Life Hack : a strategy or technique adopted in order to manage one's time and daily activities in a more efficient way.
I love nothing more than a simple solution to making life easier. Our practical car hacks will get you out of a bind, save you time, help you drive safer and make you look like some kinda Ray Mears survival boss in front of your mates! Here's our Top 10:
- Adjusting Your Mirrors Correctly
This one came in from the team of motoring journalists at completecar.ie who spend their life driving new cars.
”If you can see the side of your own car in your door mirrors, you're doing it wrong. You should actually only be able to see the road behind you, so as best to eliminate blind spots. Here's the trick - when adjusting the driver's' side mirror, lean your head against the glass of the window and adjust so that you can just see the side of your car. Then, for the passenger side mirror, place your head in the centre of the car, lined up with the rear view mirror and make the same adjustment. Now, when you sit in the normal position in the driver's' seat, your mirrors should be correctly set. “
2. Fuel Filler Arrow on Fuel Gauge.
This one is brilliant, mostly because it's staring us right in the face and it’s only something new that I have come across in the last year or two.This applies to 90% of cars. We all know the feeling of pulling up to a petrol station and thinking C**P which side is the cap on. This is normally followed by a check in the mirror which is un successful 99.9% of
the time or by opening the door and leaning out for a look. If you do pull up on the wrong side you risk scratching paintwork by dragging the fuel hose over and around the back of your car or the hose not reaching at all! You can avoid all this by looking at the fuel gauge symbol, beside it you will notice an arrow this points to the left or right.This work’s particularly well if you are driving a rental. You will thank us next time you go to fill up.
3. Staple Remover To Remove Keys
We can all relate to getting something caught under our nail, and for women especially breaking a nail.
When you bring your car in for service or to your local valet centre you have the awkward 10-15 seconds that you struggle to take your keys off the key ring. Before you leave the office or the house simply remove the keys using the staple remover. Nails saved!!
4. Use Your Head!
You can extend the range/distance at which the central locking key fob works by holding the key to your head whilst pressing the button!!
Yeah right! we hear you say. But despite sounding like utter nonsense this genuinely works and is a trick that’s been around for a long time. Despite the fact that using the technique does make you look a bit mad, I have found that I use it more than I realised, mostly when walking away from the car and asking myself did I lock the car or not.
According to radio engineer Mr Tim Pozar “You are capacitively coupling the fob to your head. With all the fluids in your head it ends up being a nice conductor. Not a great one, but it works.” Using your head can extend the key’s wireless range by a few car lengths
5. Toothpaste On Headlights
Over time your headlight lenses can become dull and foggy. There are plenty of specialist products on the market designed to deal with the problem that range from 20-50 euros and we even sell a couple of them and they’re very effective, however (and we’re shooting ourselves in the foot by telling you this) in in less severe cases toothpaste works just as well! Simply apply some toothpaste onto the dull surface of the headlight and working in a circular motion, polish until the lense starts to become clearer. This does require some elbow grease and will take a bit of time but as you can see from the before and after shots opposite it really does work.
6. Dent In Bumper Boiling Water
There is nothing worse then coming back to see your pride dented or scratched. Sadly we cannot do much about car park dints but we do have a solution for large dents in bumpers. The vast majority of car bumpers are made from plastic to allow some flex if the car hits an object. If you can get to the dent quick enough there is a fighting chance that you can save it. Simply keep pouring boiling water on the affected area which will soften the plastic, where possible apply some pressure to the back of the bumper. The bumper should pop back into shape. It may not be perfect but could save you a costly bill.
7. Elastic Band Phone Holder
This is a real poor mans phone holder but as you can see in our short video it is certainly cheap and cheerful! Also very quick and easy to set up.
8. Mayo To Remove Stickers Off Car.
There is little worse than getting clamped! But what is worse is trying to take off that massive sticker that they plant on your window! It does pull off but you’re are still left with half of the sticker on the window. Believe it or not, Mayonnaise is your friend here, Simply apply to the stickers and leave for 5mins. The mayonnaise absorbs the glue leaving you with a nice clean window. Voilà Job done. Don’t forget to clean the mayo off your car afterwards!
9. Condensation On The Windows
Not only does Fairy Washing up liquid last twice as long as other brands it also helps reduce condensation on the inside of the car windows. You need to make sure that the window is nice and dry before you apply the Fairy. Apply a light film on a dry cloth onto the inside of the windows and that will keep it clear for the winter months. It's particularly effective on cold winter mornings when you come out to the car and the windows are all misted up with condensation. It doesn't eliminate the condensation entirely but it does massively reduce the amount of time it takes to demist the screen with the cars fan/heater. We think it's a “Fairy” good idea!
10. Frost Hacks
We may not experience extremely cold winters in the UK or Ireland compared to other countries but it can get gold enough for the car doors to freeze shut. What happens is that the door seals get moisture trapped between each other and that freezes. Result: Door stuck completely solid! Spraying your door seals with Wd40 (prior to extreme weather) will keep the seals soft and also stop them from freezing over.
Another common problem is frozen door locks. Hand sanitiser - often found in the handbag of your better half can solve the problem! Squirt as much hand sanitiser into the lock as possible. Hand sanitisers contain alcohol which will melt the ice. No excuse for being late for work now!
