No matter what you are driving – whether it's a 2015 Lamborghini or a 20-year-old Subaru – you can always make the experience better with a little ingenuity. The sun may be blasting you in the eyes, you may not have a single useful cup holder, or you may just want to stop birds from taking a poo on your newly washed car. The fact is, if you are driving, there is something that gets on your nerves. This is why people have developed these hacks. They might have been smart, or just lucky (or maybe even a little bit crazy), but these hacks may make your motoring just a little easier.
33 Car Hacks Anyone Can Use
- Turn a tinted plastic sheet into a moveable shade. Keep yourself from driving off a cliff, or into oncoming traffic, with a moveable shade made from tinted plastic. Airline pilots use these to keep from flying into mountainsides, and they work equally well in cars to cover spots that visors don't reach.s long as you don't use a piece that is too heavy, the static from your widescreen should keep the plastic stuck to the glass, allowing you to move it as needed.
- Keep food warm with the seat warmer. If your car is equipped with seat warmers, you can use them to warm more than just your backside. Whether you are bringing home a pizza or Gram's casserole, the heat generated by the warmer should be enough to keep the food warm until you get it home
- Make a cupholder out of your shoe. Some of us aren't lucky enough to have good cupholders in our cars, or any cupholder at all. But this doesn't mean you
can't keep your cool drink nearby. Use an old sneaker (preferably one that doesn't smell!) to keep your drink in. Most sneakers are prettystable, but you still may want to wedge it into a snug place, like next to your parking brake. - Or make a cupholder out of a roll of tape. The more you look around your house, the more ideas you may get for cupholders. A roll of tape, especially larger rolls, make good cupholders as well. Pretty much anything that provides some stability and has a round opening that will fit a drink will probably work. Get creative.
- Use your head to extend the range of your car remote. Being able to lock and unlock your car with a remote is great, but most remotes only operate over a short distance. You can actually increase the distance pretty easily, though. You just have to use your head. By placing the remote up to your chin when you operate it, you can use the fluids in your skull as a conductor to increase the range of the remote.
- Get directions from delivery drivers. If you have ever stopped into a petrol station for directions, you may have been surprised at just how little the worker knows about the area. A better choice for directions is someone who actually has to find his or her way around regularly, not someone that sits behind a counter all day. Stop by a pizza delivery place, or another delivery service, if you want to get directions from someone that knows what's what.
- Move your side mirrors out.
When you first start driving, it may have made you more comfortable to have your side mirrors angled so you could still see the sides of your car. But once you become comfortable using your mirrors, it is actually better to adjust them for maximum visibility. Move each mirror out to the point where you can no longer see the side of the car. Ideally you should create a continuous visual field from the left mirror, through the rear view mirror, and on through the right mirror. It may not completely eliminate your blind spot, but it will increase what you can see on each side. - Look for an arrow on the fuel gauge before you fill up. When you are in a car that is unfamiliar to you, you may discover that the fuel tank is on the opposite side from what you are used to. Usually you find this out after pulling into the station, after getting out to fill up, after waiting in line for ten minutes, etc. If you are having a really bad day, you may have already run your card through the machine to pay. Now you have to start all over.Most cars feature an arrow on the fuel gauge, pointing to the side of the vehicle that the tank is located on. Check on your way to the filling station.
- Use a tennis ball on a string to avoid smashing things in the garage.
Some garages are smaller than others. Some have more stuff in them, like bicycles, tools, toys and even pets. This means it's really important that you pull the car in perfectly to avoid damaging these things. Attach a tennis ball – or other soft object – to a string, and hang the ball from the ceiling so you just bump it with your windscreen as you pull in. You can measure the distance by parking the car in the right place, and using a ladder to mark the point of attachment. - Use nail polish when touch up paint is not an option. Rust is not good for your car, and paint is the only thing that keeps rust from developing. But not everybody drives around with a pack of dealer-specified touch up paint. If you want to prevent rust, but don't care to use the perfect paint, just buy some nail polish that is an approximate color.
- Avoid filling up if you see the tanker truck. If you are making a trip to the petrol station and you see the tanker truck filling up the station's reserves, you might want to head to another station. As the tanker fills the big underground tanks with fuel, it tends to stir up sediment. This sediment can make its way into your car.
- Use Minties to plug a hole in your fuel tank. Over time, many fuel tanks end up springing a leak. Whilst it's best to get this attended to immediately, in the short term you can use some teeth-rottingly sticky Minties to plug it up. Find the hole and wipe the surface around it as dry as possible beforehand. Then pop one of the Minties into your mouth, chew until it's sticky, flatten it out and then apply it to the leak. Voila!
Brush your headlights. The plastic that covers your headlights will lose its clear quality over time, as both sunshine and road debris wear at the material. But you can get some of that clear quality back by using a little toothpaste. Basic toothpaste, rubbed vigorously on the headlight, will usually buff the light clear. Just make sure to wash it off after you are done.- Cool down your car quickly by encouraging air circulation. Getting into a car full of hot air can be really uncomfortable. To clear out the hot air quickly, roll down a window on one side of the car. Then, on the opposite side of the car, open and close the door ten times or so. This will circulate the hot air out of the car and pull in cooler air from outside.
- Use a razor blade to clean the windscreen. Bugs and sap and grime can really muck up your windscreen, making it harder and harder to see clearly while you are driving. You may have tried going through a car wash, or rubbing the windscreen down with the cleaning tools they have at the petrol station, but some stuff just doesn't come off.Carry a razor blade in your car for the real stubborn gunk. It will scrape virtually anything right off the windscreen.
- Use a staple remover to open your keyring. Metal key rings are awesome for keeping your keys together, but they can also rip your fingernails out when you try to add or remove a key. They can also break your teeth, and most other things you might use to pry them open. There is one tool that can handle the job, though. The staple remover. Its wicked looking jaws can open key rings right up.
- Keep water and food in your car. You never know when your car might brake down, or where. This is why it's always a good idea to keep at least some water and food in the car. Get a small plastic container to keep everything together, and store some water and some non-perishable food in it. The water may taste like hot plastic, and the granola bars might be hard as rocks, but you won't care if you really need them.
- Save your door and your garage wall from hurting each other using a foam pool noodle. You can take a standard foam pool noodle and cut it in half, then attach the foam to the wall of your garage. This will provide some padding when you are getting in and out of the car. Your landlord and your car will thank you for this.
- Keep a towel in the car. If you have dogs, or children, or you just like to keep your car clean, having a towel available can be so useful. You can use it to dry off the dog, wipe up messes that the kids make and even to go to the beach if you are looking for a spur-of-the-moment adventure.
- Learn what petrol stations offer free air. Your tyres will lose pressure over time. It is inevitable, and it is something you should try to stay aware of. But when it comes time to fill them up, why should you pay for air when you don't have to? Some petrol stations will offer free air. Learn which ones do, so you never have to pay for air again.
- Expand your USB power options. New cars give all sorts of charging options for drivers, but older car owners are not so lucky. You still have your smartphone, though, and maybe another USB powered device or two. Luckily there are now ways to multiply your power source. Pick up a USB power point that has two outlets instead of one.
- Make a dock out of Velcro. Everyone wants to have their electronics and phones handy while driving. It's safer and more convenient. But sometimes there are not a lot of good options for mounting these devices in your car. Suction cups fall off in the heat, for instance. But hook-and-loop fasteners – think Velcro – are not affected by heat.You can buy Velcro that has adhesive on it, which you can stick to anywhere you like in the car, giving you a mount for your electronics.
- Put a bungee rack on your roof handles. If your car has enough headroom, you can use the handles or coat hooks to attach a bungee mesh net to it. This gives you a place to put coats and supplies up and out of the way, yet still within easy access.
- Use a toilet plunger for small dents. Auto body repair shops use suction devices to pull out dents in metal exteriors. While your toilet plunger is not technically the same tool, it is remarkably similar. You can use the suction created by the cup to pop out many dents in an automobile. It may not be quite as good as a professional job, but it is certainly cheaper.
- Route your windshield washer lines into the interior for drinks on demand. This is something that should be possible, although there are probably not a lot of people crazy enough to try it. If you reroute your washer lines inside the car, every time you press the washer fluid button it will push liquid from the fluid reservoir through the line. If you do this, just make sure you clean the line and reservoir thoroughly. Otherwise you will be drinking detergents – possibly toxic – along with your beverage!
- Use pantyhose as an emergency belt replacement. If your fan belt breaks, your car is not going anywhere. That is, unless you have some pantyhose stowed away. You can create a makeshift belt out of pantyhose, one that should work well enough to get you home. Keep in mind that newer cars are a bit more complicated, with more components working off of the belt. It will be harder to use a makeshift belt with newer automobiles.
- Turn your wheels for safety when parking on a hill.
Cars are made up of lots of different components, any of which can and do fail. This includes things like parking brakes. When you are parking on a hill, make sure to turn your wheels so that if the car does roll downhill, the direction of the wheels will send it towards the curb - Get a spare key made, and give it to the right person. Getting an extra key made for your car can be expensive, especially if it is a newer car. But it is not ascostly as calling a locksmith at 3 a.m. to get you into your car. Make sure to have a spare made, and leave the spare with a person that is likely to be able to come to you when you need it
- Go one-eye when driving into bright lights. Oncoming lights can be blinding when driving at night. To help retain some of your night vision, try closing one eye as the oncoming car approaches. When it passes, you can open the eye, and your vision will be more or less intact.
- Make your keyring lighter to lessen wear on the ignition. If you have a lot of keys on your keyring, you may be putting unnecessary stress on the tumblers in your car ignition. The weight, combined with the jolting of the car, may cause the lock to fail eventually. If you have a lot of keys, purchase a key ring that allows you to detach the bulk of your keys from the ignition key.
- Use boating cup holders. If you want to move beyond shoes and rolls of tape, you can purchase cup holders made for boating applications. These holders are pretty awesome, featuring a broad, slim hook that allows you to hang them from your door. Even if you have center console cup holder, these boat drink holders may still be an improvement – putting your drink right where you need it.
- Go old school with a CB radio. CB radios have fallen out of popularity with everyday drivers. Who needs one of these archaic things when you have a smartphone??? But you should know, truck drivers still use CB radios. If you have one, you can listen to truckers explaining traffic problems and weather problems – useful info when driving.
- Get a scarecrow! If you have problems with birds pooping on your car, you can try the old scarecrow method. Attach a lifelike snake to the roof of your car. It may just drive away those messy birds. If not, at least you can find your car in the parking lot.
When you first start driving, it may have made you more comfortable to have your side mirrors angled so you could still see the sides of your car. But once you become comfortable using your mirrors, it is actually better to adjust them for maximum visibility. Move each mirror out to the point where you can no longer see the side of the car. Ideally you should create a continuous visual field from the left mirror, through the rear view mirror, and on through the right mirror. It may not completely eliminate your blind spot, but it will increase what you can see on each side.
Some garages are smaller than others. Some have more stuff in them, like bicycles, tools, toys and even pets. This means it's really important that you pull the car in perfectly to avoid damaging these things. Attach a tennis ball – or other soft object – to a string, and hang the ball from the ceiling so you just bump it with your windscreen as you pull in. You can measure the distance by parking the car in the right place, and using a ladder to mark the point of attachment.
Brush your headlights. The plastic that covers your headlights will lose its clear quality over time, as both sunshine and road debris wear at the material. But you can get some of that clear quality back by using a little toothpaste. Basic toothpaste, rubbed vigorously on the headlight, will usually buff the light clear. Just make sure to wash it off after you are done.
Keep a towel in the car. If you have dogs, or children, or you just like to keep your car clean, having a towel available can be so useful. You can use it to dry off the dog, wipe up messes that the kids make and even to go to the beach if you are looking for a spur-of-the-moment adventure.
Helpful little hacks like this are fun and easy to try out yourself but for any serious work on your car, you're much better off speaking to professional auto mechanics like the team here at Reliance.
Got any fun hacks of your own? Leave a comment in the comments section below!
