5 tricks to protect your car from heat

It seems like an exaggeration; but any object that is outdoors suffers the rigors of extreme temperatures. And without having to go to live in the North Pole or the desert, we can assure you that this can also shorten the life of your wheeled companion too much. Therefore, here we bring you today 5 tricks to protect your car from the heat.

Are these tips designed only for the summer? Negative, whether it is due to climate change or not, in our country -and in others- it is quite common for high temperatures to ‘attack’ suddenly at other times of the year. And the results are just as discouraging: prematurely damaged paint, cracked tires, crystallized tires, cracked dashboards…

However, many experts agree that, in addition, the fact that the passenger compartment becomes a real oven (with temperatures above 50ºC) as soon as you cut the contact and leave the car exposed to the rigors of spring or summer weather can cause that some materials -especially in old cars- release toxic substances for humans. So:

1 Park in the shade. Although it sounds obvious, and many times it costs too much to park in a certain area to choose a space on top of that. But what if you can do it? In summer, it is advisable to prevent the sun, which ‘eats everything’, from punishing the same areas of your vehicle too much. Therefore, his thing is to try to park it in a place where the shade covers it totally or partially.

If it is unavoidable that it hits a little at some point of the day, try to ensure that this time frame is not the one in which the rays have the greatest calorific power (between 12:00 and 4:00 p.m., for example). And if there is no possible escape in this aspect either, try to park alternately in one direction and the other, so that the ‘king star’ is not baited with a portion and things are evened out a bit.

Although the most advisable thing to do in the heat would be to leave your car in a covered place or, better, in a dry and well-ventilated underground car park, remember that when looking for shade on the surface, trees can be a good ally. Of course: weigh whether it is worth taking the risk of it being filled with bird droppings, pine needles, leaf litter, resin… or any other source of dirt.

2 Curtains, sun visors, steering wheel covers and covers. Beyond mounting darkened windows in the rear area, if your vehicle is going to be outdoors for a long time, you can put an opaque and waterproof cover on it, although any other would take away a lot of heat. There are those that are collected under the bodywork, they do not fly… and there are even those with anti-theft systems.

But let’s face it: for a short and routine parking – or to rush to work the next day – other systems are preferable that also contribute to shading the sun and lowering the temperature of the cabin. For example, sun visors (better if they are reflective), blinds (fixed or roll-up, they must be approved) or steering wheel covers.

The latter are the great forgotten and, even if they only deal with one element of the car, they can be fundamental, since if it burns, it will be difficult for you to start driving until it cools down. If you don’t have one, another trick is to leave the steering wheel ‘upside down’, so that the lower part gets hotter and, when you start, you can place your hands in the ‘3:15 o’clock’ position beforehand.

3 Open windows? Depends. If you park in a private garage, you can do so with each glass lowered a couple of centimeters, so that the passenger compartment is ventilated and some of the outside freshness enters. The bad thing about this is that if it’s hot outside, the temperature will rise on board. And in addition, there will always be the risk of spiders, insects and even mice sneaking in and the car will be more vulnerable.

If the interior heat is already important, it is not superfluous to open the windows and keep them that way for a while so that the air is renewed until the car’s mechanics reach an optimal working temperature. Then connect the air conditioning to start cooling without much effort. Also, remember that this comfort function can save you fuel from 80 km/h.

4 Sunroof and convertible cars. Likewise, an opening sunroof can be your friend when it comes to taking grades off your car (especially if it’s black or a very dark color that absorbs light instead of reflecting it like white). If it is fixed and does not have adequate interior insulation, it is normal for its effect to be the opposite of what is desired: cold in winter and hot in summer.

Likewise, before looking at these 15 tips for buying a convertible -or if you already have one- it would be very good to know that these cars are ideal for enjoying the outdoors when the temperature is moderate, but that with excessive outside heat, the interior It can also become hell if you expose yourself to full sun without a hood…

Not to mention if it is made of sheet metal or plastic materials instead of canvas, if the seats are made of skin or leather, if they are not equipped with a system that can cool them… In addition, the hard tops (which became so fashionable in the convertibles of the 90s and 2000s called coupé-cabrio -CC-) also tend to overheat the interior much earlier than in the case of textile materials.

5 Air conditioning. Finally, in our practical 5 tricks to protect your car from the heat, we couldn’t stop talking about the correct use of the A/C. No matter how good your air conditioning system is, you should not activate it until the vehicle has been running for a while and you see that its working temperature is correct (that the engine is not too cold yet).

Then, select a suitable interior temperature (better to put 19 degrees Celsius, for example, than force it to 16 and then get cold and have to go up to those same 19). Whenever you can, dispense with air recirculation, so that the flow comes from outside and facilitates the cooling of the system and good ventilation on board.

And of course, avoid sudden changes in temperature, both when getting into the car and when getting out of it or any of the occupants could suffer from hypothermia or, on the contrary, the dreaded -and all too frequent in summer times- ‘heat stroke ‘ (a sudden rise in body temperature when getting out of an overly refrigerated vehicle), the results of which can be fatal.