Monday, January 31, 2011

Quirky vehicle tips for Winter

My friend Rich Yokel, from Spokane, WA, sent in these winter driving tips:

Keep your headlights clear with car wax! Just wipe ordinary car wax on your headlights. It contains special water repellents that will prevent that messy mixture from accumulating on your lights - lasts 6 weeks.

Squeak-proof your wipers with rubbing alcohol! Wipe the wipers with a cloth saturated with rubbing alcohol or ammonia. This one trick can make badly streaking & squeaking wipers change to near perfect silence & clarity.

Ice-proof your windows with vinegar! Frost on its way? Just fill a spray bottle with three parts vinegar to one part water & spritz it on all your windows at night. In the morning, they'll be clear of icy mess. Vinegar contains acetic acid, which raises the freezing point of water ---preventing frost from forming!

Prevent car doors from freezing shut with cooking spray! Spritz cooking oil (corn oil-based) on the rubber seals around car doors & rub it in with a paper towel. The cooking spray prevents water from freezing onto the rubber

Fog-proof your windshield with shaving cream! Spray some shaving cream on the inside of your windshield & wipe it off with paper towels, leaving no smears. Shaving cream has many of the same ingredients found in commercial defoggers.

De-ice your lock in seconds with hand sanitizer! Just put some hand sanitizer gel on the key & the lock and voila ..... problems solved!

Do you have your own? Share it here.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

My low-tech, non-chemical method for keeping ice from forming on windshields and windows overnight:
I put corrugated cardboard against the windshield and back window at night, remove it in the morning, no scraping needed! I also have been known to "hang" newspaper to cover the side windows. I crack the window a bit, stick a couple of inches of newspaper inside the car, and then close the window tight. In the morning,I remove the newspaper and, once again, no scraping needed!

Anonymous said...

newspaper and window cleaner on any glass works much better than paper towel. no streaks and comes out clean every time.