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America is a car-centric culture—more than 90% of U.S. households have at least one vehicle. There are a lot of different kinds of cars, from old classics being maintained with love, to snazzy new electric rides, or luxury cruisers filled with cutting-edge tech. Whichever kind you drive, getting the most out of your vehicle demands regular maintenance and sensible driving practices, but you can also goose just a bit more out of any vehicle with these universal car hacks.
Throw some anti-seize lubricant in your trunk
If you’ve been driving for a while, you know that flat tires only come at the worst possible times. Sunny days when you have plenty of time? Those tires are infallible. Whiteout conditions and you’re racing to a job interview? Guaranteed flat—and you will discover that your lug nuts have fused and become absolutely impossible to shift.
One way to prevent this is the judicious use of a little anti-seize lubricant, which is designed to prevent rust and other corrosion. Mechanics argue about this, to be fair—some professionals believe that using anti-seize on lug nuts changes the required torque, which can loosen them over time. But plenty of folks have used a small amount of anti-seize lubricant to make changing or rotating tires a lot easier without any adverse effects. The key is to use a very small amount—just enough to protect the threads.
Add silicone lubricant to your door gaskets
The seals around your car’s doors help to insulate the interior. Over time, these seals can become stiff and begin to fall apart, which makes your vehicle unattractive and less comfortable to ride in. You can prevent this with a simple hack: Grab some silicon lubricant and apply thin layer onto the rubber gaskets around your doors, trunk, and windows. It’ll save you a bit of frustrating maintenance in the future—and can prevent doors from freezing closed in winter. (An oft-repeated version of this hack is to use petroleum jelly, which is OK in a pinch, but it can cause rubber to degrade over time, which silicone lubricants won’t.)
Track your tire tread wear with a quarter
Tire tread is essential for the safe and efficient operation of your car. Bald tires not only make it more likely you’ll hydroplane or otherwise lose control of the vehicle, they also make your car burn more fuel to overcome their rolling resistance, lowering your vehicle’s fuel efficiency.
Tire tread is measured in 32nds of an inch—new tires typically have a tread depth of 10/32” or 11/32”, and you should replace your tires when the tread is eroded to about 4/32” or less. You can track this easily with a quarter—find the most worn-down spot on your tire, slide an upside-down quarter into the tread. If you can see the top of Washington’s head, you should replace the tire. You can also use a penny to see if you can still see the top of Lincoln’s head, but this measures 2/32” of tire tread, which means you should replace the tire immediately. The quarter test warns you to replace your tire before it’s a dangerous situation.
Prevent small window cracks from spreading with nail polish
A cracked windshield is ugly, and even a tiny crack will probably spread, slowly but inexorably, until you have no choice but to replace the glass entirely. If you have a noticeable crack in your windshield, you should replace it—but if that’s not possible right away, there’s a short-term hack you can use: Nail polish.
This isn’t a permanent repair, but it will buy you some time by slowing down the crack’s spread. Clean the damaged area thoroughly, then coat the exterior and interior of the cracked area with clear nail polish. Let it dry, and go about your business. You’ll still eventually need to replace the windshield (or have a more permanent repair job done to it), but this hack will let you plan for the work instead of having to deal with it as an emergency.
Stop stuff from falling between the seats with pipe insulation
Have you ever lost your keys, phone, or anything else between the seats in your car? If so, you know it’s like Mission: Impossible to reclaim your property. Those spaces were just not designed for human beings to get into.
An easy hack to prevent the situation from happening in the first place is to close off those gaps (this also prevents crumbs and other dirt from filling those spaces). Pipe insulation is the perfect material for this: Cut a piece to length and jam it between the seats (or the seats and the console), and never lose anything ever again. In a pinch, the ever-useful pool noodle could be used as well. Alternatively, you can buy storage organizers designed to fit in those gaps, which solve the problem while giving you some extra space for stuff.
Use a plunger to fix minor dents
A dent in your car is annoying—and potentially expensive to fix. For minor cosmetic dents, you don’t need any special tools or professional help. All you need is a heat source and a common bathroom plunger.
For the heat source, you can boil some water, pour it over the dent, then use the plunger to pull the dent out. You can also use a heat gun or a hair dryer, though the water might help the plunger get a nice seal on the car body.
What do you think so far?
Put socks on your wiper blades
Nothing’s more fun than fighting your way through frigid cold to your car, only to discover that the wiper blades have frozen to your windshield. Sure, your car will eventually heat up enough to free the wipers, but if you’d prefer not to have to wait for that miracle to happen, keep an old pair of tube socks in the glove compartment. On cold nights when frozen wipers are a good probability, cover your wiper blades with the socks. This will protect them from damage as well as prevent them from freezing onto your windshield.
Try to always turn right to save money on gas
This is one of those amazing tricks that people have difficulty believing, but it actually works: To save money on gas, always make right turns unless a left turn is absolutely necessary—yes, even if that makes your trip longer.
UPS put this policy into its vehicle routing software, instructing their drivers to avoid left turns as much as algorithmically possible, and it claims to use about 10 million fewer gallons of gas every year as a result. In fact, our greatest repository of scientific knowledge, Mythbusters, once did a segment proving that they used about 3% less fuel by avoiding as many left turns as possible while driving a fake delivery truck.
Note, this doesn’t mean never making a left turn. It means prioritizing right turns when planning your route, even if it makes your trip longer. Whether the extra time involved is worth saving a little gas money is a whole other decision.
Use hand sanitizer on frozen locks
Another annoyance on cold winter mornings? Frozen car locks and doors. While most newer cars have keyless entry these days, you can still find yourself dealing with a frozen door, and if your battery has died due to the cold, you might need to use a physical key to gain entry to the car. When that happens, a simple hack is to whip out the hand sanitizer you probably have in your coat pocket. Squirt some into the lock (or coat your physical key before you insert it) or around the edge of the door. After a few seconds, the alcohol in the sanitizer will have melted the ice and you’ll be able to easily open everything up.
Get a glovebox organizer to maximize your storage space
No one has used a car’s glovebox to store gloves in a long time. What most of us do is jam things in there on the theory that we might need them someday, then forget what’s in there and go a decade or two without actually opening it.
Instead, hack that space with an organizer. You can find some molded plastic organizers designed to fit specific models (like this one for a Toyota Tacoma, or this one for Tesla Model 3s), or you can find wallet-style organizers that will keep your documentation and other items neatly stored, making the glove box actually useful for a change.