Cooling the Oven in Your Car

You’ve probably seen the Internet picture of somebody baking cookies in the heat of their closed car.  It can certainly get hot in your car...not 350 degrees hot, though. Those cookies took hours and hours to cook! 

Here are some ways to keep your car from feeling like a blast furnace when you first get in. 

There are some simple tips that you probably know by now.  Park in the shade, point your car away from the sun, and leave a bit of the window open.  These things will help keep the temperature down.

When you turn the air on, look for the “recirculation” button.  It’s usually a symbol with an arrow going in a circle around itself.  When you have that on, it will “reuse” the air that is already in the car.  In other words, it will take the air that has already been cooled down, and cool it down even more.  Most air systems have that switched off by default, and that just means you are bringing more warm air in and making your system work to cool it down.

Here’s another easy thing you can do.  Keep a water bottle nearby, and spray down the steering wheel when you get in.  Just like when you sweat, the evaporation of the water on the steering wheel can help drop the temperature quickly and keep your hands on the wheel. 

As always, if yousmell something unusual coming from the vents, or you just aren’t cooling offlike you did last summer - - come visit US Automotive, or your own personalmechanic for help.  

Brake Problems for You are Problems for All

Getting a car to go is half of the equation of driving.  The other half is getting it to stop.  We recommend very strongly that you have the “stop” part in place well before you ever try the “go” part.

 

The problems with brake problems is they almost never suddenly happen.  Brakes are always getting progressively worse, and they’re never quite as good as they were on day one.

Little by little your brakes begin to wear down.  Stopping takes longer and longer, and next thing you know you’re sitting in the middle of the intersection.

Your brakes are equipped with a funny little feature:  an alarm that goes off when the brakes are wearing down.  It’s that squeal you hear, and it’s trying to tell you something.   We don’t recommend you wait for that alarm, however.  A good mechanic will make it a point to really check your brakes whenever you are getting an oil change. 

Finally, consider this odd occurrence recently out west.  A car going down a hill in California actually started a brush fire when a small piece of metal flaked off of its brakes and landed in the dry grass.  Firefighters say this is not all that unusual.  So, keep in mind that bad brakes cause bad problems for you, people around you, and Smokey Bear.

A Car or a Computer or Both?

Imagine you are a time traveler from 1940, and you just got plunked down into a car dealership.  That machine isn’t as much as a machine as it used to be, is it?

While the technology has greatly improved our cars, one unintended consequence has happened:  Those colorful touch screens are quite distracting!  Once, you could reach down without taking your eyes off the road and simply adjust the temperature.  Now, you have to swipe to the right page, zoom in on the virtual knob, and slide it to the right position.  Assuming you haven’t already driven off the road by now.

Enter the whiz-kids at Apple.  According to appleinsider.com, they have just received a patent from the U.S. government for a whole new way to control your dashboard.  One idea: a projection onto a generic knob that would change things like the volume or the air conditioning, depending on what was being projected.  Existing technologies such as “heads up displays” or like what you see on cameras that detect the position of your head would allow you to keep your eyes on the road.

The most interesting technology is for a touch screen that actually forms ridges and raised areas to give you the ability to “feel” your way across the touch screen, without the need to look at it.  All of these technologies not only make driving in the car easier, but safer too.

Now… if the computer would just hand me my French fries…

Too Hot for Air Conditioning?

When traveling through the impossible heat of Death Valley in Nevada, you may see a sign telling you to turn OFF your air conditioning.  Could that be right?  Switch off the sweet cool air while traveling through the place with the hottest recorded temperature in the world?  Who would do such a thing?

Well, it turns out it’s a pretty reasonable bit of advice.  While our area almost never sees such extreme temperatures, it’s good to know what is happening when you use your air conditioning.

While you are nice and cool inside, your air conditioning is working hard.  Real hard.  It takes quite a bit of energy (heat) to keep you cool.  Thus, when traveling through Death Valley, the park rangers recommend turning the air conditioning off so the engine doesn’t overheat. 

This is good to remember, because if you are ever pulling a boat, camper, or trailer you may glance down and notice the engine really starting to heat up.  A good way to back that temperature down is to turn off your A/C.  You may sweat a little bit, but you can save some major damage to your engine.

As always, before you go on any long trip, make sure the cooling fluid is at the proper levels, the tires and brakes are in good shape, and the belts and hoses are not getting oldand cracked.  Got any questions?  Stop by and we can help!