Car care and maintenance tips
Some simple and easy tips and tricks will help keep your car cleaner and more durable.
Some simple and easy tips and tricks will help keep your car cleaner and more durable.
A newly purchased car will have a new leather or plastic smell, which can give you a headache and be very unpleasant. Meanwhile, a car that has been used for many years can have dozens of mixed smells, from mold, cigarette smoke, food, perfume, the bad smell of the air conditioning system... Many people have applied traditional methods such as hanging coffee bean bags, placing fragrant fruits, or more expensively buying an ozone deodorizer, but the effect may still not be as expected.
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| The rain cover comes in handy when the window needs to be opened slightly. |
The simple and extremely cheap method below may surprise you with its effectiveness. However, before applying it, the interior of the car must be cleaned relatively clean. Use fresh ginger, crush it, then boil it with clean water.
Next, use a new soft cotton towel dipped in hot ginger water at about 50 - 60 degrees Celsius, wring it out and gently wipe all the surface details of the car's interior, from the seat cushions, steering wheel, dashboard, door panels, and even the car floor. Pay attention to wiping thoroughly in the cracks and crevices, because those are the places that contain the most bacteria and dirt. When the towel has cooled, wring it out and dip it back in hot ginger water to continue.
After wiping the first time, wash the towel thoroughly or use another towel to wipe a second time (also dipped in hot, clean ginger water, then wring hard) to wipe off any remaining stains. After wiping, you can turn on the air conditioner or open all the doors (if the outside air is dry and airy) to help the interior dry quickly.
Ginger water not only kills many types of bacteria on the surfaces you clean, but also cleans the air and leaves a very pleasant natural smell. Have you ever seen a diseased ginger root?
Pay attention when washing your car
Because the car body is a large flat surface, car wash shops often skip the drying step, but only wipe it roughly after cleaning. This will cause water to remain in many places, such as the edge of the windshield, rear window, inside the bolt holes of the rim, radiator grille, etc. These remaining water spots will quickly catch dust, then dry gradually, forming very tight dirt patches, which look very ugly. After a long time, those dirt patches will thicken and be very difficult to clean with conventional car wash solutions.
Therefore, remind the car wash to wipe off any remaining water in the above locations after washing, and even spray off any remaining water in the bolt holes on the rim.
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| Brakes should be thoroughly rinsed every time the vehicle is washed. |
After the rain
If anyone thinks that rainwater falling from the sky is clean, they need to change their mind immediately. Rainwater can contain a lot of impurities that are present in the air in polluted areas, and more dangerously, it can contain nitric acid or sulfuric acid, which can cause rust and corrosion very quickly. You can test this by leaving an iron object out in the rain, it can rust the next day.
Therefore, immediately after the rain, wash your car thoroughly. Choose a reliable car wash, use specialized chemicals to take care of your car. Car care after the rain also helps to clean water and dirt that accumulates and accumulates in the windshield, rearview mirror and windows, the gaps on the rims, etc.
The windshield is covered with mud and dirt.
Windshield washer fluid and wipers should only be used in light dirt situations, to what extent you can judge for yourself.
When the car stops/parks under a tree, causing many dry leaves or branches to fall on the windshield, you should take a few seconds to clean it up before getting in the car and using the wipers. When moving in muddy terrain, the windshield can be splashed with mud from the car in front. If you use the wipers continuously, the sand and dust in the mud can scratch the windshield and everyone understands that it will quickly damage the rubber wiper blades and the control motor of the wiper system.
Parking under the hot sun
Relatively speaking, the entire space inside a car is like a closed box. When sunlight shines on the windshield and closed windows, heat condensation occurs inside the car, similar to the greenhouse effect.
In fact, if the outside temperature is about 35 degrees Celsius, the temperature inside a parked car after about 1 hour can reach more than 50 degrees Celsius. The car interior that is "warmed" for hours in that condition will fade and age very quickly, especially leather and plastic details.
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| You should wash your car thoroughly after each rain, because rainwater contains a substance that can corrode metal. |
Solving this problem when forced to park under the hot sun is really not an easy problem for many car owners, because the implementation depends on many factors. If the security and environmental conditions are guaranteed (in the yard of the house or office, with someone watching carefully), then opening the windows slightly to let the air circulate is the simplest method.
The second method could be to use a heat-resistant coat, however this method is more inconvenient and time-consuming, and is usually only applicable when parking for a very long time (such as a long time in a parking lot).