[DomJ]

Two days running in snowy/ice conditions first thing in the morning I find the cable is frozen, can't push the release button so can't removed the cable. I ended up getting some tepid water from indoors and dribbling it carefully over the top of the cable until the latch defrosted enough to push it in. Obviously this is not a preferred solution, does anyone have a good solution to stop it happening in the first place?
Thanks

 

[Tandy0]

Put some vaseline on the moving parts?

 

[HandyAndy]

I clip a poly bag over the plug+cable to act as a tent & keep rain out. If you can keep the wet out, nothing to freeze up, so I'd try spraying the whole lot with WD-40, car socket & plug. And add vaseline or silicone greaseover the outer plastic barrel of the plug & try to keep that a tiny bit greasy.

 

[Gaz90i3]

Similar thread going elsewhere

Charging cable snow cover

Does anyone know where I can buy a snow/frost cover for my charging cable? It has frozen twice now.

www.speakev.com

 

[farmergiles]

DO NOT GET ANY SILCONE LUBRICANT ON THE ELECTRICAL CONTACTS - IT BINDS TO METALS AND CAN INCREASE THE RESISTANCE LEADING TO OVERHEATING.

 

[HandyAndy]

Thanks for that Silicone warning - wasn't familiar with this problem. The only things I allow to touch contacts are dedicated switch-cleaner sprays, plain 'ole alcohol, lighter fluid, or WD 40. AFAIK all those are safe!

 

[Yachsman]

Thanks for that Silicone warning - wasn't familiar with this problem. The only things I allow to touch contacts are dedicated switch-cleaner sprays, plain 'ole alcohol, lighter fluid, or WD 40. AFAIK all those are safe!

WD40 is not good on contacts either, it dries as a thin coat resisting water & can increase the resistance especially on low current (signal) circuits.

 

[GJO]

I reckon that a frozen connection is a good excuse to stay at home . . .
I haven't put my snow tyres on this year so I have multiple excuses for not taking the car out when it is cold.

 

[DomJ]

Well keeping water off seemed like the most logical solution so thanks Andy. I cut a hole in the bottom of a sandwich bag and fed the charger through and then elastic-banded the sandwich bag around the connector, other than the bag itself being a bit crinkly this morning the plug was dry and button pressed in fine

 

[HandyAndy]

Well keeping water off seemed like the most logical solution so thanks Andy. I cut a hole in the bottom of a sandwich bag and fed the charger through and then elastic-banded the sandwich bag around the connector, other than the bag itself being a bit crinkly this morning the plug was dry and button pressed in fine

Piccy? Sounds complicated! Here's my instant-clipon.

 

[DomJ]

Maybe I made it sound more complicated that it actually is!
Heres a nice picture to also highlight how filthy my car is

 

[Barty]

Having had the same problem about 2 years ago when in a rush to go out I now cover my whole charge port area with a spare waterproof coat hood held on with 3 neodinium magnets. I only do this when it's forecast to be very frosty or very wet, so I have done this in summer when storms are forecast.

It works well keeping the whole area dry and frost-free, but it is a bit fiddly and you do have to be VERY CAREFUL with the magnets. They must only be used through the padded coat hood and must never get near each other. Once one attached to the door skin and took ages to get off without damage and another time two of them got too close and snapped together, giving me a blood blister and bit of a job separating them!

Thinking about it I now have a bunch of nice flat neodinium magnets from old hard disk drives so may try fixing three of them to the outside of the hood in the right places, then placing and removing it from the charge port area should be a doddle.

 

[HandyAndy]

Those neodymiums from hard disks tend to have a very large surface area, I too have a stash of them parked on the RSJ in my gge. They are damned hard to remove! I don't know what the risk is of doing a reverse-dent to car bodywork when pulling these off! You can get these in very small sizes, around 3mm dia 2mm thick, the kind of thing used to hold mobile phone leather covers shut. These should be a lot safer & easier to use! And just weak enough to avoid the blood blisters!

 

[Barty]

I have modified my hood with the flat neodymium magnets and it works very well!

To remove the hard drive magnets I used a method someone described on YouTube. The magnets are only attached to their steel backing by a bit of glue plus magnetism, by clamping one end of the backing in a vice I could bend the backing with a mole grip, which easily popped the glue bond so I could pull off the magnets. An alternative method is to use acetone (nail polish remover) to dissolve the glue. Not having any of that I used the bend the backing method. It only took about 5 minutes to remove 6 magnets.

I then found the best way to attach them to the hood was to use two magnets, with the hood tightly sandwiched between them, then to glue some soft material on the 'inside' magnet so it didn't scratch the paintwork. The hood is lightly padded and fully waterproof.

Being flat thin magnets they are strong but not too strong, the others I used were about twice as strong. It works very well and is now a doddle to attach and remove the hood in seconds.

I've never had any dents or damage using the older stronger magnets, apart from the one that managed to jump from my hand onto the door skin, it was a bugger to remove but only left tiny scratches which buffed out easily.

 

[DomJ]

Envious of the flakey free paint on your alloys!

 

[Barty]

Envious of the flakey free paint on your alloys!

When I bought the car all four wheels were bad. I then managed to buy a spare set of which three were good and one flakey, so I had the bad one refurbished for £100. They did a did job so I now have 4 nice wheels

With my old flakey wheels I was just using them in winter, but they got so bad that two developed slow punctures. The tyre place had a look and said it was the corrosion which had visibly impinged on the tyre seal area. So those old wheels ended up being donated to them so thy could practice refurbishing them, in return I got a nice discount when they swapped all the tyres and wheels.