The extreme heat of the summer season is upon us as we take a look at some top tips to keep our vehicles cool. The summers this year have been excruciatingly hot. Hundreds of people have lost their lives due to heat waves across the nation. With no signs of rain, there is no respite from the scorching sun. People, who have the option, are staying inside during the day. However, people who must go out to work are struggling. Amidst all this, we are listing out some healthy practices one could adopt to keep the health of your car in perfect condition. Let us glance through these here.
Top Tips to Beat Summer Heat
Check The Fluids
The first thing you must keep in mind is to keep the fluids in your car at an optimum level. Note that coolants are designed for such exact conditions. During extreme summer, you must see to it that the radiator of your car is topped up with coolant at all times. That will take care of the excessive heat produced by an engine. This is true especially when the engine is pushing too hard. For instance, on steep inclines, driving for long periods of time results in increased engine heat. Hence, the coolant works overtime to ensure that the temperatures of the engine don’t rise too much. A similar situation occurs when the atmospheric temperature is so high that the engine gets too hot even under normal operations. Therefore, it is a good idea to check coolant, engine oil, brake oil and transmission oil from time to time.
Tyre Pressure
Yet another thing to take care of during the peak summer season is tyre pressure. We see so many blowouts during this time. People often under-inflate tyres. But that enables more flex which results in heat building. That is when undesirable circumstances occur. Hence, it is recommended that you should always follow what the carmaker suggests. Every car comes with a recommended tyre pressure for every condition. You must never deviate from that because a lot of R&D goes into deciding what is the ideal tyre pressure for your car. Also, you must ascertain that you fill air in tyres when they are cold.
Don’t Park in Direct Sunlight
The most obvious reason for fires and terrible occurrences during peak summer is getting exposed to direct sunlight. While I understand that it is not always possible to park a car in the shade and it is not the only reason for terrifying incidents, it is always advisable to try to park the car in the shade when the sun is at its peak. These days, the temperatures in many parts of India are close to 50 degrees Celsius. Therefore, it is not ideal to park your car in direct sunlight. That is where the importance of trees comes to the surface. In fact, we have seen cases where components of a car have melted due to parking at such an angle that the sun rays get directly reflected from a surface into a concentrated part of the car. That can bear terrible consequences.
Keep Windows Open
Now this might be a slightly controversial topic. Still, I would like to recommend that it is a great idea to keep the windows of the car open just a tiny bit if you are parking the car in sunlight. There would be many people who think that this could raise security concerns. But the suggestion is to keep the window open ever so slightly and that too in areas which are safe. For instance, inside your residential parking lot or office parking. Even in public places which are safe, keeping the window 1-inch open in broad daylight should not be perilous. This will ensure that there is air circulation inside the cabin and the cabin won’t get extremely hot. But if you are not comfortable with this measure, you should avoid it.
Pre-Cooling and AC Service
Yet another factor which can be of immense value in this modern age is the pre-cooling of the cabin. I understand this is not something that every car owner will be able to do. But modern cars with connected car tech features have this option of pre-cooling the cabin before you enter the car. It can be operated via your smartphone with an app. It starts the car and turns on the AC at the desired temperature. We have all experienced those tough initiate few moments when we have to enter a car which has been parked under direct sunlight. We are barely able to touch the steering wheel or any other component. In extreme summers, these can be quite challenging. Hence, pre-cooling is a great way to avoid all that. You get enter the cabin at the desired temperature range. Also, it is crucial that you regularly service the AC of your car. That will ensure that the effectiveness of the AC is maximized. These are the top tips you can apply to beat the summer heat this year.
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