Greg wrote:
> A friend is having a lot of trouble with her door locks freezing on
> her '96 VW Golf. What is the best lubricant to use on these locks?
> I've heard good and bad things about silicone and graphite. Somebody
> also recommended lithium grease. I've been warned from using regular
> oils and grease because they can attract dirt over time.
>
> Thanks!

A long time ago my father, the locksmith, taught me that you don't use
any oil based materials in locks. Locks work best when clean and dry. Oils
just help hold dirt and dry to a sticky mess. The only material he ever
used was graphite and that has always worked for me.

The issue of freezing is not related to lubrication. Cold can thicken
up the oils that may have been used in the locks and cause them to
malfunction, but freezing is water related. In over 40 years of driving cars
in the Ohio snow belt, I have never had one "freeze." Actually I have never
had a car long malfunction in all those years and I have always followed my
father's advice.

I suggest that most people who have freeze problems are really oil based
cold problems and need to clean the locks with a good zero-residue cleaner.
The rest have a special problem likely do to the design of the lock. For
those I would recommend on the the special products designed just for that
and consider a spring cleaning with a zero-residue solvent followed by a
graphite lube.

BTW WD-40 is an oil product with light weight oils that will, in time,
leave the same sticky oil mess in a lock as other oils. It will displace
water, reducing the freezing problem, but it then just adds it's own
problems.

--
Joseph Meehan

26 + 6 = 1 It's Irish Math