If your car doors or trunk sound like the creaking of a door at a haunted house, you need probably need grease or lubrication on the hinges. Ignore this and don't be surprised if your doors and trunk eventually land up damaged from binding, bending and twisting making closing or opening of doors difficult. The same goes for hoods, trunk lids, lift-gates and tail-gates. The longer you wait for lubrication the worse the damage can be and the more expense you will incur. Again, its one of 106 St Tire's important words we nag you about: MAINTENANCE.
Our advice? If you are driving an older vehicle, use an aerosol lubricant like White Lithium or Super-Lube on the hinges and avoid "goop" type grease formulas because they make a mess, attract dirt, etc making the aerosol grease formulas a neater and better choice for folks who have never done this kind of thing before.
Some mechanics recommend a lubricating gun and that makes sense as well as long as you don't over do it making a mess because beginners often use too much grease. Let a word to the wise be sufficient: no grease on the upholstery, please? Bring rags, bring paper towels, wear rubber or work gloves and take them off promptly after the grease job is finished?
Apply the grease on all creaking doors and lid hinges. If one door is creaking, might as well do all of them as a precaution. Why wait until all the above are making noise? Open and close the trunk lid, door, tail gate, etc after you provide grease a few times to make sure its is evenly distributed.
This saves the hinges and doors from wearing out when you can easily control the destiny of this kind of wear and tear on various openings into your car and trunk, etc.
Also, it's a great idea to lubricate the rubber gaskets that keep water and other elements out of your car interior, trunk, tailgates, doors, etc by using a light coat of silicone lubricant that will protect and maintain them in the condition they should always be in i.e. pliable and not sticking together in freezing weather when this kind of thing can find you not able to open your door.
On the newer vehicles there are less or no old fashioned locks and the newer keyless entry therefore that means maintenance is more critical and more often ignored. These kinds of exterior locks require lubricants like powdered graphite. Under use of a specific door will cause more harm than an over used one as moisture, dirt, debris collect making
door handles, etc harder to move especially in freezing weather. If your remote batteries die, you will be in for a hard time to open doors should keys be needed.
We preach this all the time. The most important aspects of owning a car and keeping it running, functioning safely, extending its life are these 3 factors:
MAINTENANCE
MAINTENANCE
MAINTENANCE