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Thread: Keep padlocks from freezing up.

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    Senior Member Wallythacker's Avatar
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    Keep padlocks from freezing up.

    I bought a couple of what I think are heavy padlocks to protect my trailers loaded with my yard equipment. My box trailer worth a pretty penny is loaded with my garden tractor, a spare snowblower and my main blower. It also has a nice Honda self propelled mower on it.

    Anyhow, my old Master padlocks (sorry I bought them but w/e) are huge but useless as you can attack them 6 ways from Sunday to defeat them. They would freeze a lot in inclement weather, even if I was liberal with oil in the fall. Since they are spring actuated it's likely the spring and pistons froze deep within the lock. No way, no how to open it without hot water or a torch. Neither method thrilled me.

    My new locks have decent features, shrouded hasp 11mm diameter, brass cylinder and brass/steel pins, and no springs. When the key opens it the hasp stays still but will easily fall open if the lock is turned upside down. These locks are likely to be in snow in -25C temps.

    Any ideas what I can flush the locks with that will "weatherproof" them? It would be nice to just need the key to open them without a blowtorch in the winter.


    Zero, 2014 ES Plus 5MT, written off but not forgotten.
    Zero II, 2014 SE, 5MT, climate She's HOME now!
    Shelby AKA "Cute", 2017 ES 5MT, A/C.

    Mirage owners look at the world differently than everyone else, but in a better way
    We're driving the Beetle of the 21st century, the greatest small car now available!

        __________________________________________

        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2017 Mirage ES PLus 1.2 manual: 39.0 mpg (US) ... 16.6 km/L ... 6.0 L/100 km ... 46.8 mpg (Imp)


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    Senior Member BigMW's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Wallythacker View Post
    I bought a couple of what I think are heavy padlocks to protect my trailers loaded with my yard equipment. My box trailer worth a pretty penny is loaded with my garden tractor, a spare snowblower and my main blower. It also has a nice Honda self propelled mower on it.

    Anyhow, my old Master padlocks (sorry I bought them but w/e) are huge but useless as you can attack them 6 ways from Sunday to defeat them. They would freeze a lot in inclement weather, even if I was liberal with oil in the fall. Since they are spring actuated it's likely the spring and pistons froze deep within the lock. No way, no how to open it without hot water or a torch. Neither method thrilled me.

    My new locks have decent features, shrouded hasp 11mm diameter, brass cylinder and brass/steel pins, and no springs. When the key opens it the hasp stays still but will easily fall open if the lock is turned upside down. These locks are likely to be in snow in -25C temps.

    Any ideas what I can flush the locks with that will "weatherproof" them? It would be nice to just need the key to open them without a blowtorch in the winter.
    My go to locksmith, "The Keyman", told me not to use oil of any kind. He uses some type of powder to lubricate locks. I forget what it is called, but I can find out.

    By the way, I just saw this guy, and had him make me a third key for my 2023 ES. Simple key, no fob, $182 CAD. Wow.

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        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2023 Mirage ES 1.2 manual: 43.9 mpg (US) ... 18.7 km/L ... 5.4 L/100 km ... 52.8 mpg (Imp)


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    Quote Originally Posted by BigMW View Post
    My go to locksmith, "The Keyman", told me not to use oil of any kind. He uses some type of powder to lubricate locks. I forget what it is called, but I can find out.

    By the way, I just saw this guy, and had him make me a third key for my 2023 ES. Simple key, no fob, $182 CAD. Wow.
    its probably graphite powder, also thats alot of money for a key cut..
    please consider checking out my Mirage related youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6c...IEViRFw/videos

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    Senior Member BigMW's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by mohammad View Post
    its probably graphite powder, also thats alot of money for a key cut..
    Yes, I agree it is a lot, but the key has some type of a chip in it, had to be programed.

    Graphite sounds right.

        __________________________________________

        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2023 Mirage ES 1.2 manual: 43.9 mpg (US) ... 18.7 km/L ... 5.4 L/100 km ... 52.8 mpg (Imp)


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    Senior Member Wallythacker's Avatar
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    I considered graphite, I have a tube of powdered graphite somewhere. I have two locks, maybe I'll go nuts with graphite on only one and see if that works.

    As for the key cut, I paid $60 for a programmable blank with the security chip (5 years ago) which I'm sure will cost me half an hour of a locksmiths time at $125/hr. I know the dealership would program it but I have been avoiding my closest one because of bad vibes when I went to buy my second Mirage. Maybe if I ever have to travel out of town for service I'll bring my blank key.

    So, graphite then. You know, I'm sure I used it on my old Caravan tradesman and I still had frozen locks. I just gave up and left it unlocked all winter.
    Zero, 2014 ES Plus 5MT, written off but not forgotten.
    Zero II, 2014 SE, 5MT, climate She's HOME now!
    Shelby AKA "Cute", 2017 ES 5MT, A/C.

    Mirage owners look at the world differently than everyone else, but in a better way
    We're driving the Beetle of the 21st century, the greatest small car now available!

        __________________________________________

        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2017 Mirage ES PLus 1.2 manual: 39.0 mpg (US) ... 16.6 km/L ... 6.0 L/100 km ... 46.8 mpg (Imp)


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    Senior Member dspace9's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Wallythacker View Post
    I considered graphite, I have a tube of powdered graphite somewhere. I have two locks, maybe I'll go nuts with graphite on only one and see if that works.

    As for the key cut, I paid $60 for a programmable blank with the security chip (5 years ago) which I'm sure will cost me half an hour of a locksmiths time at $125/hr. I know the dealership would program it but I have been avoiding my closest one because of bad vibes when I went to buy my second Mirage. Maybe if I ever have to travel out of town for service I'll bring my blank key.

    So, graphite then. You know, I'm sure I used it on my old Caravan tradesman and I still had frozen locks. I just gave up and left it unlocked all winter.

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    Past couple years, I have had issues with my Mirage's driver's door lock getting frozen solid in the cold weather.

    So I spray this graphite spray into my lock a few times a year. And the lock is 100% fine again for the rest of the winter basically.

    The spray can comes with a long skinny nozzle that goes right inside your locking mechanism.

    Stuff drips out, so have a rag cloth handy to clean up the drip from your car's paint and from the key itself.

    But it's not an oil, never spray oil in locks I've been told.

    I bought this at Home Hardware

        __________________________________________

        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2014 Mirage ES 1.2 manual: 42.2 mpg (US) ... 17.9 km/L ... 5.6 L/100 km ... 50.7 mpg (Imp)


  7. The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to dspace9 For This Useful Post:

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    Senior Member Wallythacker's Avatar
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    thanks, looks like just what I need
    Zero, 2014 ES Plus 5MT, written off but not forgotten.
    Zero II, 2014 SE, 5MT, climate She's HOME now!
    Shelby AKA "Cute", 2017 ES 5MT, A/C.

    Mirage owners look at the world differently than everyone else, but in a better way
    We're driving the Beetle of the 21st century, the greatest small car now available!

        __________________________________________

        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2017 Mirage ES PLus 1.2 manual: 39.0 mpg (US) ... 16.6 km/L ... 6.0 L/100 km ... 46.8 mpg (Imp)


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    Quote Originally Posted by Wallythacker View Post
    thanks, looks like just what I need
    I don't worry about using locks, but I wouldn't want my gun to jam in cold weather if someone was walking off with my stuff!

    I don't own an AR, but some guys are using 0W20 motor oil to keep them running smoothly in cold weather. A man like yourself, who has a huge stockpile of it, may want to try it?

    "0w20 motor oils and ATF are good in ARs and 9mms down to about -20F, plus or minus 10 degrees on any given gun design and ammo selection. 10w30 is safe down to about -10F, +/- 10 degrees. Automotive greases and virtually all other NLGI#2 greases shut reliable guns down in temps as warm as 20F."
    Dec 2, 2019

    Taken from -

    https://www.cherrybalmz.com/post/col...arm%20as%2020F.

  10. #9
    Senior Member Wallythacker's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mark View Post
    I don't worry about using locks, but I wouldn't want my gun to jam in cold weather if someone was walking off with my stuff!

    I don't own an AR, but some guys are using 0W20 motor oil to keep them running smoothly in cold weather. A man like yourself, who has a huge stockpile of it, may want to try it?

    "0w20 motor oils and ATF are good in ARs and 9mms down to about -20F, plus or minus 10 degrees on any given gun design and ammo selection. 10w30 is safe down to about -10F, +/- 10 degrees. Automotive greases and virtually all other NLGI#2 greases shut reliable guns down in temps as warm as 20F."
    Dec 2, 2019

    Taken from -

    https://www.cherrybalmz.com/post/col...arm%20as%2020F.
    Well Mark, let me tell you about "up here". If you are lucky enough to have an AR it has to be stored in a gun safe or a gun room, such construction pretty rigid, you should have the bolt out and the ammo is supposed to be in a separate locked container. You can keep your 20 round blocked to 5 round mags loaded in the separate locked container. Woohoo!

    Now, in cold weather if you see someone trying to make off with your stuff and time is of importance you can run to your safe, hoping to unlock it, dig out your AR, find the bolt for it, unlock the ammo container and grab a handful of 20 round blocked to 5 mags and hope by the time you get to the bad guy taking your stuff he is still there.

    Or, you can just grab the 0w20 jug of Mobil 1 and beat the living sh*t out of the bad guy. That's definitely a better choice in Canada.
    Zero, 2014 ES Plus 5MT, written off but not forgotten.
    Zero II, 2014 SE, 5MT, climate She's HOME now!
    Shelby AKA "Cute", 2017 ES 5MT, A/C.

    Mirage owners look at the world differently than everyone else, but in a better way
    We're driving the Beetle of the 21st century, the greatest small car now available!

        __________________________________________

        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2017 Mirage ES PLus 1.2 manual: 39.0 mpg (US) ... 16.6 km/L ... 6.0 L/100 km ... 46.8 mpg (Imp)


  11. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by Wallythacker View Post
    Well Mark, let me tell you about "up here". If you are lucky enough to have an AR it has to be stored in a gun safe or a gun room, such construction pretty rigid, you should have the bolt out and the ammo is supposed to be in a separate locked container. You can keep your 20 round blocked to 5 round mags loaded in the separate locked container. Woohoo!

    Now, in cold weather if you see someone trying to make off with your stuff and time is of importance you can run to your safe, hoping to unlock it, dig out your AR, find the bolt for it, unlock the ammo container and grab a handful of 20 round blocked to 5 mags and hope by the time you get to the bad guy taking your stuff he is still there.

    Or, you can just grab the 0w20 jug of Mobil 1 and beat the living sh*t out of the bad guy. That's definitely a better choice in Canada.
    using deadly force to prevent theft is illegal in all states except Texas.


    please consider checking out my Mirage related youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6c...IEViRFw/videos

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