Anyone else find themselves lying under their boot in the snow at 6.15 this morning with a heat gun on the end of an extension cable from the garage? And then having a long walk to work after finally realizing it wasn't going to defrost the cables? Off home soon to see if they've melted and released themselves. Oh well.

Not today thankfully but have been there before with Fiats and Alfas, on one occasion a 145 stuck in a hotel car park in Cumbria. Looks to be even colder tonight so will be using wife's Uno (hopefully!) tomorrow.

Thankfully the cables had freed themselves by the time I got back to the car this afternoon. I've now left it on the flat part of the driveway with the handbrake off, in gear obviously, but when I gently pulled on the handbrake to see what the action was like just before I left it tonight, they'd clearly frozen again. But at least not with the brakes on this time. This is my third winter with the B and haven't had this before, but then this week is COLD. Safe driving !!

All my nuts have frozen this weekend.

My garage floor is level so it never has the handbrake on when in there.

It's handy to know that this seems a common problem on Italians.

Hi Cribus, I bet we have all been there! I had a dentists appointment when it happened to me. I defrosted my 'Bowden cables' by using those blue hot/cold gel pads for sprains and pains. Wrapped them around and waited a while. The rubber manchette had perished so I had them replaced, and touch wood... Another tip, for the door handle which loves to freeze in, is a 'chunky' cable tie,gives you something to grip - Happy & Safe driving!

I'll have to remember to keep some of those handy! And yes the doors had frozen shut as well, the handles popped out okay but as you say it was impossible to pull on them hard enough to break the ice. Good tips. In the end I broke the ice's seal in the cables by taking a hammer to the handbrake 'swivel arms' or whatever they're called on each caliper, tapping them upwards/towards the boot floor which pulls the cables back through the cable covers to disengage the brake (after releasing the lever in the cabin of course, and making sure you're in gear). My rubber boot things at the ends of the cables had perished letting in water I imagine, so I need to do something about that before the next cold spell.

When I bought my B 18 years ago I found that the handbrake cables and caliper arms were coated in grease (molybdenum sulphide type). Every few years I wipe this all off and re-apply new grease. Everything under the grease is like new. This was possibly done because the original owner was from Milan, had a Swiss motorway pass and ski rack. Maybe the garage did this to prevent water ingress when the owner went skiing.