Weather stripping system with heating element for vehicles

In a motor vehicle having a number of vehicle doors hingedly attached to a vehicle body and having a number of rubber weather stripping elements each including a resilient rubber weather stripping portion, at least one of the rubber weather stripping elements being positioned between the vehicle body and each of the vehicle doors, the improvement comprising:

• a) a heating element installed within each of the resilient rubber weather stripping portions that is controlled by a thermostatic control unit that prevents the heating element from being heated to a temperature above the point where the resilient rubber weather stripping portions would be damaged and further activates the heating element to prevent the resilient rubber weather stripping portions from being frozen, the heating element being activated by an on/off switch, and further wherein a thermistor is provided which is electrically wired to the thermostatic control unit and positioned in close proximity to one of the resilient rubber weather stripping portions and provides a monitoring means for monitoring the temperature of the weather stripping, the thermostatic control unit activating the heating element when the temperature of one of the resilient rubber weather stripping portions reaches freezing and deactivating the heating element when the temperature of one of the resilient rubber weather stripping portions reaches a preset level.