used it in winter anyway.

Note to self - take handbrake off on the Plus tonight......

Handbrakes and everything on both my beasts have been fine. My jag however the door catch froze open last night leaving the gf's flat at 1am, had to take the hair dryer to it in -5 temps

May be I'm tempting fate but starts everytime on the dot and hand breaks not frozen, even though we recorded -14 Sat night

I did have the cables replaced (lots of copper grease added) and car fully undersealed a week ago so it seems that was just in time and did the trick!

Now the door handle is another story........stuck most mornings so at least you lot can get in the car to try the hand brake

The cold is taking its toll.

So far we have:

My turbo (probably not the cold's fault but I'll blame it all the same )

Central locking has developed a new trick. It all works as normal except a bump in the road will trigger it to close.

The dash lights now flicker when you first turn them on (dimmer switch at fault)

And my favourite. The lacquer fell of my headlamp. Not chipped away but as a big piece, which was nice. Nothing freshens up the look of your car like lacquer peel

So who tops that that lot for starters? I'm sure I'll have more by the end of the week

My 16v has been standing still for a week, failed the MOT because of the wheel equilibration (front wheels worn to the wire on the inside).
I wonder if she will start when it's time for her new shoes next week..

Good thing the doors still open and the handbrake isn't turned on.

Doh! Clearly wasn't paying attention, just posted in technical about this... I am leaving handbrake on just one click and in gear, that way 'when' (and i mean when, not 'if') it freezes on, or off, there will be just enough friction to warm the caliper up and free it.. I am not sure which is worse, frozen on or frozen off?

How about this, thermostat stuck open so doesn't warm up, rear heated screen doesn't work so ice inside, turbo seals worn so blue smoke everywhere 'waiting' for it to warm up, handbrake frozen either on or off depending on how i leave it, leaking bootseal providing moisture to rear window thus increasing ice quantity... And that's 'if' it starts! ;-)

Not on my coupe, but years ago in France in a -16C fog the heat from the headlamp bulb focusing on the glass caused so much stress that it blew a small hole in the glass.

The coupe just has a frozen boot lock at the moment but the internal release works OK. Haven't tried driving it for a while though.

My heated rear window only half worked, got this paint from halfords it's ok now. The coupe has developed a good fault, use the alarm to lock it usual beeps yet the car stays open more than likely frozen locks. Yet when I get back from work it's locked hmmmmmm spooky

the cold weather seems to set my alarm off randomly, and the car locks when it wants too, i can barely lock it with the key due to it being so cold

My handbrake froze on this afternoon, but I just drove away with it on, after 20 yards it started to roll freely.

The other problem I have is the wipers, the passenger side one was stuck to the windscreen while the driver side one went up, then when they come back down the passenger side one tries to push itself under the bonnet.

just need a little tightening

Finally after 6yrs fannying about with the pattern brake cables I had Rog fit some OE one's. Yes they are expensive but they work have had no problems this year first year ever.

Leave my fuel cap unlocked now rather than last year having to spit on it to get it to work, wonder if the useless bit of plastic holding the door release will hold this year?