Frozen windscreen... On the inside...

[Seanie]

Just ordered my pingi so cannot wait.
This morning I had a frozen windscreen and frozen hand break cable.
Does Vaseline do the trick or should I buy silicone spray or gel etc?
What is the best thing to get locally.

[Seanie]

After this is fixed it will be heated seat pads and remote start for sure.

[Torero]

Does Vaseline do the trick or should I buy silicone spray or gel etc?

I hope you don't mean on rubber seals, Sean? Vaseline is petroleum based and would eat through rubber.

If you want something cheap and effective to protect rubber door seals and particularly T-Bar seals, try 'Dubbin'. It's used to keep leather boots and shoes etc. clean and mosturises them, I have used it on the seals for 3 years now and they come up like new, they also return to their original shape and don't crack or stick during the icy periods.

Readily available in shoe shops and repairers about £3 a tin.

[Nails]

Just ordered my pingi so cannot wait.
This morning I had a frozen windscreen and frozen hand break cable.
Does Vaseline do the trick or should I buy silicone spray or gel etc?
What is the best thing to get locally.

This was me tonight coming out of work. Frozen handbrake. First time it's happened like for me with a Mr2. Has been unusually cold though.

[synXero]

Likewise mine froze for the first time in four years of mr2s -_-

[Jayridium]

Some great insights in this thread - particularly the pingi / rice trick and the window adjustments. BTW if we use the poor mans pingi - the rice in the sock does that make our car a ricer :-p

Oanyways, a quick little nugget of info from this nugget that might be useful for the guys experiencing frozen handbrakes.... In my early track day days I used to have to attend all the drivers briefing sand the rookie sessions / guuided laps, I remember being told do not use your hand brake when parked in the paddock as the head from the disk conducts through the pads into the caliper and cooks your fluid....

Instead of the handbrake the instructors recommended we leave our vehicles in either first or reverse gear with the engine off as the car wouldnt be able to crack the inertia of the engine so this would lock the driven wheels acting like a brake without putting pads into contact with hot discs....

While I really dont expect any MR2 owner to be ending up with glowing disks like a track day car during Jack Frosts active season, it still may be advisable to avoid applying the handbrake to prevent it freezing on.

Another belt and braces measure I always use is when I park I leave my wheels with alot of lock on angled such that should the car roll the front inside wheel will hit the curb at an accute angle so as to chock the vehicle but by putting it in at an accute angle it will be tyre onto kerb rather than alloy grinding along it.

[Slarty]

Ordered a pingi bag a couple of days ago as I seem to suffer with a little bit of condensation on the inside from time to time too, and it's a hardtop! Poorly drivers door is to blame and I can't find a second hand one for toffee

Jay, the cause of seized handbrakes on MR2s is entirely down to the handbrake cable boots failing. There's a small rubber boot at the caliper end which rots away, allowing water to get into the cable. This then either freezes (and then usually corrodes) the cable in place. A new set of cables cures it

[Rosssco]

Girlfriends MR2 handbrake froze yesterday after leaving work. Knew what she was on about when she phoned me to say I'd have to pick her up. Left it over night, and works normally again as its a bit milder today (i.e. above freezing!).

It will usually unfreeze itself if you get the car up to temperature. The engine heat tends to melt thefrozen cables fairly quickly as they run adjacent to the engine bay.

And if the cable boots are knackered, spray a little WD40 or similar lubricant in there to help displace any water that may subsequently freeze.. I would change them, but they are a PITA to change on a mk3 apparently!

We should have a winter driving tips thread / sticky..

[Jayridium]

Cheers for the recap on the handbrakes Slarty, but I had read that earlier, maybe I didnt make my intentions clear enough, my bad.

My suggestion is for the guys who have split bellows on the cable, as evidenced by their handbrakes freezing on, that rather than rush out to buy new cables and have to lie on the cold ground to do that job, they could use the gearbox and steering angle during the winter so they can postpone the job till summer / if ever as you dont really need to use the hand brake. by not applying it they negate the risk of it seizing on due to cable(s) being frozen at the point where the bellows have failed.

With automatics, like my Jaguar XJR, where you have the park position for the gears its handbrake is only ever used at MOT's or when putting new pads on. Also with me going off to oil rigs for weeks at a time living up here on the north east coast of Scotland, where the air is quite salty (you wouldnt believe how quickly disks rust up up here if the car isnt driven) my cars are often left for weeks, it wouldnt be the first time I have came home to have the joys of pads rusted to the disks.

[Seanie]

Hay all, spent today putting silicon on all seals to see if it makes a difference.
Went to see my dad and was in there an hour or two.
Already I can see water droplets on the tbars between the glass and the roof covers.
Also my windows were getting steamed up. Next thing is the pingi but it has not arrived yet.
Is there a way to tell if my windows need to be adjusted?

[synXero]

Hay all, spent today putting silicon on all seals to see if it makes a difference.
Went to see my dad and was in there an hour or two.
Already I can see water droplets on the tbars between the glass and the roof covers.
Also my windows were getting steamed up. Next thing is the pingi but it has not arrived yet.
Is there a way to tell if my windows need to be adjusted?

If there's a significant leak your pingi won't do enough to help.

Unless you're confident you did the silicon perfectly, peel it off and try again or put some more on top. Worth a go. Failing that, adjust windows.

[Seanie]

Sorry what I meant was I treated all of the seals with the silicon spray to bring them back to life.

[Kongaroo]

Dehumidifying bag sales go through the roof as the IMOC massif discovers the Pingi... have just ordered 2 for myself

[King M535i]

Mine's leaking again

Pingi bags are in and doing sterling service against interior misting/icing, but they can't cope when it hammers down with rain (which it's going to do tomorrow). I'm going to clean all the seals again and try Dubbin, then try to find the time/daylight to look at the drivers window adjustment. I don't think it's sealing properly at the top rear corner of the drivers window.

[Charged]

Rice in a old pair of my weekend tights is working well for me, thanks for whoever posted that little gem up!

[craig]

Ordered a Pingu and going to stick it on the coat hook behind the passenger seat

[synXero]

Ordered a Pingu and going to stick it on the coat hook behind the passenger seat

[Slarty]

lmao @ ^^^^^

[craig]

Pingi sounds crap, so I ordered a Pingu

[crenda]

I got two pingi's a week or so back and they work brilliant! So a big thanks to whoever it was who suggested them
Think I will have to get some of this dubbin malarky aswell for my t-bar seals.

Your all so full of useful tips cheers guys!