Opening side doors of a van in freezing weather

[Stephen Tashiro]

Is there a quick way to open the side doors of a van that are stuck in freezing weather?

The weather is generally warm in my location, so in a rare night of freezing weather and light snow, I was surprised to find that the side doors on my Toyota Sienna van were apparently frozen shut. I got into the van to start it about 3 AM. The door-open warning light came on. I tried opening and closing all the doors and found both the side doors wouldn't open. The warning light and the interior cabin lights stayed on as I drove home. (It was a short drive.) I took the key out of the ignition when I parked, but the cabin lights stayed on. I left the van parked that way till about 9 AM. Fortunately, the battery held up and the van started easily. When I tried the side doors at that time, they opened. It was the side door on the passengers side that caused the warning light.

[roger wiegand]

A silicone (or even cooking oil) spray on the gasket can help keep them from freezing shut.

[Warren Lake]

dont force stuff as you can rip a weather strip if they are not coated with some type of stuff. Im not sure what is in the stuff I use but might have a silicon in it. The 92 roadmaster has original weather strips and they are prefect. Proof of good old american quality. In the past from freeze thaw freeze ive been locked out a few times. Just buzzed around with a heat gun being sure to keep moving around. All was perfect after that, Lucky I was locked out here in the driveway and not 1000 miles from home. I dont have a battery powered heat gun.

[Rich Engelhardt]

The only thing that ever worked for the three vans I had was to wait for them to warm up before using the sliding doors.
If you try to force them, you can cause all sorts of expensive damage.

IIRC, any time they touched the doors on my Honda or Sienna it was a minimum of $600. $1200 was more the going price.


A silicone (or even cooking oil) spray on the gasket can help keep them from freezing shut.It goes way beyond the door gaskets. The tracks and cables also freeze & so do the sensors.

I had a sensor frozen - but - the door would move. I ended up driving about 10 miles with the side door opening and closing the whole way. My grandson was strapped into the back seat and had the ride of his life.

(my grandson was about 12 at the time.)

[Brian Elfert]

I have a minivan in Minneapolis. I have found the best way to deal with frozen side doors is to just drive with the heat on as high as you can tolerate. You can use a hair dryer to try to heat the door, but you have to be careful not to get the paint too hot. I would not use a heat gun as it would be real easy to get the paint too hot.

[Warren Lake]

thats why I said keep moving, or you can stand back as well but main thing keep moving. There are also two settings on the heat gun. Same as several on a hair dryer. yes you can do damage with a heat gun if you want to.

[Scott Winners]

When I am at the dentist and they offer a tiny tube of chap stick I ask for whatever flavor no one wants and use that on the weatherstripping on my truck doors. I do both sides of the joint, door side and vehicle side, full circumference.

I should clarify my local dentist hands out a fairly hard/waxy chap stick that works good for me up here on my door seals. I prefer a softer product like Carmex for my lips to prevent chapping in the cold. Also, I make a point to put it on the door seals in Autumn, after the heat of summer, so it doesn't melt away before the first frost.

I don't have any experience with automatic doors, the various cautions about those mechanisms sound like the voices of experience to me.

[Christopher Herzog]

My kids have broken three side door handles on our chevy 3500. I think i am now qualified to saw you LIGHTLY pull the handle and grab the door at the bottom right corner. Pull out and avoid the hour plus of changing. Learned the hard way and the kids understand the wrath coming with the next broken handle!

[Brian Elfert]

thats why I said keep moving, or you can stand back as well but main thing keep moving. There are also two settings on the heat gun. Same as several on a hair dryer. yes you can do damage with a heat gun if you want to.

Sorry, I read through all the replies and didn't see that you had mentioned a heat gun already. You just know someone is going to be in a hurry because they are running late and just use a heat gun on full blast to speed things up. It may speed up getting the door open at the expense of the paint. Even a heat gun on the lower setting can be really hot.

[Warren Lake]

all good Brian. I move around and in this case its out in the cold not the summer time that has an affect as well. I dont have a hair dryer. Out in the cold here heat gun is what ive needed as im battling mother nature. Its only been a few times and worked perfectly at least on the wallwagon. The last thing I used a heat gun was to remove inspections stickers all layered on each other on a machine. Again cold garage machine cold, it worked excellent and I was over cautious as i wanted to get them all with no damage.

[Kev Williams]

My old '04 Chebby Venture van has a leaky windshield washer container, so I filled a spray bottle with some RainX de-icer and keep it between the front seats. In addition to spritzing the windshield when needed, if any of the doors freeze, shooting some into the door seals will de-ice them...

[Thomas L Carpenter]

The tailgate on our Highlander was frozen shut this morning but the other doors were fine. I wouldn't use a heat gun on it because pretty much all of the exterior is plastic. Bought one of those magnetic stickers to put on the back and couldn't find any metal for it to attach to.

[Myk Rian]

Keep a wood shim handy. Something about 1/8-3/16" on the thin end to get between the door and panel. Use it as a pry.