Minnesota Focus Owners Club

I've tried everything, including generous lubrication of the latch assembly, and dripping (lots of) oil into the end of the cable to lubricate it. But when it gets cold, this thing is a bugger to operate. After a car wash, it usually will freeze, and will not open (you cannot pull the release lever) unless the engine is hot and I let it sit for a few minutes so the heat penetrates the cable, latch, or whatever is stuck/frozen.
Arrrgh! This is really a pain! Help!!!!
PS It's been this way for the life of the car. Double Arrrgh!

oldoutboardjim wrote:I've tried everything, including generous lubrication of the latch assembly, and dripping (lots of) oil into the end of the cable to lubricate it. But when it gets cold, this thing is a bugger to operate. After a car wash, it usually will freeze, and will not open (you cannot pull the release lever) unless the engine is hot and I let it sit for a few minutes so the heat penetrates the cable, latch, or whatever is stuck/frozen.
Arrrgh! This is really a pain! Help!!!!
PS It's been this way for the life of the car. Double Arrrgh!

Mine used to do this. I only drove it two winters. It did this a few times the first winter, until I got pissed and yanked on it and snapped the cable .

I switched to a euro grill w/ euro key. That's always worked perfectly. (But I only had it in for half of a winter.... the car is garaged now in the winter months)

You could try a cable lubing tool, they are sold at motorcycle shops.

It fits on the end of the cable and tightens down, then you squirt lubricant through a hole in the side.

The other thing would be to just replace the cable and see if that fixes it.

I use wd40 on almost anything but doubt it will work on this one.

WD-40 is not a long term lubricant. if you use it for lubrication, it will actually wash out the old lube from the spot. WD-40 is a Water Displacing penetrating oil which will only lubricate short term before it dries up. use some real lube/greese